Dan Faltesek

Overview

PhD Comm Studies, Iowa. Rank: associate professor with tenure. I have been coordinator of New Media Communications since 2016, director of the GameLab since 2012, co-chair general education 2022-2024. My research is in Cultural Analytics especially Generativism/Agent-Based Models. 

I am interested in how we can use computational methods to find creative answers to questions that we thought we answered, especially when inventing new tools or techniques are involved. The name on my position when I was hired was "assistant professor of social media" which is fitting for me. My main social media research platforms are reddit, instagram, and snapchat. 

Active Research Projects

• Augmenting social network methods with neural networks (or other machine learning classifiers) trained to model real human semantic judgments
• Cascade social media attacks and inter-media agenda setting - Publication 
• Research methods in spaces featuring strategic/adversarial actors - Bioweapons Propaganda Research
• Markov Chain Methods in Critical Social Research (especially in regard to TikTok) Key study on TikTok and Markov Chains
• Computer Vision/Image Processing methods for the analysis of the visual dimensions of social media events - Publication software to accomplish this research in R: ImagePlotR
• Deployment and evaluation of advanced advertising modalities for Snapchat and Pinterest (article coming out in November 25)
• Agent-based models of communication systems - an initial contribution to the integration of LLMs and ABMs, Rock Paper Scissors!

Places to Find My Work

My code generally ends up on GitHub.  My webpage. I am generally not on social media these days, what you do find of me is likely one of many social experiments or placeholders for consulting work or just my own entertainment. 

Selling Social Media, a book by me. 

Recent interviews: RiA podcast, VICE, Daily Beast, Slate, Futurism, Fortune, Toward Data Science, KGW, Wall Street Journal, KEZI, AP-National Feature 

I would be happy to chat about the state of media research, my research, teaching, or anything really for your publication or podcast. 

What do I teach?

Not all classes are in all modalities, I typically teach two classes per term. My slate of courses includes/has included:

• NMC 101 Introduction to New Media
• NMC 240 Survey of Social Media (now taught by X. Lu)
• NMC 245 Cultural Analytics and Data Science - all class assets on GitHub 
• NMC 260 New Media Futures - open-access textbook (new edition coming January 2026)
• NMC 340 Social Media Strategy (now taught by X. Lu)
• NMC 399 (special topics): Small Screens (a class on developing specialty web and AR products, taught as a one-week experience 2013-2026).
• NMC 399 (special topics): Cultural Analytics 2 - a class on integrating network and sonic prediction systems with Spotify
• NMC 470 Media Law (with an intellectual property emphasis)

I am associated with the MA in Communication, have served on graduate committees in Public Health and Engineering, and would be happy to talk to you about your thesis/dissertation.