I will be at the International Communication Association annual meeting in Denver, including the Political Communication Preconference. Let's meet!
I am a PhD candidate in Media and Communications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Scott Althaus. I hold the Illinois Distinguished Fellowship, the university’s most prestigious award for incoming graduate students.
I study political information: its political economy and its spillovers onto political behavior in democratic contexts, particularly India and the United States. My work examines how the structure and dynamics of the information environment shape who sees what, when, and how, and whether the evolving relationship between media supply and audience demand in high-choice environments serves democratic informational needs.
Methodologically, I rely on econometric methods, including spatial and network analysis and causal inference, alongside qualitative work such as semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis. I earned an MS in Statistics alongside my PhD (completed Summer 2025). Before Illinois, I completed an MA in Linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University and a BA (Honors) in Journalism at Lady Shri Ram College, both in New Delhi.
This summer I am at Amazon HQ2 in Washington, DC as a Research Scientist Intern, bringing my work in econometrics, computational social science, and public opinion dynamics to the role. If our paths cross, I am always happy to grab a coffee and discuss shared interests or potential collaborations: sakshib3 [at] illinois [dot] edu.
News
June 2025
May 2025
Awarded the Graduate Student Fellowship from the Political Networks methodological society.
April 2025
Our study "Partisan news users in the United States and India on either side seldom use fact checkers" is out at the Journal of Communication. No institutional access? Write to me.
March 2025
Received the Methodology Center Summer Institute Scholarship (Purdue University / National Institute on Drug Abuse). Looking forward to West Lafayette in July.
October 2024
My first-authored study on why misinformation persists despite corrections, "When news is entertainment," is out at Information, Communication & Society.
August 2024
My interview with CISLM on my study of local print circulation is live.
June 2024
Presented my working paper on digital and legacy media structures in India, and how they shape audience behavior on social platforms, at the Social Media and Society in India Conference at the University of Michigan. Draft here.