Nic DePaula
Nic DePaula
Nic DePaula is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information Sciences. Dr. DePaula is a social scientist working in the areas of information policies, government communication, AI governance and risk communication. His work has contributed to our knowledge of how government agencies use and communicate on social media sites, specially across contexts of health and environmental risks; and how information policies are adopted in government, including for communication and data management practices.
Dr. DePaula's approach to research examines the impact of political, psychological and technological factors on information policies and government communication. His work has been applied to several important challenges, including analyses of US government provision of climate change information; developing information systems for visualizing industrial toxicants released into the environment; and studies of public health communication of local, state and federal agencies across social media sites, during the Covid-19 pandemic and the Zika public health emergency. Dr. DePaula runs the Lab for Health and Environmental Informatics (LHEI), which works to support this research and practice.
His research has been published in various journals including Government Information Quarterly, Social Science Computer Review, JMIR Infodemiology, and First Monday, and has been presented at several national and international conferences. Dr. DePaula received his Ph.D. in Information Science, and degrees in Geography and Urban Planning from the State University of New York at Albany. He has taught courses on information management, data analysis, media and society, and others.
Lab for Health and Environmental Informatics
Degrees and Certifications
- Ph.D., Information Science, 2020, State University of New York at Albany
- Certificate in Applied Data Science with Python, 2019, University of Michigan
- M.R.P. Master of Regional Planning, 2012, State University of New York at Albany
- B.A. Geography, Summa cum laude, 2009, State University of New York at Albany
Recent Publications
DePaula, N. (2022). Political ideology and information technology in government online communication. Government Information Quarterly (in press).
DePaula, N., Hagen, L., Roytman, S., Dyson, D., Alnahass, D., Mihir,P., Hill, A. (2022). A framework of social media messages for crisis and risk communication: A study of the Covid-19 pandemic. Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2391-2400.
Harrison, T., Dumas, C., DePaula, N., Fake, T., May, W., Atrey, A., et al. (2022). Exploring e-Petitioning and Media: The Case of #BringBackOurGirls. Government Information Quarterly, 39(1), 101569.
DePaula, N. and Dincelli, E. (2018). Information strategies and affective reactions: How citizens interact with government social media content. First Monday, 23(4).
Luciano, J., Sayogo, D., Ran, W., DePaula, N., Jarman, H., et al. (2018). Building a certification and inspection data infrastructure to promote transparent markets. International Journal of Electronic Government Research, 13(4), 53-75.
DePaula, N., Dincelli, E. and Harrison, T. (2018). Toward a typology of government social media communication: Democratic goals, symbolic acts and self-presentation. Government Information Quarterly, 35(1), 98-108.
Hagen, L., Keller, T., Neely, S., DePaula, N., Cooperman, C. (2017). Crisis communications in the age of social media: A network analysis of zika-related tweets. Social Science Computer Review, 36(5), 523-541.
Courses taught by Nic DePaula
Fall Term 2023 (future)
- INF6000 - Introduction to Information Management
- INF6490 - Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis
Winter Term 2023 (current)
- INF6000 - Introduction to Information Management
- INF6080 - Fundamentals of Information Technology
- INF7491 - Data Analytics
Fall Term 2022
- INF6000 - Introduction to Information Management
- INF6080 - Fundamentals of Information Technology
- INF6490 - Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis
Winter Term 2022
- INF6000 - Introduction to Information Management
- INF6080 - Fundamentals of Information Technology
- INF7491 - Data Analytics