Publications

Grouped by research theme. Full list also on Google Scholar.

Some of my research has been recognized with awards. See them here ↓

Public Opinion and Individual-Level Effects of Political Information Consumption

The Political Weaponization of Online Content: From Direct to Networked Exposure
de León, E., Kristensen, J. B., Makhortykh, M., Mayerhöffer, E. & Adam, S.
Political Science Research and Methods · Conditionally accepted
Preprint
Public Perceptions of AI-Driven Decision-Making in Healthcare: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach
Westerbeek, L., de León, E. & van Weert, J.
2026 · Preprint
Read
How do media contribute to the dissemination of conspiracy beliefs? A field study combining panel and web tracking at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic
Adam, S., Rohrbach, T., Keller, F., Makhortykh, M., de Léon, E., Valli, C., Baghumyan, A. & Sydorova, M.
Journal of Communication · 2026
DOI
Tracing Knowledge Gaps: Investigating the Influence of Education on News Exposure and Knowledge Using Digital Trace Data
Wirz, D. S., de León, E., Adam, S. & Makhortykh, M.
International Journal of Press/Politics · 2026
DOI
Misperceptions of Public Opinion During Crises: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic
de León, E., Geber, S., Vogler, D., Siegen, D., Eisenegger, M. & Friemel, T.
Political Communication · 2025
DOI
Populist Radical-Right Attitudes, Political Involvement and Selective Information Consumption: Who Tunes Out and Who Prefers Attitude-Consonant Information
Maier, M., Adam, S., Gil Lopez, T., Makhortykh, M., Bromme, L., Christner, C., de León, E. & Urman, A.
Mass Communication and Society · 2025
DOI
Hyperpartisan, Alternative, and Conspiracy Media Users: An Anti-Establishment Portrait
de León, E., Makhortykh, M. & Adam, S.
Political Communication · 2024
DOI
On issue survival: News media and how political issues remain salient in the face of crisis
de León, E.
International Journal of Public Opinion Research · 2023
DOI
News, threats, and trust: How COVID-19 news shaped political trust, and how threat perceptions conditioned this relationship
de León, E., Makhortykh, M., Gil-Lopez, T., Urman, A. & Adam, S.
The International Journal of Press/Politics · 2023
DOI

Political News, Social Media, and Algorithms

“The Guardian is Credible but Leans Towards Opinion”: Shadow Mechanisms in GPT-5’s Web Search and the Politics of Credibility
Terzis, P., Sheng, K., Sax, M., Moats, D., van Drunen, M., Sokol-Snyder, R., de León, E. & Bega, A.
2026 · Preprint
Read
Where did you come from, where did you go? News trajectories in Germany and Switzerland
Makhortykh, M., de León, E., Urman, A. & Gil-López, T.
Journal of Computational Social Science · 2025
DOI
Googling the Big Lie: Search Engines, News Media, and the US 2020 Election Conspiracy
de León, E., Makhortykh, M., Urman, A. & Ulloa, R.
2024 · Preprint
Read
Electoral news sharing: a study of changes in news coverage and Facebook sharing behaviour during the 2018 Mexican elections
de León, E., Vermeer, S. & Trilling, D.
Information, Communication & Society · 2023
DOI
The news sharing gap: Divergence in online political news publication and dissemination patterns across elections and countries
de León Williams, E. & Vermeer, S.
Digital Journalism · 2023
DOI
A Sadness Bias in Political News Sharing? The Role of Discrete Emotions in the Engagement and Dissemination of Political News on Facebook
de León, E. & Trilling, D.
Social Media and Society · 2021
DOI

Computational Methods: Web Tracking, Data Donations, and NLP

Who Donates Digital Trace Data and How It Matters: Representational and Inferential Bias Across Personality, Beliefs, and Skills
de León, E., Bomm, L., Votta, F., Araujo, T. & de Vreese, C.
2026 · Preprint
Read
Can tailored recruitment messaging increase digital trace data donation compliance?
de León, E., Votta, F., Jongerius, S., Mulder, J., Struminskaya, B., Araujo, T. & de Vreese, C.
International Journal of Social Research Methodology · 2026
DOI
Analysing Alternative Media with Digital Trace Data
Kristensen, J. B. & de León, E.
In: Alternative Media in European Contexts: Theoretical Cornerstones, Methodological Challenges, and Systemic Conditions · 2026
Open access
How Much Data Should I Request? Balancing Richness and Compliance in Digital Trace Data Donations
de León, E., Boeschoten, L., Votta, F., Mulder, J., Struminskaya, B., Oberski, D., Araujo, T. & de Vreese, C.
Social Science Computer Review · 2026
DOI
Is a single model enough? The systematic comparison of computational approaches for detecting populist radical right content
Makhortykh, M., de León, E., Christner, C., Sydorova, M., Urman, A., Adam, S., Maier, M. & Gil-Lopez, T.
Quality and Quantity · 2025
DOI
Improving the quality of individual-level web tracking: Challenges of existing approaches and introduction of a new content and long-tail sensitive academic solution
Adam, S., Makhortykh, M., Maier, M., Aigenseer, V., Urman, A., Gil Lopez, T., Christner, C., de León, E. & Ulloa, R.
Social Science Computer Review · 2025
DOI
Classifying TikToks Locally: Political Content Detection with Phi-4 on Android
Krieter, P., de León, E., Votta, F. & Roşca, A.
In: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia · 2025
DOI
Panning for gold: Comparative analysis of cross-platform approaches for automated detection of political content in textual data
Makhortykh, M., de León, E., Urman, A., Gil-Lopez, T., Christner, C., Sydorova, M., Adam, S. & Maier, M.
PLoS ONE · 2024
DOI
Personality and political news consumption online: A comparison between self-reports and webtracking data
Valli, C., de León, E. & Makhortykh, M.
Personality and Individual Differences · 2024
DOI
Public Values in the Algorithmic Society Longitudinal Panel Survey
de León, E., Wan, J., Votta, F., van der Haak, D., Oberski, D., Taylor, L., Araujo, T., van Weert, J. C. M., Bex, F., van Dijck, J., Gürses, S., Buijzen, M., Prins, C., Helberger, N. & de Vreese, C.
Dataset · University of Amsterdam / Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences · 2024
DOI
Do (Not!) track me: Relationship between willingness to participate and sample composition in online information behavior tracking research
Gil-Lopez, T., Christner, C., de León, E., Makhortykh, M., Urman, A., Maier, M. & Adam, S.
Social Science Computer Review · 2023
DOI
URLs can facilitate machine learning classification of news stories across languages and contexts
de León, E., Vermeer, S. & Trilling, D.
Computational Communication Research · 2023
DOI

Migration and Policy

The inconsistency of immigration policy: the limits of “Top-down” approaches
Vigneswaran, D. & de León, E.
Ethnic and Racial Studies · 2024
DOI
The Politics of Differentiated Integration: What do Governments Want? Country Report - Spain
de León, E.
Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, RSCAS 2021/39 · 2021
DOI

Awards

Top Faculty Paper Award
ICA Mass Communication Division · 2025

For a paper on political knowledge gaps in algorithmically curated information environments, showing how online news exposure can widen inequalities in political knowledge across education levels.

ASCoR Baschwitz Article of the Year Award
Amsterdam School of Communication Research · 2025

For research on hyperpartisan, alternative, and conspiracy news media during the COVID-19 pandemic.

EXATEC Alumni Award for Research, Teaching, and Academic Service
Tecnológico de Monterrey · 2025

Awarded on the 20th anniversary of the International Relations program.