National policy conference analyzes 2023 elections

(CONNECT) Research institutions from Switzerland and neighboring countries held The 2023 Swiss National Elections conference on April 3, the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (HWZ) reported in a press release. It was the only university of applied sciences to take part in the political science debate on the 2023 elections. In addition to the HWZ, the universities of Zurich, Bern, Geneva and Lausanne, the Center for Democracy Aarau, the Swiss Center for Social Sciences and the University of Amsterdam were also represented at the conference.

The HWZ was commissioned by the Swiss Election Study to collect and process the media data for the 2023 elections. At the conference, the University of Applied Sciences presented its own research project based on the corresponding data collection. Specifically, the HWZ researchers used a "fine-tuning of a large language model (LLM)" to investigate how Swiss media reported on election candidates. According to the results, candidates were systematically portrayed differently in the media depending on their gender, age and party affiliation.

"This conference not only gave us valuable impetus for our own research, but also showed us how we can use LLMs to answer social science research questions," Bruno Wüest, research associate and lecturer in artificial intelligence, statistics and empirical social science at the HWZ, is quoted as saying in the press release. In addition, the HWZ sees its participation in the conference as strengthening its scientific visibility. ce/hs