I'm Parker.

I study political communication and technology.

I am a Ph.D. student at UNC-Chapel Hill in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media, and an affiliate of the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP). Previously, I worked as a research assistant with Microsoft Research's Social Media Collective and received my M.A. in Media, Culture, and Technology at the University of Virginia.

I am a mixed methods researcher employing ethnographic, textual, and computational approaches to study the confluence of political culture and technology. My previous work has considered topics like right-wing political humor, political influencers on TikTok, and strategic ambiguity in political communication.

My ongoing dissertation research concerns the politics of prediction markets (e.g. Polymarket and Kalshi). My project begins where prediction market data originate - with the traders and communities who invest, trade, and forecast outcomes, and with the platforms that host and adjudicate these markets. I then trace how prediction markets influence broader publics through the news outlets and political campaigns who make use of prediction market data. In so doing, I consider the role of speculation, quantification, and memetic online communities on today's political landscape.

Select Publications

2026

Bach, P. (2026, March 31). How polling failures, gambling legalization and political gridlock paved the way for the explosive rise of prediciton markets. The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.64628/AAI.ecnthe4gv

2025

Bach, P., Schmitt, C. E., & McGregor, S. C. (2025). Let me be perfectly unclear: Strategic ambiguity in political communication. Communication Theory, 35(2), 96–106. https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtaf001 (Open Access)

2024

Bach, P. (2024). “Fake news you can trust”: How The Babylon Bee brings news satire to the Right. The Communication Review, 27(3), 337–353. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714421.2024.2374638 (PDF)

2023

Bach, P., Gitomer, A., Devries, M., Walker, C., Freelon, D., Atienza-Barthelemy, J., Welles, B. F., Deyoe, D., & Zulli, D. (2023). Stitching Politics and Identity on TikTok. Selected Papers of Internet Research. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2023i0.13530 (Open Access)

2022

Bach, P., & Swartz, L. (2022). Making Money Public: The Journalistic Construction of the Paycheck Protection Program. International Journal of Communication, 16(0). https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/18669 (Open Access)

2021

Bach, P. J. (2021, June 22). The Babylon Bee shows the limits of political satire from the Right. Slate Magazine. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/06/babylon-bee-satire-from-right.html

Three Minute Thesis Presentation

The video below includes a brief description of my dissertation research, as I presented it in UNC-Chapel Hill's Three Minute Thesis presentation in Fall 2025. This event challenges graduate students to explain their research in a way that is accessible and compelling to public audiences, in three minutes or less. I was awarded runner-up for this presentation. I am including it here as both a brief introduction to my dissertation research and a taste of my presentation style.

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