Based on the perspectives of Information and Communication interdisciplinary research, we seek to better understand the relationship between emerging technologies/new media and social, cultural, physical and virtual spaces through digital methods and data science analytics and visualization
June, 2025
On August 21st, 2025, the School of Communications and Arts at the University of São Paulo (ECA-USP) will host the ECA Data Sprint, an event dedicated to explore digital traces through collaborative data practices. The 2025 edition focuses on the challenge: “Social Listening: What Do Online Conversations Reveal?”, inviting participants to investigate how everyday topics unfold on social media and what these interactions can tell us about cultural, social, and political dynamics.
December, 2024
Professor and researcher Alan Angeluci, leader of the Smart Media & Users research group and faculty member at ECA/USP, will embark on an academic collaboration period at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands, in January 2025. Welcomed by the researcher Richard Rogers, Angeluci will participate in the Winter School of the Digital Methods Initiative, exploring the theme “Chatbots for Internet Research?” and investigating new data collection methodologies in media.
November, 2024
The Smart Media & Users research group, with the participation of researchers Gustavo Moreira Calixto, Carlos Henrique Sabino Caldas, and Alan César Belo Angeluci, has published the article titled “Interactive Practices in Live Digital Platform Broadcasts: A Case Study of CNN Brazil on YouTube” on Galáxia Journal. The study aimed to examine the interactive practices in live broadcasts on digital platforms.
September, 2024
On September 30, 2024, the research group hosted an insightful open meeting at the ECA/USP auditorium, featuring Professor Elias Bitencourt from the University of Bahia. The event brought together researchers, students, and digital enthusiasts for a rich exchange of ideas on data visualization and digital methods, fostering meaningful discussions about interdisciplinary research and future collaborations.
SMU research group was founded in 2014 and operated within the vibrant atmosphere of the Municipal University of São Caetano do Sul (USCS), in São Caetano do Sul, right in the powerful industrial pole of ABC region of São Paulo metropolitan area, Brazil.
In 2022, SMU became part of the School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo (ECA-USP) – the best university in Latin America and the Caribbean and among the top one hundred in the world according to the QS World University Rankings. The new house in São Paulo and the contemporary technological transformations, combined with the group’s tradition, brought with greater force the demands for applied research that seek to better understand the relation between emerging technologies/new media and social, cultural, physical and virtual spaces through digital methods and data science analytics and visualization.
Over ten years, SMU has collaborated with the scientific training of more than fifty students, researchers and professionals, who have worked and work permanently or intermittently with the group’s projects.
SMU is deeply interested in international partnerships for R&D with companies, research institutions and universities. If you want to be a R&D partner or sponsor, contact us: smartmediausers@gmail.com.
SMU is a formally registered group in the directory of CNPq research groups.