I’m Julien Labarre, a political scientist and Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ) at the University of Zurich. I am also an affiliate of the International Panel on the Information Environment. Before joining IKMZ, I was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at California State University, Dominguez Hills. A Fulbright Scholarship brought me to the United States, where I earned my PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2024. 

As a political scientist, I specialize in political communication and political behavior. My research focuses on the media and the health of US democracy, with a focus on disinformation, polarization, and populist or extreme attitudes. My work has found its way into prominent international media, including The New York Times, ABC News, Bloomberg, Le Monde, CBC Radio Canada, FRANCE 24, Libération, Diplomatic Courier, Le Figaro, and Radio Télévision Suisse.

Website: julienlabarre.com

Labarre, Julien. (2024). Epistemic Vulnerability: Theory and Measurement at the System Level. Political Communication, 42(1), 6–26.

Labarre, Julien. (2024). French Fox News? Audience-Level Metrics for the Comparative Study of News Audience Hyperpartisanship. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 21(4), 510–527.

Bimber, Bruce, Julien Labarre, Daniel Gomez, Ilia Nikiforov, & Karolina Koc-Michalska. (2024). Media Use, Feelings of Being Devalued, and Democratically Corrosive Attitudes in the US. International Journal of Press/Politics, 30(4), 1020-1045.

2024 Gutiérrez, Inmaculada, Daniel Gómez Gonzalez, Javier Castro, Bruce Bimber, & Julien Labarre. “Beyond Large Language Models: Rediscovering the role of classical statistics in modern data science.” Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE).

Labarre, Julien. (2024). “Les médias, les nouvelles technologies et le ressentiment dans l’élection présidentielle américaine de 2024.” Hermès, la Revue. Nov 25, 2024.

Labarre, Julien. (2024). “Public Attention to Foreign Interference and Deception Efforts during the 2024 EP Elections” in Ognjan Denkovski and Francesca Giannaccini (Eds.), Local Insights, European Trends: Case Studies on Digital Discourse in the 2024 EP Elections. Democracy Reporting International.

Koc-Michalska, Karolina, Julien Labarre, et al. (2024). Unconventional Voices: Alternative Media Trends in Europe and the US. THREATPIE.

At the University of Zurich

• Information Integrity & Challenges to Liberal Democracy
• Introduction to Political Communication (Einführung in die Politische Kommunikation)
• Political Communication and the American Public Sphere

At California State University, Dominguez Hills

• American Institutions
• Public Opinion & Propaganda
• Current Issues in American Politics
• Congress & the President

At the University of California, Santa Barbara

• Introduction to Political Communication

Selection from 50+ interviews & op-eds

FRANCE 24 in English, "Media Giants Having to Weigh Editorial Independence Versus Commercial Ambitions," Sep 19, 2025.

Radio Télévision Suisse, "Comment la Russie et la Chine mènent la bataille de l’information internationale," May 7, 2025.

FRANCE 24, “Le carburant d’une démocratie, c’est une citoyenneté éduquée,” Mar 21, 2025.

News Channel 3-12, “Local Political Science Professor Shares Thoughts on Trump’s Address,” Mar 6, 2025.

Le Monde, "Julien Labarre : Les États-Unis sombrent dans un ordre informationnel autocratique et fragile," Jan 29, 2025.

Le Canal Nouvelles, "Trump 47e Président: L’opinion publique et les algorithmes," Jan 21, 2025.

CBC Radio Canada, "Les géants de la tech, les nouveaux alliés de Donald Trump? : Julien Labarre," Jan 7, 2025.

CBC Radio Canada, “Retour sur le débat présidentiel aux États-Unis: Julien Labarre,” Sep 11, 2024.

Bloomberg, "The Billionaire ‘French Murdoch’ Normalizing Le Pen’s Politics," Jul 2, 2024.

ABC News, "Do debates still matter? Impact wanes amid polarization, viral competition: Experts," Jun 26, 2024.

Libération, "Le public de CNews est plus proche de celui de Fox News que d’aucun autre public de chaîne française,"Jun 3, 2024.

The New York Times, “Britain’s Dangerous Game of Constitutional Hardball,” Dec 13, 2023.

Diplomatic Courier, “Constitutional Hardball & France’s Drift Toward Illiberal Democracy,” May 3, 2023.