Lucas Paulo da Silva is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Political Communication Division, Department of Communication Science and Media Research (IKMZ), University of Zurich.

Research Interests

His research focuses on digital news markets, media ideology, media effects, brand activism, and political behaviour. Lucas combines two types of research methods: computational methods (including machine learning, natural language processing, and large language models) and causal inference methods (including experiments, quasi-experiments, and panel data).

Educational Background

Lucas has a BA in media communications, history, and business from Calvin University (2011-2016) and an MSc in International Politics from Trinity College Dublin (2020-2021). He also studied data science (2021-2023) and submitted his PhD dissertation in Political Science (2021-2025) at Trinity College Dublin. His PhD dissertation (1) develops a new method of using large language models (LLMs) to classify media ideology, (2) tests the two-dimensional ideological structure of global media markets, (3) explores how cross-pressured voters (people with ‘inconsistent’ ideological positions) select political media, and (4) tests how this media exposure influences cross-pressured voters. Lucas has also worked as a regional director at a media organisation (2016-2020) and as a data science consultant for media projects (2020-2025).

1. da Silva, L.P. (2025). Media Influence and Spatial Voting: The Role of Perceived Party Positions. Political Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-025-10031-9

2. da Silva, L.P. (2024). Parties influence public opinion far beyond their partisans: evidence from two quasi-experiments. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2024.2395351
 

1. da Silva, L. P. (2025, September 2). Did the Liverpool boycott of The Sun change voting attitudes? [Radio broadcast]. In The Moncrieff Show. Newstalk. Link

2. Study finds people ‘became more left-wing’ after access to The Sun was limited. (2025, August 15). The London Economic. Link

3. Sun newspaper boycott made people in Liverpool more left wing. (2025, August 8). myScience. Link

4. da Silva, L. P. (2025, June 25). Did the Sun boycott make Liverpool more leftwing? My study indicates it may have shifted views. The Conversation. Link
 

1. da Silva, L.P. (2025). Why Cross-Pressured Voters Are Always Right: Media and Mediators, Political Studies Association of Ireland Annual Conference (PSAI 2025), 17–19 October 2025, Galway, Ireland.

2. da Silva, L.P. (2025). ‘What Kind of Bias Do I Want?’ How Cross-Pressured Voters Select Ideological Media, 121st American Political Science Association Annual Meeting (APSA 2025), 11–14 September 2025, Vancouver, Canada.

3. da Silva, L.P. (2025). Mapping Media Markets and Ideological Gaps with Machine Learning and Large Language Models, 7th COMPTEXT Annual Conference (COMPTEXT 2025), 24–26 April 2025, Vienna, Austria.

4. da Silva, L.P. (2025). Measuring Online Media Ideology with Large Language Models and ‘Multi-Cue Classification’, 7th COMPTEXT Annual Conference (COMPTEXT 2025), 24–26 April 2025, Vienna, Austria.

5. Berz, J. & da Silva, L.P. (2025). Technocratic Ministers and Electoral Accountability, New Perspectives on Prime Ministers Workshop, 5-7 February 2025, Mannheim, Germany.
 

1. da Silva, L. P. (2025, January–April). Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods [Seminars taught, MSc International Politics, 10 ECTS credits]. Trinity College Dublin.

2. da Silva, L. P. (2024, September–December). Research Methods for Political Science [Seminars taught as Head Teaching Assistant, BA, 5 ECTS credits]. Trinity College Dublin.

3. da Silva, L. P. (2024, January–April). Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods [Seminars taught, MSc International Politics, 10 ECTS credits]. Trinity College Dublin.

4. da Silva, L. P. (2023, September–December). Research Methods for Political Science [Seminars taught as Head Teaching Assistant, BA, 5 ECTS credits]. Trinity College Dublin.