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From the perils of analytics-obsessed journalism to the promise of micro crowdsourcing, new research papers have furnished a wealth of insights to ponder over the past month.

Below is a sample of new thinking from various corners of the research world.

Two friends tend to have more in common than two random individuals. But do friends shape our preferences in movies, music and books, or do we select friends who share our tastes? Past research was often not able to adequately track social relationships and tastes over a period of time. In the last few years, however, platforms such as Facebook have provided researchers with tools to investigate friendship dynamics over time.

During much of the second half of the 20th century, Americans got their news and civic information primarily through a few dominant sources, usually a newspaper that had a relative monopoly on local information and one of three major television networks. With the rise of the Web, there was a sense that things were changing, and many hoped that citizens would be better informed by a broader, richer and more representative and democratic array of media streams. The number of “filters” would vastly expand.

The content of “tweets,” the concise nuggets of information that make up a Twitter feed, can include breaking news from the Middle East, information on the latest Pew Study — or what your friend ate for breakfast.  Studies have assessed the value of a tweet based on its number of retweets or whether it prompted users to unfollow an account; however, these studies could not capture a reader’s level of interest in the tweets themselves.

Russia is a dangerous country in which to be a journalist. A number of reporters have been attacked or killed on the job in the last several years, and the government closely monitors print and broadcast organizations. However, Russia has a robust digital sphere where criticism of the government has been much more free.