Joan Donovan is an alumnus of Data & Society; from 2017-18, she served as project lead on media manipulation. She is a professor of journalism and emerging media studies at Boston University. Previously, she was the director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard Kennedy’s Shorenstein Center. For several years, Joan has conducted action research with different networked social movements in order to map and improve the communication infrastructures built by protesters. In her role as a participant, she identifies information bottlenecks, decodes algorithmic behavior, and connects organizations with other like-minded networks. After completing her PhD in Sociology and Science Studies at the University of California San Diego, Joan was a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics, where she researched white supremacists’ use of DNA ancestry tests, social movements, and technology.
Joan Donovan

All Work
Publisher
Title
Date
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Academic Article
American Behavioral ScientistA historical look at the news media ecosystem and the deployment of strategic silence and strategic amplification. Read on American Behavioral ScientistNovember 2019 -
report
Data & SocietyThis report traces decades of AV manipulation to demonstrate how evolving technologies aid consolidations of power in society. Read moreSeptember 2019 -
report
Data & SocietySource Hacking details the techniques used by media manipulators to target journalists and other influential public figures to pick up falsehoods and unknowingly amplify them to the public. Read moreSeptember 2019 -
report
Data & SocietyWeaponizing the Digital Influence Machine: The Political Perils of Online Ad Tech identifies the technologies, conditions, and tactics that enable today’s digital advertising infrastructure to be weaponized by political and anti-democratic actors. Read moreOctober 2018 -
op-ed
NY Daily NewsFor the New York Daily News, Data & Society Media Manipulation Researcher Lead Joan Donovan and Research Analyst Brian Friedberg critique Facebook's stance on hate speech on their platform. "Through coordination and ex... Read on NY Daily NewsJuly 2018 -
op-ed
The GuardianData & Society President and Founder danah boyd and Media Manipulation Research Lead Joan Donovan challenge newsrooms to practice "strategic silence" to avoid amplifying extremist messaging. "Editors used to engage in stra... Read on The GuardianJune 2018 -
podcast
video
DatabitesIn Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Umoja Noble challenges the idea that search engines like Google offer an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Data discrimination... Read moreMay 2018 -
Resource
Data & SocietyThis primer explores issues of algorithmic accountability, or the process of assigning responsibility for harm when algorithmic decision-making results in discriminatory and inequitable outcomes. Read moreApril 2018 -
podcast
video
Databites"Fake news” isn’t exactly new: Tabloids have long hawked alien baby photos and Elvis sightings. Many have thus argued that fake news—propaganda, misinformation, and conspiracy theories—have always existed, and therefore require... Read moreFebruary 2018 -
report
Data & SocietyNew Data & Society report clarifies uses of "fake news" and analyzes four specific strategies for intervention. Read moreFebruary 2018