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
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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 -
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Data & SocietyNew Data & Society report clarifies uses of "fake news" and analyzes four specific strategies for intervention. Read moreFebruary 2018