Seth C. Lewis is the Shirley Papé Chair in Emerging Media in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon.
My research explores the social implications of emerging technologies, with emphasis on the digital transformation of journalism — from how news is made (news production) to how people make sense of it in their everyday lives (news consumption). (For a full list of papers, see Google Scholar.)
My current work focuses on two primary domains:
(1) I examine how generative AI is disrupting journalism, complicating questions about authorship, originality, and professional identity. My collaborative scholarship in this area has produced conceptual, normative, and empirical contributions. We have a forthcoming book, AI and Journalism: Disruption, Adaptation, and Democratic Futures (Polity Press), that addresses AI’s implications for news across multiple domains: power dynamics, professional norms and ethics, audiences and democracy, and education.
(2) I explore why Americans increasingly distrust knowledge institutions—especially journalism, medicine, and academia. In this line of research, we analyze how factors such as political polarization and DIY fact-checking contribute to declining public trust. A forthcoming book with Jacob L. Nelson, Why We Distrust: American Skepticism Toward Media, Medicine, and Academia (The MIT Press), explores why citizens have developed predominantly negative narratives about these institutions and offers pathways toward restoring public confidence.
On this site, you can find:
Some examples of my media appearances; and
My contact information, including profiles on Twitter (@SethCLewis), Facebook, LinkedIn, and elsewhere
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This site may well need updating. Please let me know if you can’t find something you’re looking for: sclewis@uoregon.edu. Thanks!