Research

My interdisciplinary research program examines the social implications of emerging technologies, with a particular emphasis on what such developments mean for journalism — for how news is made, how it moves in the world, and how people make sense of it.

For more than a decade, my research has been at the forefront of the field in both empirically exploring and conceptually modeling the changing nature of journalism in relation to sociotechnical phenomena such as social media, algorithms, artificial intelligence, big data, open-source software, and digital audience metrics. In studying these issues, I draw upon a diverse mix of perspectives — from my home field of journalism studies and communication research broadly, in addition to fields such as sociology, social psychology, science and technology studies, and management theory. I also combine qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, allowing the research question to guide the research design. And, I collaborate with an international set of experts, enabling me to extend my research agenda far beyond what would otherwise be possible working alone. This wide-angle approach has allowed me to contribute to various literatures even while maintaining focus on a core question that animates my work within the field of journalism studies: How are emerging technologies associated with the changing character of news — and, in turn, what do such developments mean for how people learn about and make sense of the world?

Current Projects