The production and spread of digital news involves a wide range of actors: journalists and the organizations that employ them, social media platforms, audiences, and myriad commentators, citizen journalists, bloggers, and other actors who contribute to the news ecosystem without inhabiting an official role. These actors interact in flexible, often...
Citizen media literacy is essential in a democratic society, particularly in the online environment where valid media sources have proliferated alongside purveyors of fake news. This dissertation explores technologies that automatically detect aspects of bias in news articles, with the ultimate aim of leveraging them to augment media literacy. It...
Drawing from the data I collected through nine months (between 2014 to 2017) of participant observations, 120 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, and archival work, the project explores the tactics that Chechen and Dagestani journalists utilize to resist state pressure and circumvent state-imposed censorship. Specifically, I explicate how these regional journalists in...