The Shorenstein Center welcomes Jonathan C. Ong as the 2022-2023 Schuster Media and Technology Fellow. This fellowship is funded by a gift from Elaine M. Schuster.
Jonathan Corpus Ong (PhD, Cambridge) is Associate Professor of Global Digital Media at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. Jonathan has published 2 books and over 25 journal articles in his research areas of global media ethics, digital politics, and the anthropology of humanitarianism. In his recent disinformation studies research, Jonathan uses ethnography to understand the social identities, work arrangements and moral justifications of “paid trolls” and political public relations strategists. An engaged researcher, Jonathan has a long record of working closely with humanitarian and human rights organizations. His humanitarian research shaped policy debates about humanitarian accountability and localizing aid at the World Humanitarian Summit. Meanwhile his disinformation research influenced campaign finance policy in Philippine elections and social media platforms’ content policy about inter-Asian racist speech.
As the Schuster Fellow at the Shorenstein Center, Dr. Ong will be pursuing research on misinformation and digital harms affecting Asian-American communities, and engaged action research focusing on disinformation and digital literacy in the global South, particularly the Philippines.
