Ethan Zuckerman
Knight Institute Visiting Research Scholar 2020-2021; University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Ethan Zuckerman is an associate professor of public policy, information, and communication at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and director of the Initiative on Digital Public Infrastructure. His research focuses on the use of media as a tool for social change, the use of new media technologies by activists, and alternative business and governance models for the internet. He is the author of Mistrust: How Losing Trust in Institutions Provides Tools to Transform Them (W.W. Norton & Company, 2021) and Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection (W.W. Norton & Company, 2013). With Rebecca MacKinnon, Zuckerman co-founded the international blogging community Global Voices. Previously, Zuckerman directed the Center for Civic Media at the MIT Media Lab. In 2000, Zuckerman founded Geekcorps, a technology volunteer organization that sends IT specialists to work on projects in developing nations, with a focus on West Africa. Zuckerman was the visiting research scholar at the Knight First Amendment Institute for the 2020-2021 academic year. He and his family live in Berkshire County in western Massachusetts.
Contact
Selected Projects
-
Mapping Social Media
A research project aimed at identifying the “logics” of social media
Contact
Selected Projects
-
Mapping Social Media
A research project aimed at identifying the “logics” of social media
Selected Events
-
Reimagine the Internet
A virtual conference exploring what the internet could become over the next decade
-
Book Launch: Mistrust
A conversation with Ethan Zuckerman about why losing faith in institutions provides the tools to transform them
Writings & Appearances
-
-
Deep Dive
An Illustrated Field Guide to Social Media
A look at alternative logics for social media published in connection with “Reimagine the Internet”
-
Deep Dive
Forum Logic: Topical, with a side of toxicity
Looking back at topic-based social networks may offer one way forward for social media
-
Deep Dive
Q&A Logic: Questions, answers, and everything in-between
Could social roles help us build healthier communities online?
-