Author Archives: Ethan

Beyond Facebook Logic: Help us Identify and Map Alternative Social Media!

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Ethan

(By Ethan and Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University) As we head towards a pivotal US presidential election in early November, social media platforms are coming under scrutiny. Will they be flooded with disinformation seeking … Continue reading →

Posted in Geekery, ideas, UMass | Comments Off on Beyond Facebook Logic: Help us Identify and Map Alternative Social Media!

A personal update

Posted on September 1, 2020 by Ethan

It’s September 1, and because I’ve spent 35 of my 47 years in educational institutions of one sort or another, the start of the school year seems like the start of the year. So, time for a personal update. Yesterday … Continue reading →

Posted in ideas | Leave a comment

To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

Posted on August 15, 2020 by Ethan

To the occupant(s) of E15-351 Re: About the window. Hi. My name is Ethan Zuckerman. From 2011-2020, I enjoyed working in this office. I led a research group at the Media Lab called the Center for Civic Media, and I … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Lab, Personal | 30 Comments

#iftheygunnedmedown Six Years Later, and Just as Vital – an interview with activist C.J. Lawrence

Posted on June 5, 2020 by Ethan

My new book, Mistrust: Why Losing Faith In Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them, comes out from W.W. Norton this November. In it, I share the stories of dozens of activists who are finding new ways to make social … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Rights, Media | Leave a comment

Next steps

Posted on April 28, 2020 by Ethan

Thrilled to be announcing a big next step: I will be joining the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst this coming year, and launching a new research center. My friends at UMass have created a unique position for … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Lab, Personal, UMass | 2 Comments

Digital Public Infrastructure… and a few words in defense of optimism

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Ethan

My friends at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia have just published a new paper from me on the topic of digital public infrastructures. This is an idea I started talking about in an article for the Columbia Journalism … Continue reading →

Posted in ideas, Media, Personal | Leave a comment

Whose deaths matter? New research on Black Lives Matter and media attention

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Ethan

What influences do social movements like Black Lives Matter, MeToo or Occupy have on society as a whole? One hope movement leaders express is that a successful movement can change how we think and talk about key social issues. Champions … Continue reading →

Posted in ideas | Comments Off on Whose deaths matter? New research on Black Lives Matter and media attention

On me, and the Media Lab

Posted on August 20, 2019 by Ethan

(Please be sure to read the addendum at the end of this post.) A week ago last Friday, I spoke to Joi Ito about the release of documents that accuse Media Lab co-founder Marvin Minsky of involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s … Continue reading →

Posted in ideas | 2 Comments

Training the next generation of ethical techies

Posted on August 14, 2019 by Ethan

My friend Christian Sandvig, who directs the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing at the University of Michigan, started an interesting thread on Twitter yesterday. It began: “I’m super suspicious of the “rush to postdocs” in academic #AI ethics/fairness. Where … Continue reading →

Posted in ideas | 1 Comment

Philanthropy and the hand-off – what happens if government can’t scale social experiments?

Posted on August 5, 2019 by Ethan

My friend and (lucky for me) boss Joi Ito has an excellent essay in Wired which considers the challenges of measuring the impact of philanthropy. For Joi, one of the key problems is that social problems are complex, and the … Continue reading →

Posted in ideas | 1 Comment