COMMColloquium

From Patron to Persecutor: The Evolution of the U.S. Government’s Role in Disinformation Research

Philip Napoli, Distinguished Lecturer, Professor, Duke University

3 pm in 102 Mann

Reception to follow in the Hub

This presentation will examine the ongoing governmental assault on disinformation research through the historical lens of the origins of communications and media research. As this presentation will illustrate through a synthesis of historical research, the origins of communication and media research as an academic field owe much to federal government initiatives in the 1940s and 1950s to develop a robust domestic research program focused on issues of propaganda and disinformation. Now, the federal government is working to dismantle a field of research that it played a central role in creating. This presentation will examine this dramatic reversal and its implications for the practice of engaged scholarship.

Philip M. Napoli is the James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where he is also the Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy. His research focuses on various aspects of the intersection of media and democracy, including local news and information ecosystems, digital platform governance, and the politics of disinformation research. His work has been supported by organizations such as Democracy Fund, the Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council. He has provided research and testimony to government entities such as the U.S. Senate, the Federal Communications Commission, the Congressional Research Service, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office.