Filipino disinformation scholar named 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellow

MANILA, Philippines — Global Digital Media associate professor Jonathan Ong has been named a 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellow by Carnegie Corporation of New York, the program said Wednesday. 

In a press release, the program described Ong, who teaches global digital media at the Department of Communication at University of Massachusetts Amherst, as having "authored pioneering research into the identities of workers in political troll farms and disinformation-for-hire firms."

With the recognition, Ong is awarded with $200,000 stipends in recognition of their efforts to address important and enduring issues confronting our society [and] to devote their time to research and public engagement.

Ong called the award a "recognition that we need more engaged ethnographic work that can interrupt dominant paradigms about how we think about social media and democracy in global context."

"I'm also very proud to represent my discipline of media and communications in this competitive fellowship," he said.

"It's important that communication scholars are supported in deepening understanding about how digital tools that promise belonging or intimacy could also drive people into despair or division."

He was selected as one of 28 scholars selected from among 300 applicants nominated by their institutions.

Ong’s stipend will support his project, “The Human Costs of Disinformation,” which will explore precarious work conditions and digital harms experienced by pro-democracy civil society frontliners in a global context.

His project aims to advance his advocacy for worker justice and wellness in the disinformation mitigation space. He was recently co-author of a Harvard Kennedy School report entitled "Human Rights in Survival Mode: Rebuilding Trust and Supporting Digital Workers in the Philippines".

'Deception in digital economies'

Ong, in his studies, has said that those in leadership roles in advertising and public relations are among the “chief architects of networked disinformation” in the Philippines.

In a separate study on human rights organizations in the Philippines, Ong also said that the lack of investment of rights groups in communication strategies leaves them “handicapped in their ability to cope with information warfare under the current political environment.”

In his previous disinformation studies research, Jonathan has uncovered the inner workings of troll farms and disinformation-for-hire operations in Southeast Asia and the Philippines. The program added that his policy engagement "has influenced campaign finance reform in Philippine elections."

"We need more stories about the creativity and courage of digital activists, organizers, and 'healers' just as we need to understand root causes of exploitation and deception in digital economies," he said. 

"We need to retell the human stories of digital workers and activists fighting back against misinformation and hate while they themselves have suffered from trauma and burnout."

Since 2020, Ong has also served as a Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center for the Technology and Social Change Project.

He has published journal articles in the areas of global media ethics, digital politics, and the anthropology of humanitarianism. 

He is also the author of the book “The Poverty of Television: The Mediation of Suffering in Class-Divided Philippines” and co-editor of the book “Taking the Square: Mediated Dissent and Occupations of Public Space.”

The program also said that Ong's research and work with humanitarian and human rights organizations has shaped policy debates about humanitarian accountability and localizing aid at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit.

The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program's research proposals for this year focus on U.S. democracy, the environment, polarization and inequality, technological and cultural evolution, and international relations, among other subjects.

Selection criteria prioritize the originality and promise of the research, its potential impact on the field, and the scholar’s plans for communicating the findings to a broad audience.

“In recent years, as we have looked to respond to our world’s most complex problems, the Carnegie Fellows have provided important contributions through their exceptional research, pursuit of knowledge, and creative approaches,” said John DeGioia, chair of the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program jury and president of Georgetown University.