Penn has established a new center to propel research on the current media landscape and its interactions with democracy and policymaking, both at Penn and globally.
The Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy, housed in the newly constructed Amy Gutmann Hall, will receive $10 million in funding and operate in tandem with six other schools at Penn. It aims to become a global focal point for researchers, policymakers, and other leaders while bridging the fields of law, political science, media, communications, and data science.
The Center will receive a $5 million grant across five years from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The additional $5 million investment combines support from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, College of Arts and Sciences, the Annenberg School for Communication, The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, the School of Social Policy & Practice, and the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
The grant's two principal investigators will be Penn Carey Law professor Christopher Yoo and Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor Duncan Watts.
Watts, who is also the founding director of Penn’s Computational Social Science Lab, said that one of the center's key goals is to promote interdisciplinary connections between fields.
“One of the motivations for this center is to try to bring together all these efforts from different schools under a unified umbrella and provide resources to facilitate interactions and unlock synergies between these different groups,” Watts said. “Many of us have been working in different parts of this area for years, but there isn’t a ‘Penn-level’ presence in this space, so we’d like to unify existing efforts and build new programming on top of it.”
The center plans to operate around four pillars of opportunities and programming: a flagship conference for media leaders, a research grant program for Penn faculty and students, a forum for sharing and collaboration, and a cohort of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers.
“We are looking to establish Penn as a thought leader in this area by bringing together scholars for the annual event that would get attention from policymakers and media as a must attend event,” Yoo said. “I think the center is being established at an opportune time for the University and it’s nice to be working on a new initiative that is focused on pushing new research forward that is the hallmark of a big university.”
“Championing truth and upholding democracy are important elements of Penn’s strategic framework, in principle and practice,” Interim Penn President Larry Jameson told Penn Today. “We are uniquely positioned to lead on this great challenge through our accomplished faculty in AI and data science who work across disciplines. We are deeply grateful to the Knight Foundation for partnering with us on this critical endeavor.”
Yoo said that he will serve as the new center's faculty director. Watts will serve as chair of the Executive Committee, which comprises representatives from each of the six Penn schools.
“This center is where scholars can conduct world-class, cutting edge research in this area and additionally brings them all together in one place,” Yoo said. “It has the potential to create synergies and make Penn the go-to place for academic work in this area.”
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