Digital Media Research Program
The core mission of the Digital Media Research Program (DMRP) is to advance understanding among scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and the general public about today’s complex information communication technologies and media effects. The DMRP aims to shed light on how new communication technologies and innovative outreach can be used to increase political understanding and participation in democratic societies.
The DMRP serves as a unique and collaborative environment that strives to train and help develop research ideas from a diverse body of faculty and graduate students within the Moody College of Communication. Given the increasing influence today’s digital media landscape exerts over citizens’ civic life, DMRP will shed light on the impact of new communication technologies use (i.e., social media) and user-generated content with respect to several benchmarks of a healthy democracy: citizens’ political knowledge, political discussion and civic and political engagement.
A particular focus of the DMRP is to compare digital media use of Latin American, Iberian and American citizens and how it influences civic and political engagement as well as protest behavior. If you are interested in participating in any of the projects or want to provide some feedback and comments, please contact Professor Tom Johnson.
Faculty Contact: Thomas Johnson
Center for Media Engagement
The Center for Media Engagement is focused on envisioning a more vibrant future for our media landscape. The center works to understand and improve the information ecosystem for the benefit of democracy by partnering with newsrooms, social media platforms, and public and private organizations to develop research, tools, and strategies that improve media practice.
Faculty Contact: Gina Masullo & Anita Varma
Institute for Media Innovation
The Institute for Media Innovation's mission is to translate research into action. The pace at which media is changing is unprecedented, creating both perils and possibilities. Whether it is through ethnographic, survey, or data analytics our research activities are designed to generate a clearer understanding of the social and behavioral implications of a rapidly evolving media and technology landscape. The Institute is also committed to design, practice, and innovation. More specifically, we do not just study the future of media and technology, we also invest in ways to prototype that future. Working with designers, storytellers, researchers, and engineers we believe our mission is to turn insight into action that models ways to build a more ethical, inclusive, and equitable society.
Faculty contact: Craig Watkins
Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas
Since 2002, the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin has led professional training and outreach for journalists in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Knight Center Research Group is focused on issues related to journalism and press freedom in Latin America and the Caribbean. The research fellows are faculty, graduate students and alumni of the Moody College of Communication's School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin. Current and past Knight Center fellows have been conducting research on Latin American media issues for several years, resulting in the publication of peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers, as illustrated below in the scholarship list.
Faculty contact: Rosental Alves
Moody Writing Support Program
Everyone working for the Moody Writing Support Program embraces the mission of giving students a boost in skills and the encouragement to succeed. The Program offers in-person and online appointments.
Faculty contact: Diana Dawson
Technology and Information Policy Institute (TIPI)
TIPI undertakes several research projects, most of them funded, on a routine basis. We often have research assistantships available, and sometimes can offer fellowships to students participating on projects. Our core areas of interest investigate the influence of communication technologies on social systems and social behaviors. Recent projects have examined Internet access and adoption and how that might figure into equity issues; the relationships between broadband in rural regions and local economic development and entrepreneurship; disinformation efforts in the US and elsewhere; the role of libraries as social institutions for remediating the Digital Divide; how municipal cameras and the data they produce in public places interact with government policies around information access, use and circulation; and more. Students work in teams and we have weekly meetings to coordinate and check in with each other. Numerous conference papers and publications have grown out of our work.
We also have sponsored summer internships in Washington DC through the multi-university COMPASS program and assisted students with conference attendance for papers produced on our projects. TIPI also sponsors Brown Bags and speakers throughout the academic year. We would love to have students sit in and see if there is a fit with their interests.
Faculty contact: Sharon Strover (JaM) or Keri Stephens (CMS)