University of Pennsylvania Introduces Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy

Study in US: The Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy will be set up with an investment of $10 million and will be situated in the Penn School of Engineering and Applied Science.

The University of Pennsylvania has announced funding of $10 million for setting up a new Center for Media, Technology, and Democracy. The Center will run in partnership with five more schools in Pennsylvania and it will be housed in the Penn School of Engineering and Applied Science.

J. Larry Jameson, Penn’s Interim President said, “There is a critical societal need to better understand—and respond to—the way media and information technologies mediate and even influence global conversations. Championing truth and upholding democracy are important elements of Penn’s strategic framework, In Principle and Practice. 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.”

More Details

The new Center will benefit from a $5 million investment in combined resources from the Annenberg School for Communication, Penn Arts & Sciences, Penn Engineering, Penn Carey Law, Wharton School, and the School of Social Policy & Practice and a five-year, $5 million investment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

“The University of Pennsylvania has the expertise and research capacity to study media and the information ecosystem holistically. This new Center will encourage greater collaboration and create centralized resources to support scholarship and convenings across campus. It will also help establish Penn—and Philadelphia—as a leader in media, technology, and democracy," said Knight Foundation president and CEO Maribel Pérez Wadsworth.

Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy Details

The Center will propel research related to democracy, technology and media within Pennsylvania. The aim is to make the centre a global hub for policymakers, private sector leaders and researchers. The Center will facilitate the creation of real-time dashboards and the sharing of research findings. It aims to serve as a central repository of data for the research community.

The main aim is that the Center will gather data to make a repository and to facilitate research synergies across the media, law, political science, data science, AI, communications and more.

Penn Provost John L. Jackson, Jr commented, “The contemporary media ecosystem is comprised of a wide array of diverse producers, consumers, and content types. Understanding systems at this scale and complexity presents unprecedented challenges to methods and research design. This pioneering research center will develop new programs, support new opportunities, and coalesce many different data sets so that they are available for others to use. In these ways, it will vividly reaffirm Penn’s leadership in the interconnected study of global media, technology, and democracy.”

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