Emma Briant
OccupationAcademic · lecturer · writer · author
Websiteemma-briant.co.uk
Education
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow
Thesis urlhttp://theses.gla.ac.uk/2840/1/2011briantphd.pdf
Thesis year2011
Doctoral advisorGreg Philo, Sarah Oates
DisciplinePropaganda studies, political science, political journalism, disinformation, surveillance
Workplaces
Main interestsPropaganda, surveillance, information warfare, human rights, security

Emma L. Briant is a British scholar and academic researcher on media, contemporary propaganda, surveillance and information warfare who was involved in exposing the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal concerning data misuse and disinformation.[1] She became associate professor of news and political communication at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, in 2023.[2] Before this she was an associate researcher at Bard College[3] and taught in the School of Communication at American University.[4] Briant became an honorary associate at Cambridge University's Centre for Financial Reporting & Accountability, headed by Alan Jagolinzer, and joined Central European University as a fellow of the Centre for Media, Data and Society in 2022.[5][6]

Education

Briant graduated from Coventry University in 2003, before completing two master's degrees at Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Glasgow where she then was part of Glasgow Media Group. She achieved a doctorate from the University of Glasgow in sociology in 2011. Briant's doctoral thesis examined the development of military and intelligence propaganda in the US and UK during the "war on terror" as militaries adapted to changing technology.[7]

Media, political propaganda and human rights

While at Glasgow Media Group, Briant co-authored the study Bad News for Disabled People with Greg Philo and Nick Watson. Bad News for Disabled People examined how disability was represented in the UK media. The study showed the detrimental impact this had on public perceptions of disabled people as 'frauds' and real world impacts on their lives.[8][non-primary source needed] She then authored her first book, Bad News for Refugees, with Greg Philo and Pauline Donald, which examined false and misleading media narratives of migration and refugees as well as their impacts on migrants and their communities in the build up to the European refugee crisis.[9][non-primary source needed] She continued to research media bias and disinformation on human rights issues, and in particular false representation of asylum and refugees in the UK media and political rhetoric and disinformation in the lead up to Brexit.[10] She submitted her research to inquiries and published research on the role of Cambridge Analytica and Leave.EU in the 2016 British Brexit Referendum.[11] Her research on these subjects was mentioned on the BBC,[12][13] The Times of London,[14] and The Observer.[15]

Propaganda, international security and changing technology

In 2015, while lecturer in journalism studies at University of Sheffield, Briant published her second book, Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global Change, based on her doctoral thesis. The book examines British and United States governments' attempts to adapt their propaganda strategies to global terrorist threats in a rapidly changing media environment. It discusses Anglo-American coordination and domestic struggles that brought in far-reaching changes to propaganda, largely in isolation from public debate.[16] She continues to publish both on language and definitions of propaganda;[17] strategy and tactics in influence operations; ethics of data use and surveillance[18] in the context of political campaigns, international security and conflicts. In addition to several scholarly articles and policy reports, Briant has also written op-eds and journalistic articles for outlets including the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project,[19][20] Open Democracy,[21][22][23] The Conversation,[24] the Ottawa Citizen[25][26] and Guardian.[11]

Briant sits on the advisory board of campaign group Clean up the Internet.[27]

Briant is co-founder of Women in Disinformation, a network of women researchers.[28]

Briant began running a YouTube show in 2021 called Afternoon Tea and Truth Biscuits.[29]

Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal

In 2018, while she was a senior lecturer at the University of Essex, Briant was involved in revealing the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, a global disinformation and data scandal involving Facebook, the campaign firm Cambridge Analytica, that worked for Donald Trump and on the Brexit campaigns, and its defence contractor parent firm SCL Group.[11][non-primary source needed] Briant had spent years researching and interviewing the parent firm SCL Group as part of her research for her book Propaganda and Counter-terrorism[16] and had then begun researching how their methodology had been used in political campaigns including by subsidiary firm Cambridge Analytica.[11] Briant was requested to give testimony and evidence regarding the firms' data misuse and disinformation to multiple inquiries[11] including the UK Parliament Digital Culture Media and Sport Select Committee's Inquiry into Fake News[30] and the US Senate Judiciary Committee.[31] She contributed to the 2019 Oscar-shortlisted film on Facebook and Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 United States elections, The Great Hack.[citation needed] Briant also reported in Byline Times.[32] In 2021 Briant was interviewed for the documentary film series Schattenwelten.[33][unreliable source?]

Publications

  • Emma Briant, Greg Philo and Nick Watson Bad News for Disabled People (Inclusion London, 2011)[34]
  • Greg Philo, Emma Briant, Pauline Donald, Bad News for Refugees (Pluto Press, 2013),[35]
  • Emma Briant Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global Change, (Manchester University Press, 2015).[16]
  • Emma Briant Propaganda Machine: Inside Cambridge Analytica and the Digital Influence Industry. (Bloomsbury, 2020).[36][37][38]

References

  1. ^ "Dr Emma L Briant – Maven of Persuasion – Disinformation – Propaganda". emma-briant.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  2. ^ "Monash University: Emma Briant". www.Monash.edu
  3. ^ Relations, Bard Public. "Emma L. Briant Calls for Tougher Action against Disinformation and Propaganda in Response to Rapidly Expanding Digital Influence Industry". www.bard.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  4. ^ "Adjunct Professorial Lecturer"
  5. ^ "Dr @EmmaLBriant will be joining the @CambridgeJBS @CambridgeCFRA as an Associate to continue her research on propaganda, information warfare, and the actors who profit within the "influence operations" industry. Her research...". Twitter.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  6. ^ "Emma L Briant Joins CMDS as Fellow | CMDS". cmds.ceu.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-28.
  7. ^ Briant, Emma L. (2011). "'Special relationships' – The negotiation of an Anglo-American Propaganda 'War on Terror'". Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  8. ^ Briant, Emma L.; Philo, Greg; Watson, Nick (2011). "Bad News for Disabled People: How the newspapers are reporting disability"
  9. ^ "Emma L. Briant | School of Media & Public Affairs (SMPA) | The George Washington University". smpa.gwu.edu. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  10. ^ Group, Migration Research. "Dr. Emma Briant publishes new piece in United Nations Associations' (UNA-UK) New World". Archived from the original on 26 October 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  11. ^ Briant, Emma L. (2018-04-20). "I've seen inside the modern propaganda machine. And it's dark in there | Emma Briant". The Guardian. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  12. ^ "The battle over the words used to describe migrants". BBC News. 28 August 2015.
  13. ^ "BBC World News: Dr Emma Briant on Boris Johnson & 'Partygate'". YouTube
  14. ^ "Leave.EU chief Andy Wigmore admits copying Trump Tactics". The Times
  15. ^ "Emails reveal Arron Banks' links to Steve Bannon in quest for campaign cash". The Guardian. 17 November 2018.
  16. ^ "Manchester University Press - Propaganda and counter-terrorism". Manchester University Press
  17. ^ Chernobrov, D & Briant, E (2020). "Competing propagandas: How the United States and Russia represent mutual propaganda activities". Politics. 42 (3): 393–409. doi:10.1177/0263395720966171
  18. ^ Briant, Emma L. (2017). Rights, Media and Mass-surveillance in a Digital Age, in The Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315619835-16. ISBN 9781315619835.
  19. ^ Briant, Emma. "OPINION: Governments Have Failed to Learn from the Cambridge Analytica Scandal". www.occrp.org. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  20. ^ Citizen, David Pugliese, Ottawa. "Canadian military spent more than $1 million on controversial propaganda training linked to Cambridge Analytica parent firm | Saltwire". www.saltwire.com. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  21. ^ "As Cambridge Analytica and SCL Elections shut down, SCL Group's defence work needs real scrutiny". openDemocracy. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  22. ^ "New Evidence Emerges of Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytica's Role in Brexit". The New Yorker. 18 November 2018. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  23. ^ Timmons, Heather (18 November 2018). "Read the emails linking Steve Bannon to Brexit". Quartz. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  24. ^ Briant, Emma L. (17 April 2018). "Cambridge Analytica and SCL – how I peered inside the propaganda machine". The Conversation. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  25. ^ Briant, Emma L. (2020-12-11). "Government efforts to counter propaganda risk undermining public trust". Ottawa Citizen
  26. ^ Briant, Emma L. (2021-10-11). "Briant: Canadian military's bungled propaganda campaigns should be a lesson across NATO". Ottawa Citizen
  27. ^ "Campaign to Clean up the Internet". cleanuptheinternet.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  28. ^ "Women of Influence (@womenindisinfo) / Twitter"
  29. ^ "Afternoon Tea & Truth Biscuits 1: Dr Emma Briant and Heidi Cuda - year in review". YouTube
  30. ^ "Research on Leave.EU and Cambridge Analytica strategy published - News from Parliament". Archived from the original on 11 October 2021. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  31. ^ "Cambridge Analytica and the Future of Data Privacy | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary". 16 May 2018.
  32. ^ Times, Byline (23 October 2020). "Emma Briant, Author at Byline Times". bylinetimes.com
  33. ^ "Emma Briant". IMDb
  34. ^ "Bad News for Disabled People". Glasgow University. Retrieved 2021-08-27.
  35. ^ "The battle over the words used to describe migrants". BBC News. 2015-08-28. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  36. ^ "The Weaponization of Data: Cambridge Analytica, Information Warfare & the 2016 Election of Trump". Democracy Now!. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  37. ^ "Propaganda Machine: The Military Roots of Cambridge Analytica's Psychological Manipulation of Voters". Democracy Now!. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  38. ^ "New book to reveal Oxford academic's involvement with Cambridge Analytica". Varsity Online. Retrieved 2021-06-29.