Emma Briant Explained

Honorific Prefix:Doctor
Emma L. Briant
Nationality:British
Alma Mater:University of Glasgow
Thesis Title:'Special Relationships' and the Negotiation of the Propaganda 'War on Terror'
Thesis Url:http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2840/1/2011briantphd.pdf
Doctoral Advisor:Greg Philo and Sarah Oates
Discipline:Propaganda studies, political science, political journalism, Disinformation, Surveillance
Workplaces:
Main Interests:Propaganda, Surveillance, Information Warfare, Human Rights, Security
Notable Works:The Great Hack

Emma L. Briant (born 1979) 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 in Cambridge University Center for Financial Reporting & Accountability, headed by Alan Jagolinzer, and joined Central European University, as a Fellow in the Center 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 University of Glasgow where she then was part of Glasgow Media Group, and she then achieved a doctorate from the University of Glasgow in Sociology 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 and how increasingly stereotyped and hostile representation of people with disabilities was pushed by the right wing press to advance political discourses aimed at justifying Conservative Government disability welfare benefit austerity cuts following the Great Recession. The study showed the detrimental impact this had on public perceptions of disabled people as 'frauds' and real world impacts on their lives.[8] 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] 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]

The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal

In 2018, while she was a senior lecturer at 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] 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. Briant also reported in Byline Times.[32] In 2021 Briant was interviewed for the documentary film series Schattenwelten.[33]

Publications

References

  1. Web site: Dr Emma L Briant – Maven of Persuasion – Disinformation – Propaganda. emma-briant.co.uk. 2021-11-23.
  2. Web site: Monash University: Emma Briant. www.Monash.edu. en.
  3. Web site: Relations. Bard Public. Emma L. Briant Calls for Tougher Action against Disinformation and Propaganda in Response to Rapidly Expanding Digital Influence Industry. 2021-06-29. www.bard.edu. en.
  4. Web site: Adjunct Professorial Lecturer.
  5. Web site: 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... . 2022-03-17 . Twitter.com.
  6. Web site: Emma L Briant Joins CMDS as Fellow CMDS . 2022-04-28 . cmds.ceu.edu.
  7. Web site: 'Special relationships' – The negotiation of an Anglo-American Propaganda 'War on Terror' . Briant, Emma L.. 2011. 2021-11-23.
  8. Web site: Briant. Emma L.. Philo. Greg. Watson. Nick. 2011. Bad News for Disabled People: How the newspapers are reporting disability.
  9. Web site: Emma L. Briant School of Media & Public Affairs (SMPA) The George Washington University. 2021-06-29. smpa.gwu.edu. 29 June 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210629204628/https://smpa.gwu.edu/emma-briant. dead.
  10. Web site: Dr. Emma Briant publishes new piece in United Nations Associations' (UNA-UK) New World. Migration Research. Group. 29 August 2021. 26 October 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201026213614/https://migrationresearch.group.shef.ac.uk/dr-emma-briant-publishes-new-piece-in-united-nations-associations-una-uk-new-world/. dead.
  11. Web site: Briant. Emma L.. 2018-04-20. I've seen inside the modern propaganda machine. And it's dark in there Emma Briant. 2021-06-29. The Guardian. en.
  12. News: The battle over the words used to describe migrants. BBC News . 28 August 2015 . en.
  13. Web site: BBC World News: Dr Emma Briant on Boris Johnson & 'Partygate'. YouTube.
  14. News: Leave.EU chief Andy Wigmore admits copying Trump Tactics. The Times. en.
  15. Web site: Emails reveal Arron Banks' links to Steve Bannon in quest for campaign cash. The Guardian. 17 November 2018. en.
  16. Web site: 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. 10.1177/0263395720966171. free.
  18. Book: Briant, Emma L.. 2017. Rights, Media and Mass-surveillance in a Digital Age, in The Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights. Routledge. 10.4324/9781315619835-16. 9781315619835.
  19. Web site: Briant. Emma. OPINION: Governments Have Failed to Learn from the Cambridge Analytica Scandal. 2021-06-29. www.occrp.org. en-GB.
  20. Web site: Citizen. David Pugliese, Ottawa. Canadian military spent more than $1 million on controversial propaganda training linked to Cambridge Analytica parent firm Saltwire. 2021-06-29. www.saltwire.com. en.
  21. Web site: As Cambridge Analytica and SCL Elections shut down, SCL Group's defence work needs real scrutiny. 2021-06-29. openDemocracy. en.
  22. 18 November 2018. New Evidence Emerges of Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytica's Role in Brexit. The New Yorker. en-US. 2021-06-29.
  23. Web site: Timmons. Heather. Read the emails linking Steve Bannon to Brexit. 2021-06-29. Quartz. 18 November 2018 . en.
  24. Web site: Briant. Emma L.. Cambridge Analytica and SCL – how I peered inside the propaganda machine. 2021-06-29. The Conversation. 17 April 2018 . en.
  25. Web site: Briant. Emma L.. 2020-12-11. Government efforts to counter propaganda risk undermining public trust. Ottawa Citizen. en.
  26. Web site: Briant. Emma L.. 2021-10-11. Briant: Canadian military's bungled propaganda campaigns should be a lesson across NATO. Ottawa Citizen. en.
  27. Web site: Campaign to Clean up the Internet. 2021-11-23. cleanuptheinternet.org.uk.
  28. Web site: Women of Influence (@womenindisinfo) / Twitter.
  29. Web site: Afternoon Tea & Truth Biscuits 1: Dr Emma Briant and Heidi Cuda - year in review. YouTube.
  30. Web site: Research on Leave.EU and Cambridge Analytica strategy published - News from Parliament. 29 August 2021. 11 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211011065828/https://old.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/news/fake-news-briant-evidence-17-19//. dead.
  31. Web site: Cambridge Analytica and the Future of Data Privacy United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. 16 May 2018 .
  32. Web site: Emma Briant, Author at Byline Times. Byline. Times . bylinetimes.com. 23 October 2020 .
  33. Web site: Emma Briant. IMDb.
  34. Web site: Bad News for Disabled People. 2021-08-27. Glasgow University.
  35. News: 2015-08-28. The battle over the words used to describe migrants. en-GB. BBC News. 2021-06-29.
  36. Web site: The Weaponization of Data: Cambridge Analytica, Information Warfare & the 2016 Election of Trump. 2021-06-29. Democracy Now!. en.
  37. Web site: Propaganda Machine: The Military Roots of Cambridge Analytica's Psychological Manipulation of Voters. 2021-06-29. Democracy Now!. en.
  38. Web site: New book to reveal Oxford academic's involvement with Cambridge Analytica. 2021-06-29. Varsity Online. en.

External links