Emma L. Briant (born 1979) is a British scholar and academic researcher on media, contemporary

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...

and

information warfare Information warfare (IW) is the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. It is different from ''cyberwarfare'' that attacks computers, software, and ...

who was involved in exposing the

Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal In the 2010s, personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users was collected by British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica for Campaign advertising, political advertising without informed consent. The data was collected through an app call ...

concerning data misuse and

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

. She became associate professor of

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

and

political communication Political communication is the study of political messaging that is communicated, usually to the public e.g. political campaigns, speeches and political advertising, often concerning the mass media. It is an interdisciplinary field that draws f ...

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia, in 2023. Before this she was an associate researcher at

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

and taught in the School of Communication at

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

. Briant became an honorary associate at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

's Centre for Financial Reporting & Accountability, headed by Alan Jagolinzer, and joined

Central European University Central European University (CEU; , ) is a private research university in Vienna. The university offers graduate and undergraduate programs in the social sciences and humanities, which are accredited in Austria and the United States. The univ ...

as a fellow of the Centre for Media, Data and Society in 2022.

Education

Briant graduated from

Coventry University Coventry University is a Public university, public research university in Coventry, England. The origins of Coventry University can be linked to the Coventry School of Art and Design, Coventry School of Design in 1843. It was known as Lancheste ...

in 2003, before completing two master's degrees at

Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow Caledonian University, informally GCU, Caledonian or Caley (), is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of The Queen's College, Glasgow (founded in 1875) and Glasgow Polytechnic (originally Glasg ...

and the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

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 A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

and

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...

propaganda in the US and UK during the " War on Terror" as militaries adapted to changing

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

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 In economic policy, austerity is a set of Political economy, political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through Government spending, spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three prim ...

cuts following the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

. The study showed the detrimental impact this had on public perceptions of disabled people as 'frauds' and real world impacts on their lives. 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 A refugee crisis can refer to difficulties and/or dangerous situations in the reception of large groups of refugees. These could be Forced displacement, forcibly displaced persons, internally displaced persons, asylum seekers or any other huge ...

. She continued to research

media bias Media bias occurs when journalists and news producers show bias in how they report and cover news. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening of the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an ...

and

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

issues, and in particular false representation of asylum and

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

in the UK media and

political rhetoric Rhetoric is the Art (skill), art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse (trivium) along with grammar and logic/dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that spea ...

and disinformation in the lead up to

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

. She submitted her research to inquiries and published research on the role of

Cambridge Analytica Cambridge Analytica Ltd. (CA), previously known as SCL USA, was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It was started in 2013, as a subsidiary of the private intell ...

and Leave.EU in the 2016 British

Referendum. Her research on these subjects was mentioned on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, '' The Times of London'', and ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

''.

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. She continues to publish both on language and definitions of

; strategy and tactics in influence operations;

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...

use and

in the context of

political campaigns A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referen ...

international security ''International Security'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of international and national security. It was founded in 1976 and is edited by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University and publis ...

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 The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a global network of Investigative journalism, investigative journalists. It was founded in 2006 and specializes in organized crime and corruption. It publishes its stories through ...

, Open Democracy, The Conversation, the Ottawa Citizen and Guardian. Briant sits on the advisory board of campaign group Clean up the Internet. Briant is co-founder of Women in Disinformation, a network of women researchers. Briant began running a YouTube show in 2021 called ''Afternoon Tea and Truth Biscuits''.

Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal

In 2018, while she was a senior lecturer at the University of Essex, Briant was involved in revealing the

, a global

and data scandal involving

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

, the campaign firm

, that worked for

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

and on the

campaigns, and its defence contractor parent firm

SCL Group SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories) was a private British behavioural research and strategic communication company that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal involving its subsidiaries ...

. Briant had spent years researching and interviewing the parent firm

as part of her research for her book ''Propaganda and Counter-terrorism'' and had then begun researching how their methodology had been used in political campaigns including by subsidiary firm Cambridge Analytica. Briant was requested to give testimony and evidence regarding the firms' data misuse and

to multiple inquiries including the UK Parliament Digital Culture Media and Sport Select Committee's Inquiry into Fake News and the US Senate Judiciary Committee. She contributed to the 2019 Oscar-shortlisted film on Facebook and Cambridge Analytica in the

2016 United States elections Elections in the United States, Elections were held in the United States on November 8, 2016. Republican Party (United States), Republican nominee Donald Trump defeated Democratic Party (United States), Democratic former Secretary of State (Uni ...

, '' The Great Hack''. Briant also reported in ''

Byline Times ''Byline Times'' is a British newspaper and website founded in March 2019 by Peter Jukes and Stephen Colegrave, who are also its executive editors. It is a development of Byline, a crowdfunding and media outlet platform founded in April 2015 b ...

''. In 2021 Briant was interviewed for the documentary film series '' Schattenwelten''.

Publications

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

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Briant, Emma Living people Propaganda theorists Internet theorists British women sociologists British mass media scholars Communication scholars Works about security and surveillance 21st-century British women writers British media critics Mass media scholars Media studies writers Digital media educators British women journalists Alumni of the University of Glasgow Date of birth missing (living people) 1979 births