In September 2024, the University announced $10 million in funding dedicated to the new Penn Center for Media, Technology, and Democracy.
Examining Digital Media’s Impact on Democracy
A look at the Penn Center for Media, Technology, and Democracy
Winter 2025
The Center will benefit from a five-year, $5 million investment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as well as an additional $5 million in combined resources from Penn Engineering, Penn Arts & Sciences, the Annenberg School for Communication, the Wharton School, Penn Carey Law, the School of Social Policy & Practice, and the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
At the outset, the Center will propel research involving media, technology, and democracy. Once established, however, the goal is for the Center to become a global hub for researchers, private sector leaders, and policymakers—by sharing research findings and creating near-real-time dashboards that provide a clear view of the current media landscape. Over the long term, the Center also aims to serve as a repository for data sharing with the broader research community.
Principal Investigators
Christopher Yoo, Imasogie Professor in Law and Technology at Penn Carey Law, with secondary appointments in Penn Engineering and Annenberg, is the founding director of the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition at Penn Carey Law. His work focuses on normative issues in legal policy.
Duncan Watts, the founding director of Penn’s Computational Social Science Lab, is an empirical scholar whose research is marked by innovation. He is also the Stevens University Professor and a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor with appointments in Penn Engineering, Annenberg, and Wharton, where he is also the inaugural Rowan Fellow.
Christopher Yoo and Duncan Watts, the grant’s two principal investigators, are trusted partners in industry and academia. Together, they offer unique synergies between policymakers and leaders in media and technology.
The Center will operate around four programmatic pillars, including an annual flagship conference for media leaders industry-wide, an internal grants program to support research among Penn faculty and students, a research infrastructure to facilitate data sharing and collaboration, and a cohort of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers.
The Penn Center for Media, Technology, and Democracy will be housed in one of Penn’s newest buildings, Amy Gutmann Hall, a hub for cross-disciplinary collaborations that harness research and data across Penn’s 12 schools.
