Emma L. Briant
Emma L. Briant, Ph.D. is a leading researcher and expert who is a visiting scholar at the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication at George Washington University while she works on research in relation to public diplomacy, contemporary propaganda and information warfare, and its ethics, governance and evolution in an age of mass-surveillance. Dr. Briant is a Visiting Associate Professor at the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society, at Notre Dame University.
Dr. Briant’s research, testimony and solutions on media, technology, and the rapid evolution of surveillant propaganda and its implications for democracy, security and human rights have informed civil society organizations, government agencies, industry, the UN, US Congress, UK Parliament, Canadian Parliament and European Parliament among others. Dr. Briant is best known for research that was central in revealing the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook scandal in 2018 — this research formed the basis for important evidence submitted to the U.K. Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into “fake news” and the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2018 among other international public inquiries.
She is a British scholar who held prior faculty roles at Monash University, Australia; Bard College, USA; University of Essex; and University of Sheffield, in the UK. In addition to numerous peer reviewed scholarly articles, Dr. Briant has three books, Bad News for Refugees, (Pluto Press, with Philo and Donald, 2013), Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global Change (Manchester University Press, 2015), and the Routledge Handbook on the Influence Industry (Routledge, co-edited with Vian Bakir, 2024). In addition to scholarly publications, she regularly contributes to major journalism outlets and is finalizing her next book Propaganda Machine. She was Senior Researcher for the Oscar-shortlisted documentary ‘The Great Hack’.
Dr. Briant is an honorary Associate at University of Cambridge’s Centre for Financial Reporting and Accountability, and remains an a Fellow at Bard College and an Affiliate of Monash Global Peace and Security Centre. She has also held previous prestigious visiting roles at American University, Stanford University, Georgetown University, George Washington University.
Peer-Reviewed Books
Briant, E L and Bakir, V (2024) "Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry" London: Routledge.
Briant, Emma L. (2015) “Propaganda and Counterterrorism: Strategies for Global Change,” Manchester University Press
Philo, G; Briant, Emma L.; Donald, P (2013) “Bad News for Refugees,” Pluto Press.
Peer-Reviewed Academic Journal Articles/Chapters
Briant, E, L (2024) “Researching Influence Operations: ‘Dark Arts’ Mercenaries and the Digital Influence Industry” in Bjola, Corneliu & Manor, Ilan. Oxford Handbook of Digital Diplomacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 80-99
Chernobrov, D & Briant, E L (December 2020) "Competing Propagandas: How Russia and the US represent mutual propaganda activities" in Politics, 393-409 doi:10.1177/0263395720966171.
Briant, Emma L. (March 2018) “Pentagon Ju-Jitsu – reshaping the field of propaganda,” in Critical Sociology, Special Issue.
Briant, Emma L. (April 2015) “Allies and Audiences: Evolving strategies in Defense and Intelligence Propaganda,” in International Journal of Press/Politics (Special Issue), Vol. 20, No. 2. Pp145-165.
Briant, Emma L. Watson, N & Philo, G (Sept 2013) “Reporting disability in the age of austerity: the changing face of media representation of disability and disabled people in the United Kingdom and the creation of new ‘folk devils’,” in Disability &
Briant, Emma L. Philo, G; Donald, P (Oct 2013) “The Role of the Press in the War on Asylum,” in Race & Class Vol. 55 No. 2. pp28-41.
Non-Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters/Articles
Briant, E, L; Martinez, E & Zhang, Y. (2024) “Emma Briant on Disinformation Wars”. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. Johns Hopkins University Press Volume 25, Number 1, Summer 2024 pp. 94-99
Briant, E, L (2024) “Challenging Words”. Index on Censorship, 54(1).
Briant, E, L (2023) “Hack Attacks: How Cyber Intimidation and Conspiracy Theories Drive the Spiral of ‘Secrecy Hacking’” in Steel, J and Petley, J. Routledge Companion To Freedom of Expression and Censorship, London: Routledge
Briant, E L (2019) “LeaveEU: Dark Money, Dark Ads and Data Crimes”, in Baines, P; Snow, N & O’Shaughnessy, N. SAGE Handbook of Propaganda, London: Sage
Briant, Emma L. & Wanlass, A. (2018). "A Ménage à Trois for the Digital Age: Strategic Leaks, Propaganda and Journalism," in Corneliu Bjola & James Pamment (eds) Countering Online Propaganda and Vioent Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy, London: Routledge.
Published Reports
Briant, Emma L. (2018) "Evidence for the US Senate Judiciary Committee on Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group."
Briant, Emma L. (2018) "Building a Stronger and More Secure Democracy in a Digital Age," Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee Inquiry into Fake News: UK Parliament
Briant, Emma L. (2018) "Evidence on Leave.EU, Eldon Insurance and US Health Insurance Industry," Digital, Cultural, Media and Sport Committee Inquiry into Fake News: UK Parliament
Briant, Emma L. (2018) "Three Explanatory Essays Giving Context and Analysis to Submitted Evidence," Digital, Cultural, Media and Sport Committee Inquiry into Fake News: UK Parliament.
Briant, Emma L. (2015) “Brief Summary Report on Recent US Information Operations and Public Diplomacy Efforts in Countering Terrorism for the Director of the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.”
Briant, Emma L.; Watson, N & Philo, P (2011) “Bad News for Disabled People,” Report for Inclusion London.
Philo, G and Briant, Emma L. (2008) “Community Cohesion and the Role of the Local,” JCPR/Mayor of London.
King, K et al. (2004) “UK Social Science & the African Continent in 2004," Report to the ESRC.
Journalism/Opinion
Briant, E (2024) Can academic freedom survive Donald Trump’s plans for thought control? Index on Censorship.
Briant, E (2024) Reader reply: I’ve experienced state-backed hacks. Assange’s ‘journalism’ is dangerous. Crikey.
Briant, E and Chalupa, A (2024) Tucker Carlson Takes Putin’s Propaganda on Tour Down Under - Why Should Australians be Concerned? Australian Institute of International Affairs/Australian Outlook.
Briant, E (2024) In Fighting the “Disinformation” Problem, We Risk Losing the Battle for Our Minds to Big Tech. Australian Institute of International Affairs/Australian Outlook.
Briant, E (2023) Hacking is far more than a security issue. It chills free speech. Index on Censorship.
Briant, E (2023) The Air Force Loves War Gamers Like Teixeira. SpyTalk.
Briant, E (2023) How Social Media Incentives Helped Drive the Discord Leaks. Tech Policy Press.
Briant, E L (2022) ‘Pentagon PSYOP Scandal Demands an Urgent Debate on Propaganda Ethics’ Tech Policy Press.
Briant, E L (2022) ‘How a new US Army video recruiting for deception risks fueling conspiracy theories’ in Medium.
Briant, E L (2022) ‘How Russia benefits from ill-informed social media policies’ in Brookings, TechTank.
Briant, E L (2021) 'Briant: Canadian military’s bungled propaganda campaigns should be a lesson across NATO' in Ottawa Citizen.
Briant, E L (2021) ‘The Grim Consequences of a Misleading Study on Disinformation’ in Wired.
Chernobrov, D & Briant, E L (2021) ‘Why language matters in the ‘disinformation’ age’ in Politics Journal Blog.
Briant, E L (2020) ‘OPINION: Government Efforts to Counter Propaganda Risk Undermining Public Trust’ in Ottawa Citizen.
Briant, E L (2020) ‘DARK IRONIES: The Financial Times and Cambridge Analytica’ in Byline Times.
Briant, E L (2020) ‘OPINION: Governments Have Failed to Learn from the Cambridge Analytica Scandal’, in OCCRP/Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
Briant, E, L (2020) We need tougher action against disinformation and propaganda, in Brookings TechTank.
Briant, E, L (2020) Interactive Cambridge Analytica Map – Independent Data Journalism/Digital Humanities Project
Briant, E L (2019) 'Oxford University can’t hide its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal' in Open Democracy & (originally) Medium.
Briant, Emma L. (2018) "Our governments share responsibility for the Cambrige Analytics crisis... and here's how they should fix it" in Open Democracy.
Briant Emma L. (2018) "Amid shocking revelations about Cambridge Analytica unethical activities, SCL Group's defence work needs real scrutiny," in Open Democracy.
Briant, Emma L. (2018) "Comment is Free: I've seen inside the digital propaganda machine. It's dark in there," in The Guardian.
Briant, Emma L. (2018) "Cambridge Analytica and SCL: How I peered inside the propaganda machine," in The Conversation.
Briant, Emma L. (2016) "Perspectives: The Post-Truth Factor" in United Nations Association Magazine.
Briant, Emma L. (2016) "Beacons of Hope and Hate from the US Election: People Power's Capacity to 'Trump' Injustice" in The Sociological Review.
Briant, Emma L. “Rights, reporting and mass-surveillance in a digital age,” in Tumber, Howard & Waisbord, Silvio, Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights, London: Routledge.
Briant, Emma L. & Harkins, S “Managing Social Impacts of Austerity Britain: neo-liberal ‘nudging’ and mainstream media scapegoats,” in Berry, D (Ed.) Cultural Politics in an Age of Austerity, London: Ashgate.
Briant, Emma, L. (3rd May 2016) “Failure of British Reporting Refugees to Europe,” in UN Association’s New World Magazine
Briant, Emma L. (18th November 2015) “West’s crisis of communication will make terrorist atrocities more likely,” in The Conversation.
Briant, Emma L. (27th November 2014) “Lee Rigby report another weapon in the propaganda war,” in The Conversation.
Briant, Emma L. (28th Sept 2013) “The UK Media needs to stop referring to refugees as 'illegal immigrants,” in New Statesman Blog.
Briant, Emma L. (2007) “The Struggle for Public Opinion within the Media and Information War on Terror,” in Edited Volume - NATO Teaching Series: Media a Terrorist’s Battlefield: IOS Press.
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Glasgow, 2011
Diploma, Literature & Creative Writing, Open University, 2010
M.Sc., Sociology, University of Glasgow, 2007
M.Res., Business and Public Management Research, Glasgow Caledonian University, 2004
B.A., International Relations & Politics, Coventry University, 2003