What's "In the Works" for Shawn Powers?

Shawn Powers is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Georgia State University. He also directs the recently launched Center for Global Information Studies (CGIS), is a fellow at Central European University’s Center for Media, Data and Society, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the State Department’s Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.

Dr. Powers studies the geopolitics of information and technology and recently published a book (with Michael Jablonski) on internet policy and governance, entitled The Real Cyber War: The Political Economy of Internet Freedom. For a snapshot of the book’s main arguments, see this editorial in The Guardian, this podcast with The Public Diplomat, and these interviews with Global Atlanta and the University of Illinois Press.

Building on his work with policymakers and the Muslim NGO sector, the European Union awarded Powers (and the British Council) a grant for 2015-2018 to study civic approaches to religious conflict and violence. The project will convene a series of dialogues among civil society and policymakers from Europe and North America to share best practices and challenges for combatting extremism and violence. USC will host the sixth and final dialogue on comparative approaches to youth engagement and mobilization to counter radicalization and violence in of April 2018.

Powers is an enthusiastic alumnus of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and has worked on numerous CPD projects, including an assessment of Al Hurra, a comparative study of Al Jazeera English audiences in six countries, and an analysis of international broadcaster coverage of China.

Additionally, Powers is in the formative stages of writing a book on conceptualizing information interventions which includes chapters on Russia’s international broadcasters (RT and Sputnik) and the geopolitics of the internet’s architecture.

To stay current with his research and occasional political commentary, you can follow Powers on Twitter @shawnpowers.

Recent publications include:

• Powers, S. & Jablonski M. The Real Cyber War: The Political Economy of Internet Freedom February 2015
• Powers, S. (2015). Where did the principle of secrecy in correspondence go? The Guardian. August 12. 
• Powers, S. & O’Loughlin, B (2015) The Syrian Data Glut: Rethinking the Role of Information in Conflict. Media, War & Conflict. 
• Powers, S. & Azran, T (2015) A Microeconomic Approach to International Broadcasting. Journal of International Communication 21(1): 1-22. 
• Powers, S., Baum, M. & Nisbet, E. (2014) Broadcasting Board of Governors: Research and Evaluation Appraisal. In Report to Congress: Data Driven Public Diplomacy: Progress Towards Measuring the Impact of Public Diplomacy and International Broadcasting Activities. United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Washington, DC: Department of State, September. 
• Powers, S. (2014). Towards Information Sovereignty. In Internet Governance: The NETmundial Roadmap (Eds.William Drake & Monroe Price). USC Annenberg Press, pp. 90-98 

About this series:

"In the Works" is CPD's periodic roundup of news from the international PD scholarly community. If you've taken up a new academic position, published a new work or recently embarked on a research project on a public diplomacy topic, let us know! All updates can be sent to cpd@usc.edu. Please be sure to use "In the Works" in the subject heading.