Jonathan Corpus Ong

I am a public intellectual engaged in international policy debates related to disinformation, mediated public participation, and digital humanitarianism, with a consistent record of advocacy work with diverse sectors of human rights, diasporic community media, and tech workers. I am the inaugural director of the Global Technology for Social Justice Lab, a creative hub that advances a community-driven model for tech studies and tech justice advocacy that centers the Global Majority.

My research and advocacy work is centrally concerned with the moral and political consequences of media and digital technologies, particularly technological interventions in the context of development, humanitarianism, and media and democracy in the Global Majority. I have published 3 books, over 40 articles, and over a dozen public policy reports examining the uneven impacts of media interventions “for good” and technologies “advancing democracy”. Inspired by traditions of media ethics and media anthropology, I use ethnographic and participatory research methods to center the voices of ordinary citizens and precarious workers when developing normative analysis of “good” and “bad” interventions and everyday practices.

My research in disinformation studies takes a critical and ethnographic approach in exploring the social identities, work arrangements and moral justifications of "paid trolls" and political public relations strategists in Southeast Asia. My academic research applies a unique transnational lens into the political economy of disinformation. I am passionate about knowledge translation, having co-hosted a “disinformation whistleblowers” podcast Catch Me If You Can and launching a Community Engagement Fund that supports academic-civil society partnerships for digital literacy interventions in the Philippines and, more recently, Brazil.

My research projects and space-building initiatives have been funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Luminate Group, the Gates Foundation, the USA’s National Science Foundation, the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council, and The Asia Foundation.

PhD, Sociology, University of Cambridge, UK

MSc, Politics and Communication, London School of Economics, UK

BA, Communication, Loyola Schools - Ateneo de Manila, Philippines

Undergraduate: Intro to Media and Culture, Social Media in Everyday Life; Media Solidarities in the Age of Global Crisis

Graduate: Qualitative Methods; Tech Ethics and Media Justice

Books

1. Ong, J.C. (2022). Trolls for Sale. Manila, Philippines: Everything’s Fine Books.

2. Rovisco, M. & Ong, J.C (eds). (2016). Taking the Square: Mediated Dissent and Occupations of Public Space. London & NY: Rowman & Littlefield.

3. Ong, J.C. (2015). The Poverty of Television: The Mediation of Suffering in Class-Divided Philippines. London & NY: Anthem Press. 

Journal Special Issue Co-Editorships

1. Ong, J.C. & Donovan, J. (eds.). (forthcoming) Special Issue: "True Costs of Misinformation: Counting the Casualties of 'Fake News'". International Journal of Communication.

2. Grohmann, R. & Ong, J.C. (eds). (2023). Special Issue: "Disinformation-for-Hire as Everyday Digital Labor". Social Media + Society.

3. Ong, J.C. & Negra, D (eds). (2020). Special Issue: "Intellectual and Institutional Turbulence in Media Studies: 20th Anniversary Issue of Television & New Media". Television & New Media 21: 6.

4. Ong, J.C. & Rovisco, M (eds). (2019). Special Issue: Refugee Socialities and the Media. Popular Communication 17: 2.

Recent Journal Articles

1. Grohmann, R. & Ong, J.C. (2024). “Disinformation-for-Hire as Everyday Digital Labor: Introduction to the Special Issue”. Social Media + Society. [Open Access]

2. Ong, J.C. (2022). “Philippine Elections 2022: The Dictator’s Son and the Discourse Around Disinformation”. Journal of Contemporary Southeast Asia. December 2022 issue, pp. 396-403.

3. Ong, J.C. & Tapsell, R. (2022). "Demystifying Disinformation Shadow Economies: Fake News Work Models in Indonesia and the Philippines". Asian Journal of Communication 32(3): 251-267.

4. Ong, J.C. (2021). "The Secondary Contagion of Stigmatization: Racism and Discrimination in the Pandemic Moment". Social Science Research Council Media Well. https://mediawell.ssrc.org/literature-reviews/the-contagion-of-stigmatization-racism-and-discrimination-in-the-infodemic-moment/versions/1-0/ 

5. Ong, J.C. & Negra, D. (2020). "The Media (Studies) of the Pandemic Moment: Introduction to the 20th Anniversary Special Issue". Television & New Media 21(6): 1-7.  [Open Access] 

6. Ong, J.C. & Cabanes, J.V. (2019). “When Disinformation Studies Meets Production Studies: Social Identities and Moral Justifications in the Political Trolling Industry.” International Journal of Communication 13: 5771-5790. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/1141

Recent Book Chapters

1. Lanuza, J.M. & Ong, J.C. (2024). “Ignoring Watch Dogs: Influence Operations, New Campaign Tactics, and Legacy Media Bypass in the Philippines”. In Veneti, A. & Trevisan, F. (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Political Campaigning. London: Routledge. 

2. Suren, N., Yalin, A., & Ong, J.C. (2024). "Turkish Influencers in the Covid-19 Moment". In Briant, E. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook on the Influence Industry. London & New York: Routledge. 

3. Karatzogianni, A. & Ong, J.C. (2023). “Digital Politics: Defining, Exploring and Challenging the Field”. In. Kuntsman, A. & Xin, L. (eds.) Digital Politics, Digital Histories, Digital Futures: New Approaches for Historicising, Politicising and Imagining the Digital. London: Emerald Publishing, Ltd.

4. Ong, J.C. (2021). “Ethnography in Humanitarian Communication.” In Chouliaraki, L. & Vestergaard, A. (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Humanitarian Communication. London & New York: Routledge.

Public Engagement

1. Targeted countries should demand accountability from the Pentagon and platforms. Tech Policy Press. July 15, 2024. [Read here]

2. Co-Host. Catch Me If You Can Podcast. (3 Seasons). Ranked in Top 5% of Most Shared Podcasts globally for the year 2022. Ranked in the Top 6 of Philippines overall podcast charts in May 2022. [Available here]

3. The World Should Be Worried About a Dictator’s Son's Apparent Win in the Philippines. Time. May 10, 2022. [Read here]

4. Pro-Marcos, Duterte accounts weigh in on Ukraine invasion, praise Putin and Duterte. Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. March 4, 2022. [Read here]. 

5. Online Disinformation against AAPI Communities during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. October 19, 2021. [Read here]

Open Access Research Reports and Monographs

1. Ong, J.C., Lanuza, J.M., Jackson, D., Alves, M., Grohman, R., Requero, R., & Tavares, C. (2024). Custom Built / Feito Sob Medida: Reforming Tech and Democracy Programs for the Global Majority. GloTech Lab. www.glotechlab.net. 

2. Ong, J.C., Fallorina, R., Lanuza, J.M., Sanchez, F. & Curato, N. (2022). “Parallel Public Spheres: Influence Operations in the 2022 Philippine Elections”. Shorenstein Center. Harvard Kennedy School. [Read here] 

3. Asian American Disinformation Table (2022). “Power, Platforms, Politics: Asian Americans and Disinformation Landscape Report”. [Read here].

4. Ong, J.C., Tintiangko, J. & Fallorina, R. (2021). "Human Rights in Survival Mode: Developing New Narratives and Supporting Creative Workers in the Philippines". Shorenstein Center. Harvard Kennedy School. [Read here]

5. Curato, N., Ong, J.C. & Tapsell, R. (2021). “’Thank You for Sharing’: A Deliberative Forum on Disinformation”. New Mandala. [Read here]

6. Ong, J.C., & Cabanes, J.V.C. (2019). “Politics and Profit in the Fake News Factory: Four Work Models of Political Trolling in the Philippines.” NATO StratCom. [Read here]

7. Ong, J.C., Tapsell, R. & Curato, N. (2019). “Tracking Digital Disinformation in the 2019 Philippine Midterm Elections.” New Mandala. [Read here]

8. Ong, J.C. & Cabanes, J.V.C. (2018). “Architects of Networked Disinformation: Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News Production in the Philippines.” Newton Tech4Dev Network. [Read here]

1. Principal Investigator. “South-South Knowledge Exchange Spaces vs Disinformation.” Luminate Group. (US$198,000).

2. Principal Investigator. Global Technology for Social Justice Lab (GloTech Lab@UMass). Large Scale Integrative Research Grant awarded by the UMass Amherst research office, with supplemental contributions from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. ($40,000)

3. Principal Investigator. “Global Democracy Frontliners.” Luminate Group. Research and Coalition-Building Grant. October 2022 to December 2023. (US$365,000).

4. Co-Principal Investigator. Co-Insights: Creative Collaborations with Asian-American Community Media Fighting Misinformation. National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator Grant, October 2022 to September 2024. (US$570,000).

5. Co-Investigator. “The Digital Good Network”. UK Economic and Social Research Council. October 2022 to September 2025. (UMass award: $105,000). 

6. Andrew Carnegie Fellowship Awardee 2022 (one of 28 scholars selected in the United States). Project: Human Costs of Disinformation. September 2022 to August 2024. (US200,000).

7. Co-Principal Investigator. "FACT-CHAMP: Monitoring Misinformation Targeting Asian-American and Pacific Islander Communities". National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator Grant, September 2021 to August 2022. (US$129,000). 

Jonathan runs several active grants that support the research of several Ph.D. students at UMass Amherst. 

Jonathan is interested to support and supervise students working on topics related to: 1) technology and democracy in the context of Global Majority / Global South, 2) Asian American digital politics, and 3) digital spirituality, wellness and religion.

Research interests: Media ethics, critical disinformation studies, global media studies, anthropology of humanitarianism and human rights, inter-ethnic racism and solidarities, South-to-South knowledge exchange