João Magalhães

João C. Magalhães is an Assistant Professor in Media, Politics and Democracy at the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen. Previously, he researched and taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he received a PhD in new media, and worked as a senior researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, in Berlin.

João is mainly interested in the entanglement of datafication and power. Much of his research explores the political ramifications of algorithmic social media and technologies. His doctoral thesis argues that Facebook’s AI-driven public space enables a form of bottom-up authoritarianism, in which citizens can only be heard by silencing themselves and others — what might demand a reconsideration of what the ‘ethics of algorithms’ ought be. After that, he finished a project on how Big Tech’s ‘AI for social good’ initiatives may in fact extend data colonialism and, at the Humboldt Institute, headed an EU-funded project that mapped out social media platforms’ governance structures, with a focus on copyright regulation and automated filters. With the support of an open science fellowship from the Wikimedia Foundation, João developed with colleagues an online database that gives access to almost 20 years of social media’s policies. He has also investigated the use of microtargeting by political campaigns in the UK, the appropriation of the term ‘algorithm’ by ordinary people, the connections between media, recognition and ethics, and how the British press (mis)represented Jeremy Corbyn. Before becoming an academic, João was a journalist in Brazil, and was awarded some of the most important journalistic prizes in Latin America.

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy - PhD The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) (2015 — 2019)
• MSc The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) (2013 — 2014)
• Bachelor's degree (unfinished) Universidade de São Paulo (2002 — 2006)
• Bachelor's degree Faculdade Cásper Líbero (2002 — 2006)

Companies

• Assistant Professor in Media, Politics and Democracy University of Groningen (2021)
• Open Science Fellow Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. (2020 — 2021)
• Senior Researcher Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (2020 — 2021)
• Researcher, Teaching assistant The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) (2015 — 2020)
• Journalist (trainee, reporter, editor) Folha de S.Paulo (2006 — 2015)

Journal articles and conference proceedings

• Magalhães, J.C., & Couldry, N. (2021). Giving by taking away: Big Tech, data colonialism and the reconfiguration of social good. International Journal of Communication, 15, 343-362.

• Magalhães, J. C., Katzenbach, C. (2020). Coronavirus and the frailness of platform governance. Internet Policy Reiew.

• Campanella, B., & Magalhães, J.C (2019). Media, recognition and constitution of subjectivity. Contracampo: Brazilian Journal of Communication, 38(2).

• Magalhães, J. C. (2018). Do Algorithms Shape Character? Considering Algorithmic Ethical Subjectivation. Social Media + Society, 4(2), 1-10.

• Araújo, W., & Magalhães, J.C. (2018). Me, myself and “the algorithm”. How Twitter users employ the notion of “the algorithm” as a self-presentation frame. Compós, 1-25.

• Cammaerts, B., DeCillia, B., & Magalhães, J. C. (2017). Journalistic transgressions in the representation of Jeremy Corbyn: From watchdog to attackdog. Journalism, 21(2), 191-208.

Working paper

• Anstead, N., Magalhães, J.C., Stupart, R., & Tambini, D. (2019). Facebook advertising in the 2017 United Kingdom general election: The uses and limits of user-generated data. European Consortium of Political Research.

Other publications

• Katzenbach, C., Magalhães, J. C., Kopps, A., Sühr, T. & Wunderlich, L. (2021). The Platform Governance Archive. Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society.

• Tambini, D., Anstead, N., & Magalhães, J.C. (2017). The final days of Labour’s Facebook GE2017 campaign. LSE Blogs.

• Tambini, D., Anstead, N., & Magalhães, J.C (2017). Is the Conservative Party deliberately distributing fake news in attack ads on Facebook? LSE Blogs.

• Tambini, D., Anstead, N., & Magalhães, J.C. (2017). Labour’s advertising campaign on Facebook (or “don’t mention the war”). LSE Blogs.

• Tambini, D., Anstead, N., & Magalhães, J.C. (2017). How the Liberal Democrats are using Facebook ads to court ‘remainers’. LSE Blogs.

• Magalhães, J.C. (2016). Have the mass media fuelled Brazil’s turmoil? OXPOL Blog.