Audience Tools

Rachel Moran

CV Senior Research Scientist, Center for an Informed Public, Affiliate Assistant Professor

Specializations

  • Trust in Information Environments
  • Misinformation & Disinformation
  • Journalism

Research Areas

Biography

Rachel received her doctoral degree from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. Her research explores the role of trust in digital information environments and is particularly concerned with how trust is implicated in the spread of mis- and dis-information. Her research has been published in Information, Communication & Society, Digital Journalism, Journalism Practice, Media, Culture & Society and Telecommunications Policy. Moran also holds a BA and an MA in Social and Political Science from Cambridge University and an MA in Political Communications from Goldsmiths College, University of London. She was the Oakley Endowed Fellow at USC for 2018-19 and the 2018 Benton Foundation Junior Scholar.

Education

  • Ph D, Communication, University of Southern California, 2020
  • MA, Political Communications, University of London, 2014
  • BA, Cantab Politics, Psychology, Sociology, and International Studies, University of Cambridge, 2012

Awards

  • Oakley Endowed Fellowship - USC, 2018-2019
  • Annenberg Summer Research Funding - USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 2019
  • Annenberg Teaching Fellowship - USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 2019
  • Travel Award, Political Communication Division - American Political Science Association, 2019
  • Annenberg Graduate Fellowship Research and Creative Project Award - USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 2018
  • Annenberg Summer Research Funding - USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 2018
  • Charles Benton Junior Scholar Award - TPRC, 2018
  • Annenberg Graduate Fellowship Research and Creative Project Award - USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 2017
  • Annenberg Summer Research Funding - USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 2017
  • Top Paper Award - Western States Communication Association, 2017
  • Consortium on Media Policy Studies Fellowship - COMPASS, 2016
  • Annenberg Graduate Fellowship - USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 2015

Memberships

  • American Political Science Association
  • American Sociology Association
  • Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association
  • International Communication Association
  • National Communication Association

Publications and Contributions

  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    "We Never Really Talked About politics”: Race and Ethnicity as Foundational Forces Structuring Information Disorder Within the Vietnamese Diaspora (2023)
    Political Communication, Race and Ethnicity as Foundational Forces in Political Communication Authors: Sarah Nguyễn, Rachel Moran, Trung-Anh Nguyen, Linh Bui
  • Conference Paper
    Sending News Back Home: Misinformation Lost in Transnational Social Networks (2023)
    Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction CSCW Authors: Rachel Moran, Sarah Nguyễn, Linh Bui
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Stewardship of global collective behavior (2021)
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(27), pp. 10 pages Authors: Joseph Bak-Coleman, Mark Alfano, Wolfram Barfuss, Carl T. Bergstrom, Miguel A. Centeno, Iain D. Couzin, Jonathan F. Donges, Mirta Galesic, Andrew S. Gersick, Jennifer Jacquet, Albert B. Kao, Rachel Moran, Pawel Romanczuk, Daniel I. Rubenstein, Kaia J. Tombak, Jay J. Van Bevel, Elke U. Weber
  • Blog post
    The Vaccine Passport Narrative in Vaccine Hesitant Communities (2021)
    Authors: Rachel Moran, Kolina Koltai, Joseph Schafer, Erin McAweeney, Nicole Buckley, Divya Suresh Kumar, Connor Klentschy
  • Magazine/Trade Publication
    Trust and Authenticity as Tools for Journalism and Partisan Disinformation (2021)
    Items: Insights from the Social Sciences Author: Rachel Moran
  • Blog post
    Vaccine “shedding” narratives targeted toward women (2021)
    Virality Project Authors: Kolina Koltai, Rachel Moran, Nicole Buckley, Divya Suresh Kumar, Connor Klentschy, Kyle Weiss, Erin McAweeney, Emma Dolan, Jennifer John, Ashwin Ramaswami, Carly Miller
  • Article
    Foreign vs Domestic: An Examination of Amplification in a Ballot Misinformation Story (2020)
    Election Integrity Partnership Authors: Joseph Bak-Coleman, Michael Caulfield, Kolina Koltai, Rachel Moran, Kate Starbird, Tom Wilson, Ian Wisemore, Renée Diresta
  • Article
    Left-Leaning Influencers, 'Mainstream' Media Play Big Role in Amplifying 'Army for Trump' Fears (2020)
    Election Integrity Partnership Authors: Rachel Moran, Joseph Bak-Coleman, Tom Wilson, Ian Kennedy, Kolina Koltai, Andrew Beers, Ian Wisemore, Emma Spiro, Michael Caufield, Kate Starbird
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Objects of journalism, revised: Rethinking materiality in journalism studies through emotion, culture and ‘unexpected objects (2020)
    Journalism, 22(12), pp. 1155-1172 Authors: Rachel Moran, Nikki Usher
  • Report
    Uncertainty and Misinformation: What to Expect on Election Night and Days After (2020)
    Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) Authors: Kate Starbird, Michael Caufield, Renee DiResta, Jevin West, Emma Spiro, Nicole Buckley, Rachel Moran, Morgan Wack
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Adapting to the Changing News Environment: Integrating Mobile News and the Mobilities Paradigm into Journalism School Curricula (2019)
    Digital Journalism Authors: Matthew N. Bui, Rachel Moran
  • Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
    Imagining Resistance to Trump through the Networked Branding of the National Park Service (2019)
    Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination: Case Studies of Creative Social Change, pp. 231–40 Authors: Rachel Moran, Thomas J. Billard
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Networked Political Brands: Consumption, Community, and Political Expression in Contemporary Brand Culture (2019)
    Media, Culture & Society Authors: J.T. Billard, Rachel Moran
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Race, Ethnicity, and Communications Policy Issues of Access and Representation: Centering Communities of Color and their Concerns (2019)
    Telecommunications Policy, 43(5), pp. 461-473 Authors: Rachel Moran, Matthew N. Bui
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Examining switching power: Mark Zuckerberg as a novel networked media mogul (2018)
    Information, Communication & Society Author: Rachel Moran
  • Book Review
    Review of Deciding What’s True: The rise of political fact- checking in American journalism by Lucas Graves (2018)
    New Media & Society, 20(12), pp. 4832-4838 Author: Rachel Moran
  • Book Review
    Review of NGOs as newsmakers: The changing landscape of international news by Matthew Powers (2018)
    Journalism, 20(2), pp. 369-372 Author: Rachel Moran
  • Book Review
    Review of Strategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives, edited by Des Freedman, Jonathan Obar, Cheryl Martens, and Robert McChesney (2018)
    International Journal of Communication, 12(Unknown Issue), pp. 2737-2739 Author: Rachel Moran
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Who’s Behind That Political Ad: The FCC’s Online Political Files and Failures in Sponsorship Identification Regulation (2017)
    International Journal of Communication, 11(Unknown Issue), pp. 4702-2717 Author: Rachel Moran
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Extending Theories and Frameworks for Materiality in Journalism Studies through Objects of Journalism
    Journalism Authors: N. Usher, Rachel Moran

Presentations

  • Trust and Authenticity as Tools for Journalism and Weapons for Partisan Disinformation (2020)
    Beyond Disinformation: Authenticity and Trust in the Online World: Social Science Research Council Annual Meeting - Virtual
  • A “Walter Cronkite” for the Digital News Generation: The Utility and Dangers of Individual Relationships of Trust (2019)
    Annual Meeting of the International Journal of Press / Politics - Loughborough, UK
  • All the news that’s fit to wear: Exploring news media merchandise as objects of journalism (2019)
    Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association - Washington D.C.
  • Exploring Trust in Partisan Media: Podcasts & the Rejection of Objectivity (2019)
    Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association - Washington D.C.
  • Organizing to Survive: Exploring the Rise of Unionization in Digital Newsrooms (2019)
    Annual Meeting of the National Communication Association - Baltimore, MD
  • Subscribing to Transparency: Rantt Media’s Use of Slack to Build Audience Trust (2019)
    ICA Preconference on Engaged Journalism - Washington D.C
  • Subscribing to Transparency: Technological Interventions into Trust Building in Online News (2019)
    Future of Journalism Conference - Cardiff, UK
  • The Doxxing Dilemma: Privacy and Publicity in Digital America (2019)
    11th annual Annenberg Graduate Fellowship Research and Creative Project Symposium - Los Angeles, California
  • Fake News, Real Problem (2018)
    San Diego Society of Professional Journalists and the San Diego Central Library - San Diego, California
  • Technical Approaches to Combating “Fake News”: Assessing Current Typologies (2018)
    10th annual Annenberg Graduate Fellowship Research and Creative Project Symposium - Los Angeles, California
  • Fact-Checking in a Post-Truth World: Detangling Journalistic Style and Substance (2017)
    9th annual Annenberg Graduate Fellowship Research and Creative Project Symposium - Los Angeles, California