April 9, 2020 | Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic stands in marked contrast to that of the United States, and the crisis seems to be helping to unite Canadians like no other event in years. Read what Peter Loewen, Taylor Owen and Derek Ruths had to say.
February 14, 2020 |Rapid advances in facial-recognition technology have the potential for vast social consequences. In response to the scale and speed of these developments and the clear potential for harm, a movement has emerged to ban facial recognition. In this op-ed, Max Bell School professor Taylor Owen and Nasma Ahmed call for the need to move ahead with caution and deliberation, highlighting the urgency for regulatory frameworks.
February 9, 2020| The federal government is worried about the risk of voter coercion and foreign election interference through private messaging services — a concern that could pit the right to privacy and free expression against Canada's election laws.
January 7, 2020 | There are serious concerns about how Facebook will police deepfake videos. Max Bell School professor Taylor Owen talks about why these sophisticated videos need editorial oversight.
September 12, 2019 | Social media might not be to blame for Canadians’ ideological polarization, a new report on digital democracy in Canada finds. “A lot of people don’t use social media very actively,” said Eric Merkley, a researcher on the project. “People on Twitter are not representative of the broader population.”
September 2, 2019 | An estimated 19 million Canadians have been affected by data breaches between November 2018 and June 2019, according to numbers obtained by "Attention Control with Kevin Newman," a new podcast that launched Monday. The numbers come from 446 breaches that were reported to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC). Victims of these kinds of data breaches are vulnerable to identity theft, financial crime, even violence in some cases.
August 10, 2019| Beware of things you see online that make you emotional, one media expert warns ahead of the fall election. Taylor Owen, professor at 㽶Ƶ and the co-creator of the Digital Democracy Project, says fake news often preys on feelings like anger and fear.
August 7, 2019 | Canadians aren’t as divided into partisan echo chambers as social media would suggest, but a heavy news diet doesn't guarantee you'll be informed, a new study has found.
The Digital Ecosystem Research Challenge has awarded 18 Research Awards ranging from $3,000 to $75,000 to research teams from Canada and abroad. The Digital Ecosystem Research Challenge is a collaborative effort between Dr. Taylor Owen, Associate Professor in the Max Bell School of Public Policy, 㽶Ƶ and Dr. Elizabeth Dubois, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and a Centre for Law, Technology and Society Faculty Member at the University of Ottawa.
August 7, 2019 | A report published by the Digital Democracy Project suggests that overall misinformation levels in Canada are low. However, certain trends in media consumption put news consumers and voters more at risk to be misinformed about key political issues. To learn more about how information and disinformation flow through journalistic and social media channels in the run-up to the October federal election, read the .
August 8, 2019 | A survey launched by the Digital Democracy Project found that most Canadians across the political spectrum got a common set of facts from an array of mainstream media outlets. The report also highlighted voters' tendencies to select and consume news from sources that support their political beliefs, generating so-called echo chambers.
August 8, 2019 | The Digital Democracy Project, an initiative of Max Bell School of Public Policy in collaboration with the Public Policy Forum, analyzes the increasing amounts of disinformation and hate in the digital public sphere. A new study shows the links between political affiliation and misinformation. Among other findings, it was shown that voters with strong political affiliation tended to be more frequently misinformed about political issues than voters with a looser political affiliation.
August 8, 2019 | In an age where information is increasingly scrutinized yet more easily diffusable than ever, Canadians might be more misinformed than disinformed. New findings from the Digital Democracy Project show how information ricochets around the Canadian political landscape. Learn more about the ways in which exposure to certain news outlets affects voters and the democractic processes in elections.
Dr. Taylor Owen, holder of the Beaverbrook Chair in Ethics, Media and Communications received, with Dr. Elizabeth Dubois (University of Ottawa), a Canada History Fund grant to run the Digital Ecosystem Research Challenge. They have launched a call for proposals for projects examining the uses and impacts of digital media in the 2019 Canadian Federal Election.
Remarks by Taylor Owen, Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communication and Associate Professor in the Max Bell School of Public Policy at 㽶Ƶ
May 27, 2019, Ottawa
Co-Chairs Zimmer and Collins, Committee Members;
Thank you for having me, it is an honor to be here. I am particularly heartened because even three years ago a meeting like this would have seemed unnecessary by many in the public, the media, the technology sector, and by governments themselves.