Prof. Rebekah Larsen

Assistant Professor

Research Summary

Rebekah Larsen is an assistant professor in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing program. A media sociologist with a Ph.D. from Cambridge University, her work uncovers and analyzes understudied media ecosystems, with special attention to sociotechnical change and power relations within these systems. Recent scholarly sites of inquiry include conservative talk radio stations in rural Utah (and ethnographic work in conservative spaces); the new global network of fact checkers funded by social media platform content moderation contracts; and search engine manipulation of journalists and activists around a controversial 2010s privacy regulation.

Prior to MIT, Larsen held a Marie Curie grant at the University of Copenhagen, and was a visiting fellow at the Information Society Project (Yale Law School). She maintains current affiliations as a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center (Harvard Law School) and a research associate at the Center for Governance and Human Rights (Cambridge University).

Recent Work