Hello!

My name is Joseph (Joey) Schafer, welcome to my website! I'm a first year Ph.D. student in the University of Washington Human-Centered Design and Engineering Department and conduct research at the Center for an Informed Public, advised by Dr. Kate Starbird, Dr. Emma Spiro, and Dr. Jevin West.

I'm broadly interested in studying how sociotechnical systems enable the spread of online misinformation, disinformation, and otherwise harmful content, and how these systems can be better designed to prevent such harms.

More specifically, I am interested in the role platform policies (such as for content moderation), platform features (such as algorithmic recommendation or interaction structures), and platform influencer dynamics play in the spread of these kinds of content.

Currently, I am studying the spread of election misinformation in the lead up to the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.

Previously, I've done work with rapid response research to misinformation and disinformation, as a part of both the 2020 Election Integrity Partnership and the Virality Project. I've also been involved with multiple other projects relating to misinformation and social media.

If working together sounds interesting to you, please reach out!

For more details on my work, please visit the other sections below:

Research

Academics and Teaching

Other work, organizations, and service

Awards and selected media coverage

Blog