Sanjana Hattotuwa - Profile and Journalist Details
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Sanjana Hattotuwa
Verified
Senior Researcher, Centre for Policy Alternatives
New Zealand, Sri Lanka
Beats
Biography
I study the causes, effects, and impact of information disorders on democracy, institutions, and social cohesion. With over 20 years of experience in peacebuilding, civic media, and digital security, from the Global South and across five continents, I have a deep understanding of how social media and politics interact and influence each other, especially in conflict-affected and contexts with a democratic deficit (which now includes countries in the Global North). My work is driven by an interest in promoting democratic governance, human rights, and media freedom, as well as a curiosity for exploring the potential and challenges of new technologies for social change. I have a PhD in Social Media and Politics from the University of Otago. I am Sri Lanka's first TED Fellow, and also had fellowships from Ashoka, and Rotary World Peace. I am also the founder, and former editor of Groundviews, Sri Lanka's first, and award-winning citizen journalism website. Additionally, I am a Special Advisor at the ICT4Peace Foundation, where I study use, and abuse of technologies in peacekeeping and peacebuilding. I completed doctoral studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand, looking at the symbiotic relationship between offline unrest and online instigation of hate and harm in Sri Lanka and, in the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre in 2019, facilitated by leading research based on New Zealand's first ever Data for Good grant by Twitter. In 2013, Sanjana was the sole Sri Lankan to be invited by World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN/IFRA) to deliver a presentation at the 20th World Editors Forum (WEF) and the 65th World Newspaper Congress, held in Bangkok, Thailand. His presentation on Sri Lanka, uploaded to Sri Lanka, trended globally and was featured on the site's homepage.
Governance, Human Rights , Information Integrity, New Media, Social media, Media Freedom , Information Ecologies, Democracy , Politics, Truth Decay, Disinformation
Content
By Sanjana Hattotuwa| Groundviews Verified Photo courtesy of KumananLast year, I studied in some depth perceptions of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) and the National People’s Power (NPP) after the consequential presidential election and again after the even more significant general election.
By Sanjana Hattotuwa| Groundviews Verified Photo courtesy of Al JazeeraRenowned journalist Mehdi Hasan interviewed the former president Ranil Wickremesinghe on a programme of Head to Head, produced by Al Jazeera. The programme was released to YouTube and first broadcast on March 6. At the time I studied 5,144 comments in response to it, the video had been watched over 218,620 times and liked over 8,000 times.
By Sanjana Hattotuwa| Groundviews Verified Photo courtesy of BBCA year ago, Sri Lanka hurriedly passed legislation that fundamentally undermined human rights in ways unprecedented in the country’s history. The Online Safety Act (OSA), rammed through parliament without meaningful consultation, represents one of the most sweeping threats to freedom of expression, privacy and democratic discourse in any jurisdiction globally, ever.