Matti Pohjonen works at the intersection of digital anthropology, philosophy and data science. His work revolves around developing critical research approaches and methodologies to understand digital culture and politics globally. This has included work on early blogging cultures in India, the use of interactive radio and SMS for researching hard-to-reach populations in East Africa, research on extreme speech and digital politics in Ethiopia, and work on the use of big data and AI in social sciences and humanities. He currently works as a Senior/University Researcher for the Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities (HSSH), leading methodological and theoretical development on digital methods using internet and social media data and also leads the work package on global debates on digital platform accountability for the Finnish Academy-funded Media platforms and social accountability: Dynamics, practices and discourses (MAPS) project. Matti has more than 10 years of experience in teaching related to teaching global digital media, including being awarded the Directors Teaching Prize for Innovative Teaching in 2020 at SOAS, University of London, where he previously worked as a Lecturer in Global Digital Media.
Research interests