Kathryn C. Montgomery
Professor Emerita
School of Communication
American University
Research Director and Senior Strategist
Center for Digital Democracy
Thursday, May 13, 2021 • 12:00-1:00pm PT
“Understanding and Regulating the Commercial Surveillance System”
Kathryn C. Montgomery’s research examines the role of media in society, the politics of entertainment television, youth engagement with digital media, advertising and marketing practices, and the future of digital media in the era of big data. Her work has framed national public policy debates on a range of critical media issues.
She is the author of Target: Prime Time – Advocacy Groups and the Struggle over Entertainment Television (Oxford University Press, 1989); and Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet (MIT Press, 2007). As cofounder and President of the nonprofit Center for Media Education, she led a coalition of advocacy groups in a series of successful media policy campaigns on behalf of children’s privacy on the Internet. She was also founding director of the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Communication at American University. Montgomery is currently research director and senior strategist for the Center for Digital Democracy.
Her journal articles, chapters, and reports include: “Youth and Digital Democracy: Intersections of Practice, Policy, and the Marketplace” (in Civic Life Online Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth, MIT Press, 2008); “Balancing the Needs of Young People in the Digital Marketplace” (Journal of Children and Media, 2011); “The New Threat of Digital Advertising.” (with Jeff Chester, Sonya Grier, and Lori Dorfman, Pediatric Clinics of North America, 2012); “The Digital Food Marketing Landscape: Challenges for Researchers” (with Sonya A. Grier, Jeff Chester, and Lori Dorfman, in Advances in Communication Research to Reduce Childhood Obesity, Springer, 2013); “Data Protection for Youth in the Digital Age” (with Jeff Chester, Eur. Data Prot. L. Rev., 2015); “Children’s Privacy in the Big Data Era: Research Opportunities” (with Jeff Chester and Tijana Milosevic, Pediatrics, 2017); “The Role of Digital Marketing in Political Campaigns” (with Jeff Chester, Internet Policy Review, 2017); “The Influence Industry: Contemporary Digital Politics in the United States” (with Jeff Chester, in partnership with Tactical Technology Collective’s Our Data Our Selves project, 2018); “Health Wearables: Ensuring Fairness, Preventing Discrimination, and Promoting Equity in an Emerging Internet-of-Things Environment” (with Jeff Chester and Katharina Kopp, Journal of Information Policy, 2018); “The Digital Commercialisation of US Politics—2020 and Beyond” (with Jeff Chester, Internet Policy Review, 2019); “Big Data and the Transformation of Food and Beverage Marketing: Undermining Efforts to Reduce Obesity?” (with Jeff Chester, Laura Nixon, Lillian Levy, and Lori Dorfman, Critical Public Health, 2019); “Data Governance for Young People in the Commercialized Digital Environment” (with Jeff Chester and Katharina Kopp, United Nations Children’s Fund [UNICEF], 2020); and “Big Food, Big Tech, and the Global Childhood Obesity Pandemic” (with Jeff Chester and Katharina Kopp, Berkeley Media Studies Group/Color of Change/UnidosUS/Center for Digital Democracy, 2021).
Co-Presenter:
Jeff Chester, Former Investigative Reporter & Filmmaker
Executive Director, Center for Digital Democracy
Cofounder, National Campaign for Freedom of Expression
Introduction by Bryce Newell, Assistant Professor of Media Law and Policy, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon
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