Research
I am a media and communication scholar studying how digital platforms, media institutions, nonprofit and public organizations, and communication infrastructures shape public knowledge, access, trust, and communicative power across multilingual, intercultural, and transnational contexts.
My research spans platform governance, journalism, migration, political communication, and institutional communication. Across these areas, I ask how communication systems distribute visibility, credibility, access, and risk, especially when languages, communities, or institutions are unevenly represented.
I use quantitative, qualitative, computational, and mixed-method approaches, including statistical analysis, longitudinal datasets, computational text analysis, classifier audits, web scraping, interviews, ethnography, archival research, discourse analysis, and digital trace data.
Platforms, AI, and Governance
I examine how digital platforms govern speech, visibility, and access, particularly in multilingual and politically contested environments. My work focuses on AI-assisted content moderation, Trust & Safety, platform oversight, internet shutdowns, digital sovereignty, and the uneven implementation of platform rules across languages and regions.
Selected publication: From Detection to Counterspeech: Auditing AI Moderation and Fact-Checking Practices in Ethiopia’s Multilingual Online Sphere
A recurring question in this work is: who bears the cost when platform governance systems fail?
Journalism and Public Knowledge
I study how journalists, news organizations, and information institutions operate under political, technological, and economic pressure. My work examines journalist safety, fact-checking, immigrant and community journalism, press freedom, and the institutional conditions under which public knowledge is produced.
Selected publication: From Multidimensional Safety to Risk Ecologies: A Four-Coordinate Analysis of Journalist Exposure in Ethiopia, 1992–2024
I approach journalism not only as a profession, but as an institution that structures credibility, access, and public knowledge.
Migration and Intercultural Communication
I examine how communication changes across migration, diaspora, religious, and intercultural settings. My research focuses on identity, belonging, language, media use, and intergenerational relationships across national and cultural boundaries.
Selected publication: Faith, Displacement, and Intergenerational Relationships: A Communication Accommodation Theory Approach to the Ethiopian Orthodox Diaspora
This work connects my long-standing interest in transnational media with newer questions of intercultural communication, language access, and immigrant-serving institutions.
Political Communication and Transnational Publics
I study how political narratives, resources, identities, and influence move across borders through media and digital networks. My work examines diaspora politics, protest communication, digital fundraising, identity-based conflict, and the role of platforms in shaping political participation.
Selected publication: Crowdsourcing Rebellion: Digital Fundraising for Ethiopian Rebel Groups
Rather than treating political communication as nationally bounded, I focus on the networks through which political meaning and mobilization travel.
Nonprofit and Institutional Communication
I study how nonprofit and public institutions communicate with culturally and linguistically diverse communities, particularly under conditions of uncertainty, policy change, and institutional pressure. My interests include language access, public information, organizational trust, community outreach, framing, and the communication of complex policies and services.
Selected project: Strategic Communication and Immigration Enforcement: A Quantitative Content Analysis of Twin Cities Nonprofit Multi-Platform Digital Communication
This project examines how immigrant- and refugee-serving nonprofits frame immigration enforcement, target publics, mobilize action, and project organizational roles across digital platforms. It also extends my research toward nonprofit communication, public-sector communication, community engagement, and strategic communication.
Methods
My research is methodologically plural and driven by the research question.
I use quantitative methods such as statistical analysis, structured datasets, and longitudinal analysis; computational methods such as classifier auditing, web scraping, text analysis, and digital trace analysis; and qualitative methods including interviews, ethnography, discourse analysis, content analysis, and archival research.
Many of my projects combine these approaches to connect large-scale patterns with institutional processes and lived experience.
Current Research
AI Translation Infrastructure and Language Access
This developing project examines how global platform companies shape language access through AI translation infrastructure. Using Amharic and Afaan Oromo as an empirical case, it compares Google Translate and Meta SeamlessM4T while evaluating whether automated translation preserves semantic meaning, pragmatic force, institutional meaning, and actionable information. The broader project asks how uneven language support across platforms produces unequal communicative access.
My current work also extends these areas in several directions, including multilingual platform governance, Trust & Safety labor, immigrant and refugee information environments, journalist safety, nonprofit and institutional communication, and the relationship between AI systems and public communication.
I am also developing research on how immigrant and refugee communities evaluate public information related to government services, benefits, health systems, and immigration policy, with particular attention to trust, language access, and information quality.
Publications · Selected Journalism & Public Writing · Research Projects and Resources · GitHub