Dr Felix M. Simon is a (political) communication researcher and Research Fellow in AI and Digital News at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Before joining us, he was a doctoral student at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), where he is a Research Associate.

His work looks at the implications of a changing news and information environment for democratic discourse and the functioning of democracy. Since 2019, his work has focused on various aspects of AI in the news and the public sphere, with a special emphasis on its use and reception, the shifting power dynamics between the news and the technology sector, and AI’s role in misinformation and democracy.

Felix’s doctoral research sought to understand the structural implications of artificial intelligence, including forms of generative AI, for news organisations’ gatekeeping processes—the production and distribution of news—and the public arena. His doctoral project was generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust and two OII-Dieter Schwarz Foundation Fellowship awards and he has won additional competitive grants from the Minderoo-Oxford Challenge Fund, the Tow Center at Columbia University, Balliol College, among others, for this research on AI, news, and information. 

He was a Knight News Innovation Fellow at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism (2021-2024) and is an affiliate at the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a former journalist, he regularly writes and comments on technology, media, and politics for various international outlets (for an overview of recent news coverage, see here).

Felix has published widely, among others, in New Media & Society, Digital Journalism, Journalism Studies, Journalism Practice, The Information Society, International Communication Gazette, Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, International Journal of Press/Politics, the International Handbook of Internet Research and Transformative Works and Cultures and has co-authored various research reports on topics ranging from innovation in the media to COVID-19 misinformation. 

He has presented work at various conferences, including ICA and the International Journalism Festival and is an experienced moderator of academic and industry panels. His research and commentary has appeared, among others, in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Politico, Financial Times, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Nature, New Statesman, Business Insider, WIRED, CNN, and the BBC. He has given evidence to inquiries of the UK House of Lords and House of Commons, press regulator IMPRESS, and the United Nations, and frequently advises media organisations, companies, as well as non-government organisations on the topics of his research. 

In May 2023, he was awarded the Hans Bausch Media Prize by German public broadcaster SWR in cooperation with the Institute for Media Studies at the University of Tübingen for his work on AI, news, and technological dependency. 

His past and current research focus on AI in the news, the political economy of AI and news, political communication and democracy in the digital age, as well as the changing nature of journalism and the media in the 21st century. In addition, he takes an active interest in the future of mis- and disinformation studies and the role of AI and technology in democracy.  

He holds a DPhil in Communication from the University of Oxford’s Internet Institute (with distinction), an MSc in Social Science of the Internet from the OII, and a BA in Film and Media Studies from Goethe-University Frankfurt. During his previous studies, he was funded by the journalism programme of the German Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation. He is currently a fellow at the Salzburg Global Seminar and an Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and sits on the Advisory Committee of the Center for News, Technology & Innovation. 

A full list of his publications can be found on Google Scholar and more about this work can be found on his personal website.