Sarah Oateshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-oates-umd/ is a scholar in the field of political communication and democratization. A major theme in her work is the way in which analysts can measure disinformation and propaganda as it travels through media systems. She has studied how traditional media and the internet can support or subvert democracy in places as diverse as Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Oates was designated a UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher in 2021. She is an affiliate professor in the UMD Department of Communication and the College of Information.

Oates has published many books, articles, chapters and papers on topics including how the internet can challenge dictatorship, how election coverage varies in different countries and how national media systems cover terrorism in distinctive ways. Her latest book, “Seeing Red: Russian Propaganda and American News,” is co-written with Gordon Neil Ramsay.

The recipient of several fellowships and research awards, Oates has been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a Fulbright scholar in Russia. She is a co-investigator for the Maryland Democracy Initiative.

Oates has taught undergraduates and graduate courses, as well as supervising doctoral dissertations in political communication with topics ranging from U.S. campaign coverage, how foreign propaganda penetrates domestic media systems, journalistic norms, to online political mobilization in Ukraine. Her current work focuses on how political narratives travel through media ecosystems, analyzing why some stories gain more attention than others from audiences. This includes work on how Donald Trump gained huge public attention via the media in the 2016 election. Click here to download.

Before embarking on her academic career, Oates was a journalist who published in outlets ranging from the Orlando Sentinel to The New York Times. She has lived, studied and worked in Scotland and Russia.