Darren Linvill, professor of communication and co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University, has been named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The fellowship provides $200,000 and will support Linvill’s work with the Media Forensics Hub to understand online deception and foreign malign influence, as well as educate people on how to identify deception and inauthentic information online.
“It is wonderful to see the efforts of Dr. Linvill result in this recognition and support from the Carnegie Corporation,” said Clemson University Provost Cole Smith. “His research to not only uncover online deception but to also help educate the public about it is a great example of how Clemson University faculty are fulfilling Clemson’s land-grant mission across disciplines.”
“This prestigious fellowship recognizes Dr. Linvill’s critical work to deepen our understanding of misinformation in the digital age,” said Leslie Hossfeld, dean of the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences. “His research empowers individuals to make informed online decisions. In doing so, it fosters and builds more resilient communities worldwide. It is an outstanding accomplishment for Dr. Linvill, the Department of Communication and the Media Forensics Hub.”
Linvill said the support from the fellowship will allow him to focus on the prevalence of foreign malign influence online, the tactics and strategies behind it, the impact it has on society and how AI is changing the landscape of online influence. He plans to write a book about his research.
“Digital deception has a huge impact on our society, affecting how people interact with and understand the world around them,” Linvill said. “It is important to make this research accessible to both academic and public audiences, so that people can understand the impact of the media and information they consume every day.”
Founded in 2015, the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program provides the largest stipend of its kind for research in the humanities and social sciences. Linvill was one of 24 researchers named to the 2026 class, selected from more than 380 nominations from across the country.
Linvill joined the Clemson faculty in 2007 and started studying social media in 2010. In addition to his academic publications, he has written for The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Lawfare and Rolling Stone. He has also been interviewed by many media outlets across the globe, including the BBC, Bloomberg, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, NPR, ABC and NBC. He earned his Ph.D. from Clemson and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Wake Forest University.
About the Department of Communication
The Department of Communication is a part of the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences. Established in July 2016, CBSHS is a 21st-century, land-grant college that combines work in nine disciplines – communication; nursing; parks, recreation and tourism management; political science; psychology; public health sciences; sociology, anthropology and criminal justice – to further its mission of “building people and communities” in South Carolina and beyond.
About the Media Forensics Hub
Housed in the Watt Family Innovation Center, the Media Forensics Hub is a multidisciplinary group of researchers that study all aspects of online deception with the goal of building society’s resilience to the dangers it poses. The Hub was started in 2020 with support from the South Carolina Research Authority. In 2022, it received a $3.8 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which allowed the Hub to hire additional faculty as well as graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.
The Hub is known for its Spot the Troll quiz, now in its second iteration, which allows people to test their own ability to spot online deception and inauthentic social media accounts. The Hub was also involved in a collaboration with several other universities to help fight online scams that target older adults. That project received $5 million in funding from the National Science Foundation.
