Rebecca MacKinnon

Rebecca MacKinnon is veteran journalist who has enthusiastically embraced the new world of weblogs and participatory media. She is co-founder of Global Voices Online, an international online citizens’ media project housed at the Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Since becoming a Berkman fellow in mid-2004, Rebecca has written and spoken extensively about the future of global participatory media and was primary organizer of the Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility conference at Harvard in January 2005. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Rebecca also speaks and writes frequently on issues related to the internet in China. Her consulting company, RConversation, LLC, helps clients build public trust by engaging in online conversations and community-building with their audiences and customers. Rebecca’s personal weblog can be found at RConversation.com.

Before joining the Berkman Center, Rebecca studied the relationship between international news and weblogs as a media fellow at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. As part of her research project there she founded a weblog on North Korea, North Korea zone.

Rebecca worked for CNN in Northeast Asia for over a decade, serving as CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 1998-2001 and as Tokyo Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 2001-03. She has also covered major news events in North and South Korea, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

Before joining CNN in Beijing in 1992, Rebecca studied as a Fulbright scholar in Taiwan, where she also worked as a freelance journalist for a number of publications, including Newsweek. Originally from Tempe, Arizona, Rebecca graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, where she majored in Government with a focus on international relations. As a child she lived with her parents and brother in Beijing, New Delhi, and Hong Kong.