CJ Reynolds is a researcher of digital culture, especially the intersection of platforms, user-generated content, and accountability. As a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication and Journalism at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Reynolds focuses on the political and creative possibilities of user-generated content. Reynolds’ dissertation research examines the phenomenon of First Amendment auditors, creators in the United States who provoke and record encounters with police designed to simultaneously exercise their First Amendment rights and create entertaining social media content. Reynolds’ work has been published in New Media & Society, Television & New Media, and Cultural Studies.

Research Interests

User-generated content

Policing transparency and accountability

Citizen journalism

Digital culture

Selected Publications

 Reynolds, C. and Hallinan, B. “The Haunting of GeoCities and the Politics of Access Control on the Early Web.” New Media & Society, 2021.

Reynolds, C. “Mischievous Infrastructure: Tactical Secrecy through Infrastructural Friction in Police Video Systems.” Cultural Studies special issue on Infrastructural Politics, 2021.

Hallinan, B. and Reynolds, C. “The Movie Theater as Platform: Credit Cards, Loyalty Programs, and other Media of Digitization.” Television & New Media, 2021. [Joint first author.]

Awards and Prizes: Recipient of the Hebrew University President's Scholarship for Outstanding Doctoral Students; Top Student Paper in Philosophy, Theory, and Critique Division at the International Communication Association Annual Conference, 2019.