Dylan Matthews is an American journalist. He is currently a correspondent for '' Vox'', an online media venture.

Professional life

Early writing

In 2004, at the age of 14, Matthews launched a personal blog on politics and other issues under the name ''minipundit''. Matthews graduated from Hanover High School in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 2008. He went on to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he studied social and political philosophy, and also wrote for ''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...

''.

''The Washington Post''

Between June 2013 and January 2014, Matthews blogged at the ''Wonkblog'' section of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', focusing on taxes, budgets, and other elements of US economic and fiscal policy. In October 2013, ''Wonkblog'' journalist

Ezra Klein Ezra Klein (born May 10, 1984) is an American journalist, political analyst, ''New York Times'' columnist, and the host of ''The Ezra Klein Show'' podcast. He is a co-founder of '' Vox'' and formerly served as the website's editor-at-large. He ha ...

and Matthews spearheaded the launch of "Know More", a new blog under ''The Washington Post'' targeted at replicating the viral reach of popular websites such as

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

. The project's success gained Matthews recognition internally in ''The Washington Post'' and externally. Matthews won ''The Washington Post'' "Publisher's Award" of October 2013 for his work on Know More. A leaked internal memo from ''The Washington Post'' publisher

Katharine Weymouth Katharine Bouchage Weymouth (born May 28, 1966) is an American lawyer and businesswoman who from 2008 to 2014 was publisher of ''The Washington Post'' and chief executive officer of Washington Post Media. Early life and education Weymouth grew u ...

announcing the award stated: When interviewed about the strategy of the project, Matthews suggested it was primarily about publishing content that would be shared and virally-distributed on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

: "The most obvious similarity o BuzzFeed and Upworthy">Upworthy.html" ;"title="o BuzzFeed and Upworthy">o BuzzFeed and Upworthythere is in targeting Facebook rather than Twitter. If you look at any site that does well socially, there's just a handful that get their traffic from Twitter. Journalists sometimes forget this because we tend to really like Twitter." Responding to negative comparisons with BuzzFeed, Matthews said: "It really irks me when people act like they're better than BuzzFeed, which is an extremely effective journalism outfit—much better than most at being honestly what people are looking for." Klein also rejected direct comparisons to "

clickbait Clickbait is a text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, being typically deceptive, sensationalized, or otherwise misl ...

", arguing: "There's this idea that there's this thing called click-bait that everybody wants to click on. If I could figure out what that is and get people to click on good content—my god, what a wonderful thing!"

Vox.com

In late January 2014, Klein and Matthews announced that they, along with Matthew Yglesias and Melissa Bell, would be starting a new online media venture with

Vox Media Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''SB Nation'' (a sports blog network founded in 2005 by ...

. The venture, named Vox.com, launched in early April 2014, and Matthews wrote his first article for the site in April 2014. The scientific research Matthews reported on in that article turned out to be fraudulent, and 13 months later he wrote a ''

mea culpa ' is a Latin phrase that means "my fault" or "my mistake" and is an acknowledgement of having done wrong. The expression is used also as an admission of having made a mistake that should have been avoided, and may be accompanied by beating the br ...

'' article about the fraud and how he was deceived by it. Matthews leads the Vox section Future Perfect, dedicated to

effective altruism Effective altruism is a philosophical and social movement that advocates "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis". People who pursue the goals of effective altruism, c ...

Other writing

Matthews has also written for ''

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...

'' and ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'' and has appeared on the now defunct

Bloggingheads.tv Bloggingheads.tv (sometimes abbreviated "bhtv") is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast onl ...

. His writings have covered

basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...

immigration policy Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...

, among other topics.

Reception

Matthews was listed as one of "five rising stars under 25" in ''

Politics Daily ''Politics Daily'' was an American political journalism web site launched by AOL News in April 2009. It described itself as a "political news magazine for the general reader." Melinda Henneberger, a former ''Newsweek'' and ''New York Times'' repo ...

'' by Katie Glueck in 2010. Matthews is noted for his use of

data visualization Data and information visualization (data viz or info viz) is an interdisciplinary field that deals with the graphic representation of data and information. It is a particularly efficient way of communicating when the data or information is num ...

s in his publications. Charity evaluator and

advocate

GiveWell GiveWell is an American non-profit charity assessment and effective altruism-focused organization. GiveWell focuses primarily on the cost-effectiveness of the organizations that it evaluates, rather than traditional metrics such as the percent ...

published a conversation with Matthews from when he was still working for ''The Washington Post'' Wonkblog section. In 2016, the

Autistic Self Advocacy Network The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit advocacy organization run by and for individuals on the autism spectrum. ASAN advocates for the inclusion of autistic people in decisions that affect them, including: le ...

recognized Matthews as the most outstanding autistic journalist of the year by presenting him with the Harriet McBryde Johnson Award for Non-Fiction Writing.

Personal life

In 2017, Matthews donated his kidney for transplantation. He described the experience in a Vox article, in which he also encouraged readers to consider live kidney donation. Matthews identifies with the

movement and is a member of

Giving What We Can Giving What We Can (GWWC) is an effective altruism-associated organisation whose members pledge to give at least 10% of their income to effective charities. It was founded at Oxford University in 2009 by the philosopher Toby Ord, physician-in- ...

, a community of people who have pledged to give at least 10% of their income to effective charities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Dylan Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American journalists American male bloggers American bloggers American male non-fiction writers American political writers People on the autism spectrum People associated with effective altruism The Harvard Crimson people Vox (website) people