Sarah Jeong (; born 1988) is an American journalist specializing in
information technology law and other technology-related topics. A member of the
editorial board
The editorial board is a group of experts, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take.
Mass media
At a newspaper, the editorial board usually consists of the editorial page editor, ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' from 2018 to 2019, she was formerly a senior writer for ''
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.
The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media ...
'' and a contributing editor for
Vice Media
Vice Media Group LLC is an American-Canadian digital media and broadcasting company. , the Vice Media Group included five main business areas: VICE.com (digital content); VICE STUDIOS (film and TV production) VICE TV (also known as VICELAND); ...
's ''
Motherboard'' website. She is the author of ''
The Internet of Garbage'', a non-fiction book about
online harassment
Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using Electronic communication network, electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially ...
.
Early life and education
Jeong was born in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
in 1988.
When she was three years old, her parents immigrated to New York as students and brought Sarah with them.
Raised as a
Southern Baptist, Jeong attended a religious high school near Los Angeles. She later told ''
Willamette Week
''Willamette Week'' (''WW'') is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture.
History
Early history
''Willame ...
'' that the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
helped her to counter religious dogmas of her upbringing such as
creation science
Creation science or scientific creationism is a pseudoscientific form of Young Earth creationism which claims to offer scientific arguments for certain literalist and inerrantist interpretations of the Bible. It is often presented without ove ...
, saying, "it's how I unbrainwashed myself".
Jeong studied philosophy at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, and received a law degree from
Harvard Law School, where she was editor of the ''Harvard Journal of Law & Gender''.
She received a
green card
A green card, known officially as a permanent resident card, is an identity document which shows that a person has permanent residency in the United States. ("The term 'lawfully admitted for permanent residence' means the status of having been ...
while attending college and became a
naturalized U.S. citizen
Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constit ...
in 2017.
Career
Jeong writes on law, technology and
internet culture
Internet culture is a culture based on the many way people have used computer networks and their use for communication, entertainment, business, and recreation. Some features of Internet culture include online communities, gaming, and social medi ...
.
She is a former senior writer for ''
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.
The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media ...
'' and previously served as a contributing editor for Vice Media's ''
Motherboard'' website, as well as writing articles for ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'', ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', and ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''.
From 2014 to 2015, Jeong and
Electronic Frontier Foundation activist Parker Higgins published an email newsletter called "5 Useful Articles" about
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
law and the Internet.
In 2015, Jeong covered the
Silk Road trial for ''Forbes''.
That same year, she published ''
The Internet of Garbage'', a non-fiction book on the threat of
online harassment
Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using Electronic communication network, electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially ...
and responses to it by media and online platforms.
The book discusses
active moderation and
community management
Community management or common-pool resource management is the management of a common resource or issue by a community through the collective action of volunteers and stakeholders. The resource managed can be either material or informational. Exa ...
strategies to improve online interactions.
In January 2016, Jeong posted a tweet caricaturing
Bernie Sanders's supporters as ''
Bernie Bro
''Bernie Bro'' (sometimes spelled ''Berniebro''), collectively ''Bernie Bros'', is a term coined in 2015 by Robinson Meyer of ''The Atlantic'' as a pejorative to describe young male supporters of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in the 2016 ...
s'' in response to online attacks against women and
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police br ...
advocates.
A campaign harassing Jeong ensued that lasted for weeks and included
rape threat
A rape threat is a threat made against another person of rape or sexual assault. Rape threats may often be made anonymously or online through the use of social media, and especially against social media influencers. These threats are often made a ...
s; it drove her to make her Twitter account private and take an unpaid leave from her job at ''Motherboard''.
Jeong was a
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
Poynter Fellow in Journalism in 2016. In 2017, she wrote about the
Trump travel ban
The Trump travel ban (labeled the "Muslim ban" by critics) denotes a series of executive actions taken by Donald Trump as President of the United States.
On January 20, 2021, newly-inaugurated president Joe Biden issued a proclamation revok ...
. The same year, ''Forbes'' named Jeong in its
"30 Under 30" list for media.
In August 2018, Jeong was hired by ''The New York Times'' to join its editorial board as lead writer on technology.
The hiring sparked a strongly negative reaction in conservative media, which highlighted derogatory
tweets about
white people
White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view.
Description of populations as ...
that Jeong had posted mostly in 2013 and 2014.
Critics characterized her tweets as being racist; Jeong released an apology,
saying that the tweets were meant to satirize
online harassment
Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using Electronic communication network, electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially ...
toward her as a woman of color.
Editors at ''The Verge'' defended Jeong, saying that the tweets had been disingenuously taken out of context
and comparing the episode to the harassment of women during the
Gamergate controversy
Gamergate or GamerGate (GG) was a loosely organized online misogyny, misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. It was conducted using the hashtag "# ...
.
In August 2019, Jeong left ''The New York Times''s editorial board, becoming an
opinion column
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
ist with the newspaper.
See also
*
Technology journalism
Technology journalism is the activity, or product, of journalists engaged in the preparation of written, visual, audio or multi-media material intended for dissemination through public media, focusing on technology-related subjects. Technology ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeong, Sarah
1988 births
Living people
American women journalists
Harvard Law School alumni
South Korean emigrants to the United States
The Verge
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Naturalized citizens of the United States
The New York Times people
Date of birth missing (living people)
American technology journalists
American writers of Korean descent
21st-century American women