Cameron Hickey
Two decades documenting how the world works.Now building the instruments to measure and repair it.
Now
Leading NCoC, where the current focus is what happens to civic information as people start asking AI systems the questions they used to ask a search engine — measured directly by the Civic AI Audit.
Also: rebuilding the researcher access that platforms dismantled, following the Knight-Georgetown Better Access framework, and scaling the American Conversation Project, launched to get Americans talking about what the country means at 250 and now growing well past the anniversary.
One career, two acts
National Civic Health Report Card
The first national read on America's civic health in over a decade.
Civic AI Audit
Grading what chatbots tell Americans about their own government.
Civic Language Explorer & Workbench
The words we use for democracy don't land the way we think they do.
American Conversation Project
Infrastructure for Americans to talk to each other on purpose.
CandiData
Every elected official in America, mapped to the accounts they actually post from.
Civic Health Index
A national instrument panel for how civic life is actually doing.
CivicLens
Software that watches what the platforms won't show you.
Contrast Agent
Looking for the machinery behind inauthentic activity.
The junk news investigation
Series Producer
What is the NewsTracker?
Producer, Writer
The Nuclear Option
Producer, Cinematographer
NewsTracker
The newsroom tool that turned a story into a discipline.
15 Years of Terror
Producer, Cinematographer
Nuclear Meltdown Disaster
Producer, Cinematographer
Wake Up, Benghazi!
Producer, Cinematographer
Lawrence Lessig's March to End Corruption
Producer, Cinematographer
Inside Animal Minds: Dogs and Super Senses
Producer, Cinematographer
Inside Animal Minds: Who's the Smartest?
Producer, Cinematographer
Why Planes Vanish
Producer, Cinematographer
DIY Dialysis
Director, Producer, Cinematographer
Homeless in High Tech's Shadow
Producer, Cinematographer
Manhunt: Boston Bombers
Producer, Cinematographer
Megastorm Aftermath
Producer, Cinematographer
Mind of a Rampage Killer
Producer, Cinematographer
Citizens Hold Gun Company's Owner Accountable
Producer, Cinematographer
Hurricane Sandy and a People's Relief
Producer, Cinematographer
United States of ALEC
Cinematographer
Voter ID Laws: Who Doesn't Have Photo ID?
Producer, Cinematographer
Alan Alda is Trying to Find the Next Carl Sagan
Producer, Cinematographer
Will 'Bionic Bodies' Offer High-Tech Hope to the Disabled?
Producer, Cinematographer
Chimpanzee Testing: Is It the Beginning of the End?
Producer, Cinematographer
How Tough Is It to Build a Dirty Bomb?
Producer, Cinematographer
Internet Voting: Will Democracy or Hackers Win?
Producer, Cinematographer
Are U.S. Nuclear Plants Ready for a Fukushima-Like Meltdown?
Producer, Cinematographer
In Austin, Charged Up About Smart Power
Producer, Cinematographer
Spare Parts for Humans: Tissue Engineers Aim for Lab-Grown Limbs, Lungs and More
Producer, Cinematographer
Is Technology Wiring Teens to Have Better Brains?
Producer, Cinematographer
Statistical Analysis to Rank Baseball Players
Producer, Cinematographer
Divergent Questioning in 8th Grade Math
Producer, Cinematographer
Group Dynamics in 3rd Grade Math
Producer, Cinematographer
Think-Pair-Share to Practice Simplifying Expressions
Producer, Cinematographer
Time Management in 7th Grade Science
Producer, Cinematographer
Fragile Waterways
Producer, Cinematographer
Going Green New York
Producer, Cinematographer
Your Voice Your Story
Producer, Cinematographer
A: This Computer Could Defeat You at 'Jeopardy!' Q: What is Watson?
Producer, Cinematographer
Aiming for Excellence: 3rd Grade Math
Producer, Cinematographer
Aiming for Excellence: 8th Grade Math
Producer, Cinematographer
Former Factory Town in Iowa Eyes Green Future, Improved Livability
Producer, Cinematographer
Mississippi Town Uses Stimulus for Mass Transit
Producer, Cinematographer
Swing State
Director, Cinematographer
Garlic and Watermelons
Director, Producer, Cinematographer
Selected work
All projects →CivicLens
Software that watches what the platforms won't show you.
Civic AI Audit
Grading what chatbots tell Americans about their own government.
CandiData
Every elected official in America, mapped to the accounts they actually post from.
American Conversation Project
Infrastructure for Americans to talk to each other on purpose.
National Civic Health Report Card
The first national read on America's civic health in over a decade.
Civic Health Index
A national instrument panel for how civic life is actually doing.
Civic Language Explorer & Workbench
The words we use for democracy don't land the way we think they do.
About
Civic technology executive who builds the data infrastructure democracy runs on. As CEO of the National Conference on Citizenship — a nonprofit chartered by Congress — he leads the research, product, and engineering teams that measure civic health and monitor the information environment at national scale. Five production platforms in three and a half years.
He founded the Algorithmic Transparency Institute and created Junkipedia, now CivicLens, a social listening platform used by The Washington Post, Reuters, the Financial Times, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, the Carter Center, and Amnesty International — whose TikTok research with the institute became a formal regulatory complaint in France under the Digital Services Act.
Before that he spent fifteen years as an Emmy Award–winning producer and cinematographer for PBS NewsHour, NOVA, and The New York Times. He moved from documenting the erosion of the information commons to building tools to defend it.
Get in touch
For speaking, press, collaboration, or anything about the work above.