Peter Andringa

Peter Andringa

News • Technology • Policy

Education

Master of Public Policy
Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Pursued a broad range of courses in philosophy, political science, law, and policy evaluation, with a particular focus on comparative technology policy, media ecosystems, and free expression.

Oxford, UK
Sept. 2022 - August 2023

MSc, Social Science of the Internet
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

Studied platform economics, internet law, social dynamics, and digital media, receiving a distinction on a thesis studying the relationships mediated by journalistic email newsletters.

Oxford, UK
Sept. 2021 - Aug. 2022

BA, Journalism & Computer Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Graduated with Highest Distinction, double-majoring in journalism and computer science with a minor in entrepreneurship. Relevant coursework includes: Software Architecture, Interactive Journalism, Big Data Ethics, UX design, Multimedia Storytelling and Emerging Technologies.

Chapel Hill, NC
Aug. 2016 - May 2020

Robertson Scholar
Duke University

Joined a selective scholarship program as a “dual citizen” of both UNC and Duke, studying and living at both schools. Coursework: Algorithmic Journalism, Politics and Media, Fact-Checking and Profile Writing.

Durham, NC
Aug. 2016 - May 2020

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Software Engineering

I attended a selective STEM high school, graduating with a concentration in software engineering.

Alexandria, VA
Sept. 2012 - June 2016
Work Experience

The Financial Times
Graphics Journalist, Visual Investigations

Worked on long-term investigative projects with computational reporting methods and open-source intelligence, using visual storytelling methods to share the results with readers.

London, UK
Sept 2023-

The Washington Post
Newsroom Engineer, Elections

Wrote software as a hybrid journalist-engineer covering data-driven stories like the Olympics, COVID-19, and the U.S. elections. Designed new visualizations, created stable data pipelines, and built cloud infrastructures serving millions of users.

Washington DC
May 2020-Sept. 2021

Reese News Innovation Lab
Research Fellow

Led software development and UX research projects studying data visualization and AR/VR experiences for news, building internal prototypes and projects for partner organizations like The Washington Post.

Chapel Hill, NC
Jan. 2019-May 2020

The Guardian
Data Reporting Contributor

Built data pipelines and results pages for the 2018 U.S. midterms and 2020 primaries with the Visuals desk, writing data stories about climate change, campaign finance, and gun violence between the two elections.

London, UK
Sept. 2018-May 2020

The Wall Street Journal
Graphics Intern

Reported on corporate news, scraped data, performed statistical analyses, and designed front-page graphics for the paper's Business and Finance section both online and in print.

New York, NY
June-Aug. 2019

NBC
Multimedia Journalism Intern

Produced videos, graphics, and digital investigations for NBC News, developing reusable data analysis tools and designing interactive storytelling components across 15 owned-and-operated local websites.

New York, NY
June-Aug. 2018

The Delta Center
Media Intern

Helped run teacher training workshops for the National Endowment for the Humanities: planning logistics, making photos and videos, and designing digital and printed marketing.

Cleveland, MS
June-Aug. 2017

CustomInk
Software Engineering Intern, eCommerce

Rebuilt a critical inventory management system for the eCommerce engineering team, improving load times and reliability of a system processing tens of thousands of transactions per day.

Fairfax, VA
June-Aug. 2016

nvite
Software Engineering Intern

Architected, built and launched a new “communities” feature for the start-up events platform, which was eventually cited as a key reason for their eventual acquisition by Eventbrite in 2017.

Washington, DC
June-Aug. 2015

3advance
Engineering Intern

Washington, DC
June-Aug. 2014

SocialTables
Product Engineering Intern

Washington, DC
June-Aug. 2013
Awards, Honors, & Fellowships

Rhodes Scholar
Virginia & Exeter, 2021

Robertson Scholar
UNC/Duke, 2016

Quarrell Read Prize
Exeter College, 2022

Graduate Affiliate, CITAP
UNC, 2022

Honors Laureate
Honors Carolina, 2020

Outstanding Journalism Research
Duke, 2020

Phi Beta Kappa
UNC, 2018

Kappa Tau Alpha
UNC, 2018

News Publications

2020 Elections: Live Results
Data, Graphics

I designed, architected, and built multiple parts of the Post’s election night coverage, including data pipelines, vote modeling, data visualizations, and integration across our native apps.

The Washington Post
Nov. 2020

2020 Elections: Tracking the Early Vote
Data, Engineering

I built a system to aggregate early voting and turnout data from all 50 states, analyzing and visualizing results for this tracker that ran for a month and appeared on the front page of both web and print editions.

The Washington Post
Oct. 2020

Teachers for Bernie, Retirees for Trump: Who's backing whom in 2020
Data, Graphics

I built a database to help Guardian reporters analyze campaign finance filings from presidential hopefuls, then used that data to write multiple stories about donor demographics.

The Guardian
Oct. 2019

Gun violence has sharply declined in the Bay Area. What happened?
Data, Graphics

I led design, development and data visualization for this story on gun violence in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Guardian
June 2019

2018 US Midterms: Live Results
Data, Engineering

I designed and built portions of The Guardian's elections stack, including backend data parsing, a staging environment, front-end components, and post-election graphics analyzing the results.

The Guardian
Nov. 2018

Facebook, the New Frontier of Political Ads
Writing, Interactive

An investigative story and interactive about the habits of political advertisers on Facebook, using scraped data even before the release of the company's Ad Archive API.

NBC Stations
July 2018

"Things Have Got to Change": Affordable Housing in Chapel Hill
Writing

A profile of Yvette Matthews, an activist for affordable housing amid soaring rents in Chapel Hill.

IndyWeek
April 2018
Research Publications

Email Newsletters and the Changing Journalist-Audience Relationship

Conducted a mixed-methods research study exploring the growth of independent email newsletters as a journalistic form and the platform’s impacts on both writers and readers.

Oxford Internet Institute
Aug. 2022

Escaping Flatland: The user experience of data visualizations in augmented reality

My undergraduate thesis studied the user experience of augmented reality journalism, designing my own AR graphics and conducting user tests to create guidelines for future designs.

Reese Innovation Lab
April 2020

Local News on Facebook: Assessing the Critical Information Needs

Created and analyzed a database of more than 300,000 local news stories distributed on Facebook, to examine what types of local news are produced and shared on the platform.

Nieman Lab
Sept. 2019

“How is Social Media Gatekeeping Different?”: A multi-platform comparative analysis

Scraped data across years of print, web, and social media stories from the New York Times to examine how different types of news are prioritized and spread across each platform.

Association of Internet Researchers
Oct. 2018
Volunteer & Leadership Experience

Middle Common Room, Exeter College Oxford
President (2023-); Social Secretary (2022)

Worked closely with fellows, participated in the College's governing body, planned social events, and supported the community of graduate students in the Middle Common Room.

Oxford, UK
Oct. 2021 - Sept. 2023

Rhodes Technology and Society Forum
Co-Chair, Networked Society

Selected speakers, led planning, and moderated panels in the “Networked Society” track of the Rhodes Trust’s first annual conference on technology ethics and governance.

London, UK
Oct. 2021 - Sept. 2023

UNC Faculty Council
Student Representative

Served as a liaison between faculty and students on campus policy issues, leading student input on a redesign of general eduction curriculum in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Chapel Hill, NC
Sept. 2017 - May 2020

Robertson Community Council
Co-Director

Served as a student voice to the Robertson Scholars program leadership and board of directors.

Durham, NC
Sept. 2016 - May 2018

TEDxUNC
Director of Marketing

Chapel Hill, NC
Sept. 2016 - Feb. 2018

UNC Student Government
Academic Affairs & First Year Council

Chapel Hill, NC
Sept. 2016 - May. 2018