Dr Dani Madrid-Morales (he/him)
BA, MA (Autònoma Barcelona); MA (FU Berlin); PhD (CityU Hong Kong)
School of Information, Journalism and Communication
Lecturer in Journalism and Global Communication
MA Global Journalism Programme Lead
+44 114 222 2508
Full contact details
School of Information, Journalism and Communication
C638
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
- Profile
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Dani joined the school in April 2022 as Lecturer in Journalism & Global Communication. Prior to joining The University of Sheffield, he was an Assistant Professor in Journalism at the Valenti School of Communication, University of Houston (2018-2022), and a Hong Kong PhD Fellow in the Department of Media and Communication at City University of Hong Kong (2013-2018).
Before starting his academic career, Dani worked as a journalist for 15 years in his hometown, Barcelona. He first reported on sports for local radio stations and news websites, and then joined the newsroom of Televisió de Catalunya (TV3), where he worked as producer and news editor, covering foreign affairs.
Dani is an active member of the International Communication Association’s Global Communication and Social Change Division, where he currently serves as Vice-Chair. He is also a member of the editorial boards of the academic journals, African Journalism Studies and the Annals of the International Communication Association.
Within the School of Information, Journalism and Communication, Dani is the Programme Lead for MA Global Journalism, and is Co-Lead of the Disinformation, Information Integrity and Literacies (DIIL) Research Cluster.
- Research interests
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Dani studies global political communication and international media flows, with a focus on the Global South. He has published extensively on the impact of global Chinese media on local journalistic cultures in English and French speaking Africa and studied the multiple ways audiences in East and Southern Africa engage with news and entertainment on Chinese media. His work on this area has been discussed in some of the world’s leading news organisations including BBC World Service, CNN International, The Economist, Yomiuri Shimbun, and Los Angeles Times.
More recently, Dani has been interested in studying the geopolitics of disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly from an audience perspective. His latest book on this topic, co-edited with Herman Wasserman, is Disinformation in the Global South (Wiley). As part of his work in this area, Dani has worked with both the public sector and civil society organisations to counter the threats posed by political disinformation.
In his research, Dani employs a wide range of methodological approaches. He is actively involved in exploring how the use of computational methods can help researchers gain insights from media texts, particularly in the Global South. As part of these efforts, Dani is working on the development of a live corpus of digital news that includes hundreds of media organizations in three dozen African countries. Researchers interested in using content from the database can explore this freely available dataset and contact Dani for more details.
Dani is interested in supervising doctoral students in the following areas:
- Political Communication and Large Language Models (LLMs)
- China-Africa media relations
- Disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Audiences and global media flows
- Computational approaches to the study of news
Currently, Dani is supervising the following doctoral students:
- Anran Ju, China's Digital Public Diplomacy towards UK and Turkey
- Qiang Zhang, Chinese Media's News Coverage of "Islamic State"
- Xiao Cheng, Data Journalism and Journalistic Autonomy in China
- Wisnu P. Utomo, Digital Transformations and Hybridisation in Indonesian Journalism
- Publications
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Books
- Comunicación y poder en Asia oriental. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.
Edited books
Journal articles
- ‘Too aggressive’ or ‘slay queens’: gendered attacks, threats and disinformation in Kenyan elections. The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs and Policy Studies.
- Are Hong Kongese still bicultural? Six preregistered replications of the cultural priming effect in Hong Kong. Japanese Psychological Research. View this article in WRRO
- Exploring audience agency in countering misinformation. International Journal of Communication, 19, 2382-2406. View this article in WRRO
- What is media literacy and why does it matter? Perspectives of Senegalese media professionals. Journal of African Media Studies, 17(1), 55-72. View this article in WRRO
- Beyond “emergencies?" reporting on humanitarian issues around the world. Digital Journalism. View this article in WRRO
- Stakeholder perceptions of regulatory responses to misinformation in Kenya and Senegal. Journalism, 26(7), 1488-1507. View this article in WRRO
- Cynical or Critical Media Consumers? Exploring the Misinformation Literacy Needs of South African Youth. African Journalism Studies, 45(4), 327-345.
- Media literacy and fact-checking as proactive and reactive responses to misinformation in Kenya and Senegal. African Journalism Studies. View this article in WRRO
- The geopolitics of disinformation: worldviews, media consumption and the adoption of global strategic disinformation narratives. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 36(3). View this article in WRRO
- A computational mapping of online news deserts on African news websites. Media and Communication, 11(3). View this article in WRRO
- Global Chinese media and a decade of change. International Communication Gazette, 85(1), 3-14.
- ¿Se acumula capital social en Asia Oriental con el uso de las redes sociales? Inferencia causal estadística con datos del Asian Barometer Survey. Revista Internacional de Sociología, 80(4).
- How effective are Chinese media in shaping audiences’ attitudes towards China? A survey analysis in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Online Media and Global Communication, 0(0).
- Online political engagement, cognitive skills and engagement with misinformation: evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States. Online Information Review.
- Social media, misinformation, and age inequality in online political engagement. Journal of Information Technology & Politics.
- Who is Responsible for Stopping the Spread of Misinformation? Examining Audience Perceptions of Responsibilities and Responses in Six Sub-Saharan African Countries. Digital Journalism, 10(5), 679-697.
- Who set the narrative? Assessing the influence of Chinese global media on news coverage of COVID-19 in 30 African countries. Global Media and China, 6(2), 129-151. View this article in WRRO
- Why are Politically Active People Avoided in Countries with Collectivistic Culture? A Cross-Cultural Experiment. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 52(4), 388-405.
- Disruptions and transformations of digital media in Africa: An interdisciplinary overview. Journal of African Media Studies, 13(1), 3-16.
- Motivations for sharing misinformation: a comparative study in six Sub-Saharan African countries. International Journal of Communication, 15(2021), 1200-1219. View this article in WRRO
- Is it still a man’s world? Social media news use and gender inequality in online political engagement. Information, Communication & Society, 24(3), 381-399.
- Using Computational Text Analysis Tools to Study African Online News Content. African Journalism Studies, 41(4), 68-82.
- Diversifying Voice, Democratizing the News? A Content Analysis of Citizen News Sources in Spanish-language International Broadcasting. Journalism Studies, 21(8), 1076-1092.
- Economic Downturns and Hardline Public Opinion. Social Science Quarterly, 101(1), 309-324.
- An Exploratory Study of “Fake News” and Media Trust in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. African Journalism Studies, 40(1), 107-123.
- Narratives of Contemporary Africa on China Global Television Network’s Documentary Series Faces of Africa. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 53(6), 917-931.
- How Influential Are Chinese Media in Africa? An Audience Analysis in Kenya and South Africa. International Journal of Communication, 12, 2212-2231.
- Chinese Media Engagement in South Africa. Journalism Studies, 19(8), 1218-1235.
- China y medios de comunicación. La internacionalización de los medios de comunicación chinos: un estudio de la producción periodística en CGTN AFRICA. Communication Papers, 6(11), 51-69. View this article in WRRO
- Identity and pleasure: the politics of Indonesian screen culture. Asian Journal of Communication, 26(2), 197-199.
- ‘Transatlantic connection’: K-pop and K-drama fandom in Spain and Latin America. Journal of Fandom Studies, The, 3(1), 23-41.
- How civil society coalition-building affects information integrity during elections: evidence from four African countries. Information, Communication & Society, 1-18.
- Disrupting or Conforming: A Computational Analysis of International News Coverage of Africa on YouTube. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research.
- Misinformation and Digital Inequalities: Comparing How Different Demographic Groups Get Exposed to and Engage with False Information. Mass Communication and Society, 1-15.
Book chapters
- Engaging and disengaging with political disinformation on WhatsApp: A study of young adults in South Africa In Udupa S & Wasserman H (Ed.), WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech (pp. 126-140). New York: NYU Press. View this article in WRRO
- Countering political disinformation In Eldridge II SA, Cheruiyot D, Banjac S & Swart J (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies (pp. 450-459). Routledge View this article in WRRO
- What motivated the sharing of disinformation about China and COVID-19? A study of social media users in Kenya and South Africa In Yang G, Meng B & Yuan EJ (Ed.), Pandemic Crossings: Digital Technology, Everyday Experience, and Governance in the COVID-19 Crisis (pp. 189-212). East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. View this article in WRRO
- The “rise of the rest” in global media and competition over news narratives in Africa In Carbone G & Ragazzi L (Ed.), Is Africa Turning Against the West? (pp. 93-112). Milan: Ledizioni. View this article in WRRO
- The messenger, the message, and the receiver: South African government communication during the COVID-19 pandemic In Maarek PJ (Ed.), Manufacturing Government Communication on Covid-19: A Comparative Perspective (pp. 319-333). Springer View this article in WRRO
- Research Methods in Comparative Disinformation Studies (pp. 41-57). Wiley
- Conclusion (pp. 210-220). Wiley
- Soft power in the living room, Screening China's Soft Power (pp. 38-55). Routledge
- China's digital public diplomacy towards Africa: Actors, messages and audiences, China Africa Relations Building Images Through Cultural Cooperation Media Representation and Communication (pp. 129-146).
- Why Are Chinese Media in Africa? Evidence from Three Decades of Xinhua’s News Coverage of Africa, China’s Media and Soft Power in Africa (pp. 79-92). Palgrave Macmillan US
- Comunicación y poder en Asia oriental. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.
- Teaching interests
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Dani’s teaching focuses on global journalism, digital media and the role of technology in contemporary news production. He is particularly interested in working with students to understand how journalism operates across different political, cultural and technological contexts. His teaching integrates digital tools and computational approaches, equipping students with practical skills to analyse media content, work with data and engage with emerging technologies shaping journalism today.
As part of his teaching practice at the University of Sheffield, Dani has developed newsroomsim.org, a live newsroom simulation platform that allows students to experience real-time editorial decision-making, work with wire content, and develop professional journalistic skills in a dynamic, practice-based environment. Those interested in using the platform for their own teaching can contact Dani directly.
- Teaching activities
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Dani teaches modules in global journalism and global communication, research methods and data journalism. He is a member of the teaching team in the following modules:
- Data Driven Storytelling
- Dealing with Data for Journalists
- Research Methods
- Understanding Global News
- PhD Supervision
Dani is interested in supervising doctoral students in the following areas:
- China-Africa media relations
- Disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Global public opinion
- Audiences and global media flows
- Computational approaches to the study news
Currently, Dani is supervising the following students:
- Anran Ju, China's Digital Public Diplomacy towards UK and Turkey
- Hongqin Cheng, Populism in Online Electoral Campaigning in Taiwan
- Xiao Cheng, Audiences and Data Journalism in China
- Wisnu P. Utomo, Digital Transformations and Hybridisation in Indonesian Journalism