Dr Vincent Obia

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow

v.a.obia@sheffield.ac.uk

The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Vincent Obia
School of Journalism, Media and Communication
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH

Profile

Vincent started as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School in October 2024. His research, which lasts until 2027, is titled: “A continent on the margins: Investigating African approaches to regulating AI.” Before joining the University of Sheffield, he was a lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos (2023-2024), and a Commonwealth Scholar with full-funding for PhD studies at Birmingham City University (2019-2023).

Projects that Vincent has worked on include the ‘Cross-Sectoral Challenges to Media Literacy’ funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. He has also taken part in two projects under the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, Birmingham City University. He is a member of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), International Communication Association (ICA), and the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA). As a PhD researcher, he was the Lead Communication Officer for the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network (2020-2022). He was also co-editor of the Makings Journal (2020-2023), domiciled in the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research (BCMCR), Birmingham City University.

Vincent is currently a member of the Research Assessment Panel (RAP) of the International Observatory for Information and Democracy (OID), which is compiling a report on ‘Information Ecosystems and Troubled Democracy,’ including the impacts of artificial intelligence. He took part in UNESCO’s 2023 Internet for Trust Conference and in several internet policy conferences organised by the Westminster Forum. He has been invited to speak on AI and new media regulation in Africa at events organised separately by the Department of Media and Communication of the London School of Economics (LSE), the University of Turin, and Artificial Intelligence for Information Accessibility (AI4IA). He was also invited to contribute to UNESCO’s 2022 Draft International Framework for Digital Communication Companies, Media, and Private Companies to Integrate Media and Information Literacy in their Policies, Operations, and Products and the 2023 Draft Amman Declaration on Media and Information Literacy in Digital Spaces.

At the University of Sheffield, Vincent serves as the early career representative for the School of Journalism, Media and Communication. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD), a member of the Centre for Machine Intelligence (CMI), and a member of the Disinformation Research Cluster.

Qualifications: BSc, MSc (Lagos); PhD (Birmingham City)

Research interests

Vincent explores research into new media regulation, particularly focusing on approaches to regulating existing (i.e., social media and platforms) and emerging information technologies such as AI in African countries. Using innovative research methods, he interrogates the policy aspects of regulation (by governments and corporations), the conceptual tools by which it can be understood, and the impacts that it has on democratic traditions and the information ecosystem. His research also investigates how regulation in African countries intersects with practices elsewhere as it gives attention to inequalities between the Global North/South in the use, design, and regulation of new media technologies.

This was the focus of his PhD, where Vincent studied social media regulation in Nigeria and the wider African context. It involved a mixed-method design, which was used to examine the policy and politics, as well as opposition and alternatives to approaches for the regulation of social media. Vincent has published articles from his PhD in reputable journals on subjects such as Regulatory Annexation and the Nigerian Twittersphere.

For his Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, Vincent is investigating approaches to regulating general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) in Africa, using Mauritius, Egypt, and Rwanda as case studies. The project critically interrogates existing debates which tend to see AI regulatory frameworks in Africa as peripheral, while Global North perspectives are universalised. It examines African views and strategies on AI governance to provide fresh insights, reshape our understanding, challenge dominant Euro-American narratives, and (re)shape our understanding of prospects for effective global AI governance.

Publications

Books

Obia V () Regulating Social Media in the Global South: The Nigerian Exemplar. Palgrave.

Edited books

Obia V, Bah S, Akinbobola Y & Carter O (Eds.) () Regulating New Media in Africa: Politics, Law and Governance. Intellect.

Journal articles

Obia V (2023) Regulatory Annexation: Extending Broadcast Media Regulation to Social Media and Internet Content. Communication Law and Policy, 28(2), 99-123.
Obia V (2023) The costs of connection: how data is colonizing human life and appropriating it for capitalism. Information, Communication & Society, 26(9), 1908-1910.
Obia V, Ibraheem IA & Onwunali CC (2022) Borrowing lenses from the West: Analysis of an African media representation of western nations. Journal of African Media Studies, 14(3), 385-401.
Obia VA (2021) Are social media users publishers? Alternative regulation of social media in selected African countries. Makings, 2(1), 1-13. View this article in WRRO
Obia V, Amobi I & Oloruntola S (2020) Parental Media of Mobile and Social Media Engagement of Teens in Lagos State, Nigeria. SAU Journal of Management and Social Sciences, 5(2), 19-35.
Obia V () Twitter activism: Understanding the Twittersphere as the foremost community for activism and dragging in Nigeria. New Media & Society.

Chapters

Obia V, Sunday O, Yusuff A, Simon G & Ejiwunmi S (2018) Use of Indigenous Languages for Social Media Communication: The Nigerian Experience In Salawu A (Ed.), African Language, Digital Media and Communication (pp. 139-153). Routledge
Obia V, Simon G & Adeojo M () Objectification and Exaggeration: Platformatised Representation of the Female Gender in Social Media Comedy Skits In Mpofu S & Aiseng K (Ed.), Social Media Gender Performances and Representations Lexington
Obia V () Mapping a Research Agenda for New Media Regulation in Africa: A Systematic Analysis In Obia V, Bah S, Akinbobola Y & Carter O (Ed.), Regulating New Media in Africa: Politics, Law and Governance Intellect

Reports

Obia V, Edwards L, Goodman E & Spasenoska S (2023) Cross-Sectoral Challenges to Media Literacy
Obia V, Marsden S, Rogers J & Ryder M (2022) Beyond Black to Front: Assessing Channel 4's Black to Front Initiative and New Diversity and Inclusion Challenges

Teaching activities

Vincent has taught modules such as Media Law, Ethics of Mass Communication, Foundations of Journalism, and Theories of Communication, and Comparative Media Systems at the University of Lagos.

He has also taken seminar sessions on the MED6205 (Global and Community Impact) module at the School of Media, Birmingham City University.