Media & International Politics

Dmitry's research focuses on four main areas:

• public perception of international politics
• humour in political communication and international relations
• humanitarian crisis communication
• diasporas, social media and conflict.

Dmitry argues that public perceptions of international crises are shaped primarily by local anxieties, cultural memories, insecurities and hopes, and above all by the societal need for positive and continuous self-conceptions. This research offers an interdisciplinary integration of international relations, political psychology, memory, and media studies. 

Dmitry is also interested in how humanitarian agencies and media see the future of communication in crises; how these visions differ between western and non-western contexts; and how the appearance of digital humanitarians and direct communication channels redraws the traditional roles and powers of crisis actors. This research involves interviews and collaborations with major humanitarian agencies.

In recent years, Dmitry has also published articles on the use of humour in public diplomacy, and on the Armenian diaspora, social media mobilisation and conflict.

PhD supervision

Dmitry is particularly interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

• Media representations, self-representations, identity and public opinion 
• Public diplomacy and strategic narratives
• Collective memory and emotion
• Humour in political communication and international relations
• Humanitarian crises and communication
• Critical conceptions of security/insecurity in media and politics
• Diasporas, social media and conflict

Journalism, Radio and Communication

Emma's research interests lie in the role of radio and social media in fragile and conflict-affected zones. She is particularly interested in working with journalists, and also with audiences to ensure the information they receive is indeed what they want, when they want it, in the language they prefer and in a format they can identify with. 

She collaborates with international media development agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations (CSOs) and humanitarian agencies operating in the Global South. She leads the FemmePowermentAfrique project, which conducts large-scale qualitative and quantitative participatory research into the impact of radio, and social media, on women's empowerment and youth in the Sahel. Her work with internally displaced populations and other marginalised and isolated communities in the Global South has enabled her recommendations to be adopted by many UN bodies. 

Emma’s main research focus is media development, media for development, audience research, and working with international and local agencies to promote and improve radio and social media as a communicative and peacebuilding tool.

In recent years, Emma has published books and articles on radio in conflict, women's empowerment, trauma sensitive communication and qualitative methodologies in the Global South.

PhD Supervision

Emma is particularly interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

• Radio, (social) media and international development 

• Humanitarian crises and communication 

• Audiences and audience feedback and associated methodologies

• The interaction between media and international development agencies, NGOs, and CSOs 

• The role of radio in a changing media context

• Women’s empowerment, international development and media

Global Communication and Computational Methods in Journalism

Dani's research focuses on global political communication and international media flows, with a focus on the Global South. He has published on the impact of global Chinese media on local journalistic cultures in English and French speaking Africa. He has also studied the multiple ways audiences in East and Southern Africa engage with news and entertainment on Chinese media.

In recent years, he has also been interested in the geopolitics of disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly from an audience perspective. He is currently examining how media users engage with disinformation online, and how foreign disinformation influences public opinion.

In his research, Dani employs a wide range of methods and welcomes students with a keen interest in mixed methods, including computational approaches to the study of media texts.

PhD Supervision

Dani is particularly interested in hearing from research students focusing on 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

Journalism Practice, Media Freedom & Democracy

Lada's research is focused on media and journalistic practice in Eastern and Southern European democracies. She has published on threats to media freedom, such as censorship and self-censorship, media corruption, ethical challenges to journalistic practice, and violence and intimidation against journalists. She is also working on a cross-national comparative study researching more recent challenges to media freedom in four Southern European countries -  Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Malta. The study aims to map the impact of external political, economic, legal and societal factors on the way(s) news organisations and journalists operate in times of crisis. 

My work spreads across the factors that shape the communicative spaces: this is, the integration of social interactions with mobile and digital social platforms, with the physical-geographic space.

I am intrigued by the misfits between data, geographies, and culture; that is why sometimes I research on the governance of culture and media policies (such as copyright and piracy, or censorship or media ownership or local cultural strategies); sometimes I research on politics of technology, data infrastructures and algorithms, and geographic inequalities (working on concepts like public sphere, or communicative spaces, news deserts, mediatization, or surveillance); and sometimes I dare to explore hybrid communities (including piracy and fandom, commuters, porn communities, nationalism, or social movements). Sometimes I works with the three fronts at once often by combining computational methods, quantitative, and radical qualitative approaches.

I am particularly interested in supervising doctoral students interested in aspects crossing these areas:

Media Governance and Industries (including ownership, public sphere, and power inequalities)

Data, surveillance, and digital technologies (including algorithms and data literacy)

Media Technologies and Infrastructures of Communication (including Artificial Intelligence, media materialities and geographic inequalities)

Cultural governance and datafication

Media Mobility and Geographies and Media.

Social Movements and Social Media

Computational Methodologies for Social and Communication Science.

Journalism, technology & society

Jingrong is currently writing about data and journalism as well as (social) media discourses of political and environmental issues. Her current research interests include the impact of digital technology on journalism, social media communication, discourses of social issues, and environmental communication. She has expertise in computational (social) media analysis.

PhD supervision

Jingrong is particularly interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

• Journalism, technology and society
• Data and communication
• Discourses, politics and/or the environment
• Social media communication

Disinformation, (Self)censorship, Newsmaking, Russian and East European media

Ilya’s research includes two areas. First, he is interested in the study of state-funded disinformation campaigns with the focus on Russia and post-socialist countries. I am particularly interested in conspiracy theories, character assassination campaigns and disinformation as tools of political communication. I have written on Russian conspiracy theories inside Russia and abroad and continue to work on the projects related to Russian disinformation on the state and the grassroots level both inside Russia and the countries of Central/Eastern Europe and the Global South.

Ilya’s second area of expertise is the organisational aspect of newsmaking in Central and Eastern Europe: formal and informal networks of journalists and politicians, newsmaking process and the issues of censorship/self-censorship. I have been the primary investigator of the British Academy research grant on self-censorship among journalists in Russia, Latvia and Hungary (2017-2019). Currently I am working on the book about the history of Russian media post-1991 that investigates the role of journalists in facilitating Putin’s authoritarian regime.

PhD Supervison 

Ilya is particularly interested in the topics related to:

• Disinformation and conspiracy theories
• Censorship and self-censorship in media
• Character assassination in politics
• Political communication in authoritarian regimes