Dr Nick Anstead

Dr Nick Anstead

Associate Professor

Department of Media and Communications

Telephone
020 7955 7529
Room No
PEL 7.01F
Connect with me

Languages
English
Key Expertise
Political Communication

About me

Dr Nick Anstead is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE, where he also serves as Programme Director for the MSc in Politics and Communication. Dr Anstead joined the Department in September 2010. Prior to this, he was a Lecturer in Politics at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. Previously, he studied at Mansfield College, the University of Oxford (BA in Modern History) and Royal Holloway, University of London (MSc and PhD in Politics).

Expertise Details

comparative politics; data-driven campaigning; elections; internet; North American politics; political participation; political ideas; political institutions; political parties; public opinion; UK politics; Western European politics

Publications

Books

Other publications

View a comprehensive list of Dr Anstead's publications

Research

Dr Anstead’s research focuses on political communication practices and their relationship with political institutions. Additionally, he has researched the ways in which political ideas develop, circulate and are used in debate. Geographically, Dr Anstead’s work has tended to focus on British, continental European and North American politics.   

Dr Anstead’s recent work has covered a variety of topics including:

  • The development of the concept of austerity in British political debate since the financial crisis. Using a large dataset of think tank publications that appeared both before and after the financial crisis, computer assisted text analysis methods were used to understand the way in which discussions about austerity had evolved over time and links into wider policy debates (available from LSE Research Online).
  • New ways of measuring public opinion (especially social media monitoring) and how they are used in media coverage of politics. This work has particularly focused on how the concept of public opinion is defined, and argues that older ideas about public opinion, particularly from the 19th century and early 20th century offered useful definitions for those seeking to deploy new measurement tools (this research co-authored with Professor Ben O’Loughlin is available from LSE Research Online)
  • The evolution of political campaigns in comparative perspective. Dr Anstead has written on a range of topics covering contemporary campaigns, including televised election debates in parliamentary democracies (available from LSE Research Online), the role of data and social media in campaign targeting (available from LSE Research Online) and how think tanks can shape debate around economic policy during election campaigns (co-authored with Professor Andrew Chadwick and available from LSE Research Online).

 

Impact

Dr Anstead’s work has contributed to public debate on a number of topical issues. He was the co-editor of a Fabian pamphlet The Change We Need (2009, with Will Straw) on what British progressives could learn from the organization and communication of Barack Obama’s presidential election victory. This volume had a Foreword by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Dr Anstead’s Media Policy Project working paper Televised Debates in Parliamentary Democracies (2015, available here) was widely covered by the UK media in the run up to that year’s election, and was circulated to senior media figures in the pre-debate negotiation period. The only debate of the election campaign, broadcast on ITV, employed a format similar to that recommended in the report.

Dr Anstead has acted as a consultant for the think tank Unions 21 undertaking research on how trade unions employ the internet in their campaigns. He has spoken at events organized by a number of organizations, including the Fabian Society, Progress, the Institute for Government and the Rand Institute (California and Brussels). He is on the board of 38 Degrees and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.

Dr Anstead has regularly appeared on national and international media, including BBC Newsnight, BBC One Show, BBC News Channel, More4 News, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Scotland, the BBC World Service, AP, AFP, CNN and Reuters. Media enquiries can be made to the LSE Press Office or directly. 

Teaching and supervision

Postgraduate teaching

Dr Anstead convenes the postgraduate courses Political Communication in Democracies and Modern Campaigning Politics, as well as the Summer School short course Global Communications, Citizens and Cultural Politics

Dr Anstead served as Chair of the MSc Exam Board in Media and Communications for the academic years 2019/20 to 2022/23, during which time he oversaw all taught postgraduate assessment, including ratification of all final marks for the award of master's degrees.

Dr Anstead has also contributed lectures to team-taught postgraduate Media and Communications courses relating to theories and concepts (MC408/MC418) and research methodologies (MC4M1/MC4M2).

Doctoral supervision

Dr Anstead supervises doctoral researchers and welcomes applications from prospective students. He is particularly interested in projects focused on political and electoral communication practices, political ideas and their communication, public opinion, and the role of played by think tanks in democracies.

Dr Anstead has been a supervisor and co-supervisor for a number of successful PhD candidates, including Dr Ruth GarlandDr Anthony KellyDr Angelos KissasDr Noam Schimmel and Dr Meagan Zurn.