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Latest stories from the Department of Media and Communications

Charlie Beckett 2023

Professor Charlie Beckett gives evidence at Parliament on the future of news (February 2024)

Professor Charlie Beckett gave evidence at the UK Parliament Communications and Digital Committee, discussing what the future of news looks like in a world of falling trust in traditional media and the likely role of new technologies such as generative AI. Read more

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Professor Christian Katzenbach joins the Department as Visiting Professor (February 2024)

Please welcome Professor Christian Katzenbach who joins the department as Visiting Professor. Christian’s research focuses on media governance and platform economics and will be working with Dr Jean-Christophe Plantin during his time at LSE.

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Dr Pablo Morales and Dr Suzanne Temwa Gondwe Harris launch a series of podcast on decolonising teach and learning practices (February 2024)

Dr Pablo Morales and Dr Suzanne Temwa Gondwe Harris launch a podcast that discusses current pedagogical practices to help decentre European/North American knowledge production by contextualising and highlighting other epistemologies and the process of disclosing positionalities. The project was made in conjunction with, and funding from, the Eden Centre IEAP Fellowships focussing on Decolonising Academia.

Listen to the podcast on our Spotify channel here and read more.

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Dr Sebastián Lehuedè joins Kings College London (KCL) as Lecturer (December 2023)

PhD alumni Dr Sebastián Lehuedè has been appointed as Lecturer in Ethics, AI and Society at the Department of Digital Humanities, KCL. 

Sebastián’s research focuses on the governance of digital technologies from a global social justice perspective. His current project explores the connection between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and environmental justice. For this project, he engaged with digital rights, environmental and Indigenous groups mobilising against a water-intensive data centre and lithium extraction in Chile. 

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Professor Sonia Livingstone gives a keynote at Ofcom conference (December 2023)

On 5 December, Professor Sonia Livingstone delivered a presentation at Ofcom’s Making Sense of Media Winter Conference, in which she discussed the changing nature of media literacy and the relevance of a human rights based approach to thinking about what media literacy is ultimately for. A blog post based on her speech is available here

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Journalism AI replay videos now available on YouTube (December 2023)

The fourth edition of the JournalismAI Festival took place on 5 and 6 December 2023. The second day of the Festival featured inspiring conversations delving deeper into the broader conversations around journalism and artificial intelligence. Watch here.

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LSE Winter graduations 2023 (December 2023)

Congratulations to our MSc students who completed their twelve-month taught postgraduate degree programmes. There ceremony took place on 14 December in the Peacock Theatre, followed by a reception in the Centre Building.

We congratulate all graduates to their achievement and wish you all the best for the future!

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Professor Ellen Helsper interviewed by Spanish newspaper (November 2023)

Professor Ellen Helsper was interviewed by Spanish newspaper El Pais on a social debate about what age children should first be given a smartphone, drawing on research findings from ySkills

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New LSE research centre on children’s rights in the digital world (November 2023)

Professor Sonia Livingstone will direct Digital Futures for Children, a joint research centre between the LSE Department of Media and Communications and 5Rights Foundation. The centre will support an evidence base for advocacy, facilitate dialogue between academics and policymakers and amplify children's voices, in accordance with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General comment No. 25.

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Final government commissioned report on media literacy (October 2023)

Professor Lee Edwards, Dr Vincent Obia, Emma Goodman and Sofija Spasenoska published the final report of their DSIT-funded study, ‘Cross-sectoral Challenges to Media Literacy’.

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Dr César Jiménez-Martínez awarded funding for pandemic and language study (October 2023)  

Dr César Jiménez-Martínez is part of a team that was awarded GW4 seed funding, for interdisciplinary projects with a project called ‘Panic around pandemics: A case study for applying natural language processing to historical archives to identify patterns of discriminatory language’. Read more here

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Professor Bingchun Meng publishes new chapter (October 2023)

Professor Bingchun Meng published a chapter entitled ’Dialectical imagination: Frankfurt School and IAMCR’ in Reflections on the International Association for Media and Communication Research (Palgrave, 2023) co-edited by Professor Emerita Robin Mansell.

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Media@LSE Newsletter (October 2023)

The latest research updates, news and information from research-active staff in the Department of Media and Communications. Read here.

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JournalismAI release report from their global survey of what news organisations are doing with AI (September 2023)

Professor Charlie Beckett’s JournalismAI initiative launched its second global survey, in which more than 120 editors, journalists, technologists and mediamakers from 105 small and large newsrooms across 46 countries share their learnings on the use of AI and genAI.

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Dr Simidele Dosekun adds to the discussion on Luis Rubiales and the global impact of #MeToo (September 2023)

Dr Simidele Dosekun comments for the Spanish broadsheet El Mundo on the recent scandal involving the Spanish women's football player who was kissed non-consensually.

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Professor Bart Cammaerts contributes to articles on recent protests (August 2023)

Professor Bart Cammaerts was cited in The Guardian arguing that disruption helps rather than hinders protest. He also featured in the Dutch broadsheet NRC on the use of clay puppets by Russian protesters.

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Dr Alison Powell interviewed for Mobile World Live (August 2023) 

Dr Alison Powell comments on the harmful impact of artificial general intelligence and warned about the hype around AI decision-making. Read here.

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Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan featured in Rolling Stone (August 2023)

Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan was profiled for a Rolling Stone article entitled ‘These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI’, alongside leading artificial intelligence experts.

The Rights of Kids

'Rights of Children in a Digital Age' animation for LSE Festival 2023 (June 2023)

Professor Sonia Livingstone and Dr Mariya Stoilova's research has been included in a series of short animated films for LSE Festival 2023. The film highlights some of key issues concerning children's rights, technology and risks and wellbeing, drawing on key research findings from ySkills and 5RightsFoundation. Watch here.

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Dr Grace Yuehan Wang joins the Department as a Visiting Fellow (June 2023)

A warm welcome to Dr Grace Yuehan Wang, who earned her doctoral degree from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and was the Wallis Annenberg Chair Fellow in Communication, Technology, and Society for two years.

Dr Wang's research concerns development, innovation, and entrepreneurship (with a focus on the Global South), global media industries, global communication, digital storytelling and corporate branding. She is currently finishing up her book project examining how Shenzhen, China’s first Special Economic Zone evolved from a fishing village to a leading global tech innovation hub.

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Professor Shani Orgad discusses Confidence Culture at the UK Insurance Women’s Inclusivity Network (June 2023)

Authors of the popular book, Confidence Culturedeliver a talk and workshop based on their research at the UK Insurance Women’s Inclusivity Network on 8 June 2023. Professors Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill (City University) argue confidence imperatives directed at women can hold them back rather than propel them forward in their talk 'Confidence Culture: Changing Women, Not the World'. More here, and registration details here.

Podcast

LSE Media and Communications 20th anniversary podcast (June 2023)

In the lead up to our 20th anniversary, we've released a short series of podcasts, with topics ranging from humanitarian and political communications, Chinese feminism, and the history of the Department. Listen to the podcast here.

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Dr Wendy Willems on digital technology and colonialism (May 2023)

Hosted by Graduate Programme in Communication, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Dr Wendy Willems delivers a online lecture entitled 'Revisiting recent debates on digital technology and colonialism'. Watch here.

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Media Futures conference programme now available (May 2023)

Celebrating our 20th anniversary, we're excited to share the conference programme for 'Media Futures' as we explore questions about media's present and future, engaging in critique and considering imaginative pathways for the future. Plenary speakers from the Department include Professor Nick CouldryDr Seeta Peña Gangadharan and Professor Sonia Livingstone.  

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The Digital Futures Commission has launched Child Rights by Design (May 2023)

Led by Professor Sonia Livingstone and Baroness Beeban Kidron, and hosted by the 5Rights Foundation, the commission has now published its final outputs on Playful by Design, a Blueprint for Education Data Governance and, bringing it all together, Child Rights by Design – a toolkit for innovators, designers and developers. More can be found here and check out an article in The Guardian quoting Professor Sonia Livingstone. 

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Professor Nick Couldry delivers a keynote at Instituto de Estudos Avançados da USP (April 2023)

In his lecture, 'The Space of the World: Digital Platforms and the Prospects for Human Solidarity in the 21st Century', Professor Nick Couldry reflects on the global space of social communications and interaction that has been constructed over the past three decades through a commercialized internet and the emergence of digital platforms. Watch here.

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ICA23 Research Showcase (March 2023)

Researchers in the Department of Media and Communications will present over 20 papers at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, which will be held 23-29 May in Toronto, Canada. View the full list of presentations from department members at ICA 2023 here.

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Professor Shani Orgad participates in International Women's Day event at City University (March 2023)

On International Women's Day 2023, Bayes Global Women's Leadership Programme hosted a discussion with Professors Shani Orgad and co-author, Rosalind Gill (City University), about their best-selling book 'Confidence culture', moderated by MBA scholar, Clarice Metzger. Watch here.

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Professor Ellen Helsper gives evidence to the Lords Communications and Digital Committee (March 2023)

The Committee explored how different areas have sought to improve digital inclusion. Professor Ellen Helsper talked about how the UK compares to other countries in terms of the levels of digital inclusion and the effectiveness of interventions, reflecting on the introduction of E-IDs in Estonia.

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Professor Ahmet Atay joins the Department as a Visiting Senior Fellow (February 2023)

A warm welcome to Ahmet Atay, Professor of Global Media and Communication at the College of Wooster who joins the Department as a Visiting Senior Fellow. Professor Atay's research focuses on diasporic experiences and cultural identity formations and is currently working on projects linked to diasporic memory and LGBTQI media.

2022

 

Robin Mansell event

Celebratory Public Lecture event in honour of Professor Emerita Robin Mansell (December 2022)

LSE students, alumni, colleagues and friends were brought together to celebrate the legacy of Professor Emerita Robin Mansell and her long-standing contribution to media and communication studies. 'Imagining Information and Communications Technologies for a Fairer World' was chaired by Professor Bart Cammaerts, with guest speakers Professor Hopeton Dunn, Dr Alison Norah Gillwald, Dr Linje Manyozo, Dr Gillian Marcelle, Professor Marc Raboy and Professor Sharon Strover.

Watch the video.

Professor Shani Orgad reflects on the parallels between the values and principles animating Robin Mansell’s work and her practice and ethics as a colleague for Media@LSE. Read here.

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Professor Lilie Chouliaraki Highest Ranking Female Scholar in Languages and Linguistics (October 2022)

In Autumn 2022, Elsevier BV released its updated author-citation dataset. The Department’s Professor Lilie Chouliaraki was the highest ranking female scholar in the Languages and Linguistics subfield and first in the citation rankings of language studies/linguistics. Pro Chouliaraki’s work in the language field includes several research projects in critical discourse analysis and is widely cited in the field of communication and textual studies. More here.

20 years

Call for Papers announced for 'Media Futures' conference (September 2022)

Submissions have opened for 'Media Futures', our 20th anniversary conference to be held 15-16 June 2023. We welcome papers aligned with our four research themes: Media Culture and Identities; Histories and Futures; Media, Participation and Politics; and Communication, Technology, Rights and Justice.

View submission guidelines here

Media Freedom

'Media Freedom' by Damian Tambini is European Commission Vice-President's must-read book for the Summer (August 2022)

Ahead of the release of the European Commission’s new media law, the European Media Freedom Act, the lead politician behind the plan, Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová, has been reading Media Freedom by Dr Damian Tambini.

Speaking to POLITICO Pro, Jourová said that “Tambini eloquently shows the risks for the media and media freedom stemming from digitisation and development of AI systems.” She added that “Tambini explains well that media freedom is not absolute. Media should be free from state and also from private control, but not from accountability to the public”.

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Professor Robin Mansell elected as a British Academy Fellow (July 2022)

We're delighted to announce Professor Robin Mansell has been elected as a British Academy Fellow in recognition of her outstanding contribution to humanities and social science.

Welcoming the Fellows, the new President of the British Academy and Strategic Director of Innovation at LSE, Professor Julia Black, said:  "I am delighted to welcome these distinguished and pioneering scholars to our Fellowship. I am equally delighted that we have so many new female Fellows. While I hope this means that the tide is finally turning for women in academia, there is still much to do to make the research world diverse and open to all".

Read more from LSE News. Read more about the fellowship the British Academy Fellowship here

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Dr Sebastián Lehuedè wins award for Best Dissertation (July 2022)

The Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) have awarded PhD alumni, Dr Sebastián Lehuedè with the Best Dissertation Award for 2022 for his thesis 'Governing Data in Modernity/Coloniality: Astronomy Data in the Atacama Desert and the Struggle for Collective Autonomy'. The AoIR commented:

"Dr Lehuedè’s dissertation is a fascinating study of astronomy data produced in one of the least light polluted sites in the world. The dissertation tackles the question of data governance in an inspiring and innovative way theoretically combining discourse theoretical approaches with sociological and anthropological perspectives. Dr Lehuedè’s research shows the limits of Eurocentric concepts of open data and data sovereignty from the proposition of a collective autonomy of data, making thus an important contribution to the ongoing debates on postcolonial foundations of datafication and data governance".

Read more about Dr Lehuedè’s research here.

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Professor Bart Cammaerts nominated and accepted as a member of Academia Europaea (July 2022)

Congratulations to Professor Bart Cammaerts for his nomination and acceptance in the Section of Film, Media and Visual Studies at Academia Europaea. 

Academia Europaea is a European, non-governmental association acting as an Academy. Their members are scientists and scholars who collectively aim to promote learning, education and research. Invitations are made only after peer group nomination, scrutiny and confirmation as to the scholarship and eminence of the individual in their chosen field. 

Find out more about Academia Europaea here

Sonia Livingstone

Professor Sonia Livingstone to be awarded a honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (July 2022)

World-leading researcher on internet use and young people, Professor Sonia Livingstone will be awarded a honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The doctorate acknowledges her groundbreaking work on the risks and opportunities that are posed and available to children and young people in digital environments. 

The ceremony is planned to take place at the annual Convocation during the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Board of Governors gathering in June 2023.

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LSE Class Teacher Awards (May 2022)

Congratulations to our LSE Class Teacher 2022 Award Winners - Suzanne Temwa Gondwe HarrisPablo MoralesKate GilchristAlessandro Castellini and Claire Forbes for their very special contribution to teaching. Read more here

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Firoz Lalji PhD Thesis Prize (May 2022)

PhD researcher Richard Stupart has been awarded joint first place for the Firoz Lalji PhD Thesis Prize. The prize is awarded every two years for PhD theses which demonstrate an outstanding contribution to knowledge on Africa. Read more about the prize here.

Richard's thesis 'Bearing Witness: Practices of journalistic witnessing in South Sudan' is viewable here.

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Sonia Livingstone and Miriam Rahali referenced in new DCMS report on Influencer Culture (May 2022)

A new report from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport repeatedly cites evidence from Professor Sonia Livingstone and Miriam Rahali from LSE’s Media and Communications Department. The report investigates the rise of influencers and its implications for children. You can read the report here.

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LSE top ranked university for world-leading research produced (May 2022)

LSE’s outstanding contribution to social science research has once again been recognised by the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). 

We're delighted to have been ranked #1 in the UK in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) for Unit of Assessment 34: Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management.

64 per cent of our research outputs were considered ‘world-leading’ and awarded the highest 4 star rating, as were all three of our impact case studies and our research environment. A further 32 per cent of our outputs were considered ‘internationally excellent’ (3 star). Read more about our results here.

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Kathryn Higgins featured on BBC Women's Hour (April 2022)

PhD Researcher Kathryn Higgins talks to BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour about the female con artist and media culture.

Listen here.

Students

School’s oldest double degree celebrates its anniversary in Santa Monica (April 2022)

The School’s oldest and largest double degree, MSc in Global Media and Communications, celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the first students’ graduation on 11 April 2022. The “Globals”, including over 70 alumni, current students and colleagues, attended a festive dinner that took place at the beautiful Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica, California. Read more here.

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Dr Velislava Hillman publishes paper on Edtech procurement matters (April 2022)

Visiting Fellow Velislava Hillman's paper 'Edtech procurement matters: it needs a coherent solution, clear governance and market standards' has been published in the Department of Social Policy Working Paper Series. 

Read here

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ICA22 Research Showcase (March 2022)

Researchers in the Department of Media and Communications will present over 30 papers at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association. 

View the full list of presentations at ICA 2022 here.

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Professor Shakuntala Banaji and PhD researcher Fatma Khan featured on ICA podcast (February 2022)

Professor Shakuntala Banaji – one of the Conference Theme Co-Chairs of the 2022 ICA Conference, and PhD researcher Fatma Khan speak alongside a panel of speakers as they critically explore the implications of One World One Network‽ and the challenges of the globalized world. The group explores whether Marshall McLuhan’s concept of a “global village” is a reality or a failed aspirational goal, and asks who then is being left behind.

Listen here.

 

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Professor Robin Mansell delivers a Public Lecture at the University of Fribourg (November 2021)

Professor Robin Mansell celebrates receipt of an honorary doctorate from the University of Fribourg by delivering an in-person Public Lecture on 16 November. 

Read a modified version of the lecture here.

The award was made public in November 2020 but the ceremony event had been postponed due to COVID-19.

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Willow Bay, Dean of USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism visits LSE (October 2021)

On 21 October, Dean Willow Bay visited our MA/MSc Global Media and Communications students at LSE. Students on this programme spend the first 12 months of their studies at LSE and the next 12 months at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, where Willow Bay is Dean. More here.

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Congratulations to Professor Robin Mansell for receiving the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Outstanding Alumni Award for Academic Achievement (September 2021)

The SFU Outstanding Alumni Awards celebrate leaders whose accomplishments reflect the university’s commitment to engaging the world, honouring their significant contributions to public service, journalism, and academia and the field of communication. This year’s awards honoured Professor Robin Mansell as a globally recognised researcher on communications technology and the first woman to receive a doctorate degree from SFU.

Find out more about the award.

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Welcome to our new Head of Department (July 2021)

Professor Bart Cammaerts has been appointed as the new Head of Department for the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Professor Cammaerts has worked in the Department since 2003, beginning as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow before becoming full-time faculty in 2005. His research is focused on issues of media, communication, politics and resistance, and he also has a wealth of experience as an educator, having convened degree programmes, postgraduate courses and supervising doctoral researchers during his time in the Department. Welcome Bart!

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Farewell to Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser (June 2021)

Professor Banet-Weiser, our Head of Department since 2018, left LSE on 30 June 2021. Professor Banet-Weiser will take up a position as Director of the USC and Penn Annenberg Center for Collaborative Communication, from 1 July 2021 (see here). Professor Banet-Weiser has been an inspirational leader and exceptional colleague, and the Department wishes her every success in her new role. Sarah will continue to be an Associate in the Department.

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LSE Class Teacher Awards 2021 (June 2021)

Congratulations to our LSE Class Teacher Award Recipients Meghanne BarkerAlessandro CastelliniKate Ghilchrist and Junyoung Yu. LSE Class Teacher Awards are given annually to Graduate Teaching Assistants and Guest Teachers in recognition for their contribution to teaching at LSE Eden Centre.

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Professor Shakuntala Banaji and Dr Sam Mejias' book now available on paperback and as an eBook (May 2021)

First published on hardback in 2020, Youth Active Citizenship in Europe: Ethnographies of Participation' offers a highly contemporary, youth-centred interdisciplinary and cross-European approach to active citizenship. Using ethnographic data and insights from the cross-European project CATCH-EyoU, the contributors to this collection illuminate the experiences of young people taking action for social change.

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PhD researcher Kat Higgins wins Top Student Paper Award at ICA (May 2021)

Congratulations to PhD researcher Kat Higgins for being awarded the Top Student Paper Award at this year's ICA for her paper 'Through the Kaleidoscope: News Images, Vantage Points and the Mediated Time-Space of Crime Events', which explores the securitisation of migrant news in Australia. ICA members can view this year's top papers here.

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euCONSENT consortium awarded European Commission funding to create a child rights’ centred cross-border system for online age verification and parental consent (April 2021)

In a bold step towards enabling stronger regulatory online protection for European children, a consortium of twelve of the continent’s leading academic institutions, NGOs and technology providers have been awarded EU funding to design, deliver and pilot a new Europe-wide system. This solution will allow service providers to verify the age of their users to protect them from harmful content, and will ensure that younger children have parental consent before they share personal data. The Age Verification Providers Association is a leading member of the team that will deliver this system create a child rights’ centred cross-border system for online age verification and parental consent. LSE Media and Communications (EU Kids Online) is part of this project which has just been announced.

Read the full press release and statement from Professor Sonia Livingstone here.

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The Department of Media and Communications is ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in the QS World University Rankings (March 2021)

LSE's Department of Media and Communications has been rated #1 in the UK and #3 globally in the 2021 QS World University Rankings. LSE also remains as the top tanked university in Europe, and second in the world — in social sciences and management subjects for the ninth consecutive year.

Find out more.

Sonia Livingstone

The UNCRC adopts General Comment 25 on children's rights in relation to the digital environment (February 2021)

We're delighted to hear that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has adopted General Comment 25 on children’s rights, which sets out how states can meet their responsibilities of protecting the digital rights of children. 

As lead drafter for the committee, this is a huge achievement for Professor Sonia Livingstone and her team for their long-standing work towards placing children’s rights on the global agenda.

Read more here.

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Dr Simidele Dosekun features in Research for the World, LSE’s new digital magazine (January 2021)

As part of the LSE125 series, which pairs up four historical figures with four early career academics, Dr Simidele Dosekun discusses the link between media and daily life, brought to the fore by the pandemic.

View the article 'LSE then and now: women and the media' here.

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Dr Sara Tafakori wins the 2021 Catharine Stimpson Prize for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship awarded by the University of Chicago Press and Signs journal (January 2021)  

The article is titled 'Affective Territories of Recognition: Iranian Feminist Activism and the (de-)authentication of Suffering'. 

Find out more about the prize here.

 

2020

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Our Data Bodies' project co-led by Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan honoured at The New York Times Good Tech Awards (December 2020)

'Our Data Bodies' has been highlighted by technology columnist, Kevin Roose at The New York Times for the 2020 Good Tech Awards. The project is a three year mixed method, participatory research project that explores the nature and experience of digital privacy and “data rights” of adult low-income people in the United States. 

Read more about the Good Tech Awards here, and here for the 'Our Data Bodies' project website.

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Professor Nick Couldry and Dipayan Ghosh (Harvard University) published an article in The Washington Post offering their thoughts on the Facebook lawsuits (December 2020)

The article is titled 'Perspectives: The lawsuits against Facebook don't go far enough'. 

Read more here

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Professor Livingstone took part in an event at EUNIC Ideas Yard (December 2020)

The event was titled 'What would Comenius say'? 

Find out more here

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Professor Myria Georgiou takes part in a book launch acting as a speaker on the topic of the refugee crisis (December 2020)

Mediating the Refugee Crisis. Digital Solidarity, Humanitarian Technologies and Border Regimes is written by Sara Marino. Professor Georgiou offered her thoughts on this complex and difficult topic. 

Find out more here

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Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser quoted in an article published by Tortoise Media (December 2020)

The article is titled 'Wing Women- 2020: the year that saw the end of girl boss culture'.

Read more here

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Professor Couldry interviewed by Silas Scott as the first installment of the Media@LSE Long Reads series (November 2020)

Professor Couldry talks about his work as a founder of Tierra Común. The interview covers a number of topics from data colonialism to resistance, development in the Global South and issues surrounding health data. 

Find out more.

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Dr Lee Edwards and colleague Giles Moss presented their work on copyright research (November 2020)

The presentation was part of the CREATe public lecture series with their talk titled 'Improving Deliberation, Improving Copyright: Reflecting on the Public Voice in Copyright Consultations'.

Find out more.

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Zoe Glatt quoted in an article about Charli D'Amelio, the first person to hit 100 millionTikTok followers (November 2020)

"It is precisely her ordinariness that is the key to her success," says Glatt, "With her pretty girl-next-door vibe, she exemplifies the ideal package for a TikToker: relatable, authentic, normatively attractive, youthful, fun, unthreatening and uncontroversial."

Read more here.

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Professor Mansell will deliver the keynote speech at the Online CMI conference this year (November 2020)

Professor Mansell will introduce her new book on platform economics co-authored with Ed Steinmueller.

Find out more.

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Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan served on the Selection Committee for Just Tech Fund (November 2020)

The Just Tech Fund is a new program at the US Social Sciences Research Council.

Find out more.

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Dr Alison Powell facilitated a discussion on how encounters with A.I are shaping the works of fiction (November 2020)

The JUST AI project held an evening session to discuss near future visions of AI with science fiction writers.

Find out more.

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Professor Robin Mansell received an Honorary Doctorate awarded by University of Fribourg Faculty of Management, Economics and Political Science (November 2020)

She receives the doctorate for being “…a world-renowned specialist in the interaction between media, technology, markets and democracy”.

Find out more about Professor Mansell's award here.

Dr Tambini

Panel: The politics of discoverability: Shifting control over the users’ journey to content, featuring Eleonora Maria Mazzoli and Dr Damian Tambini (November 2020) 

As part of the IPPR Oxford Media Convention, hosted online for the first time. 

Find out more.  

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Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser to give a keynote at the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture, Loughborough University (November 2020)

The webinar will feature papers addressing how claims to 'real' femininity and masculinity are contested and how gender politics frequently involves the negotiation of competing claims to authentic voices, bodies and gendered ways of being.

Find out more

Sonia Livingstone

Launch of the Digital Futures Commission (November 2020) 

The Digital Futures Commission is an exciting research collaboration of unique organisations that invites innovators, policy makers, regulators, academics and civil society, to unlock digital innovation in the interests of children and young people.

Find out more here

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New ySKILLS report written by Professor Sonia Livingstone and Dr Leslie Haddon (November 2020)

The report is titled Beyond 'digital natives': are young people skilled online, and does it matter'?

Find out more here

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Robin Mansell to take part in the Internet Gov Lab Virtual Roundtable on Platform Economics (November 2020)

Professor Mansell will take part in an online book talk to discuss her new book Advanced Introduction to Platform Economics.

Find out more here.

Omar Al-Ghazzi

Dr Omar Al-Ghazzi in conjunction with the Kevorkian Center discusses the use of social media in global uprisings (November 2020)

This event will look back on many connected waves of protest, but also zooms out to our global present to explore dissent, smartphones, and the digital ephemera that overflow from an ongoing Global Uprising. 

Find out more here.

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Professor Myria Georgiou leads the launch of a new project "Digital City of Refuge" (November 2020)

The project is a collection of visual stories mapping the city of refuge as experienced by actors in Athens, Berlin and London. 

Find out more here.

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New article pubished by Dr Lee Edwards in the American Behavioural Scientist (October 2020)

Dr Edwards in 'Transparency, Publicity, Democracy, and Markets: Inhabiting Tensions Through Hybridity' discusses how organisations use transparency to promote democratic values.

Read more here.

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Professor Nick Couldry's report entitled 'Digital Realignment: Rebalancing Platform Economies from Corporation to Consumer' covered by Axios (October 2020)

"Right now, there's a whole lot of people on the right whose view of how to gain influence does have an unusual relationship with truth" says Couldry.

Read the article here.

Myria 2017

Rapid Response Publishing Roundtable chaired by Professor Myria Georgiou (October 2020)

Join us for a virtual roundtable discussion followed by a Q&A.

Registration here.

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New report published by Professor Nick Couldry and colleague Dipayan Ghosh (Harvard University) (October 2020)

The report is titled 'Digital Realignment: Rebalancing Platform Economies from Corporation to Consumer'.

Read the report here.

Bingchun Meng

Dr Bingchun Meng writes for the China Dialogues blog (October 2020)

'The ineluctable urge of network control'.

Read more here.

Eva Polonska

Eva Połońska-Kimunguyi takes part in the 2020 EBU Cultural Forum. (October 2020)

The talk will be on 'Public Service Media and the New Reality'.

Find out more here.

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Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser takes place in a discussion on truth and trust at SSRC Media, Technology, and Politics (October 2020)

The discussion covers the viral spread of false, misleading, and inaccurate information on topics from COVID-19 to racial justice threaten our social fabric and democracy worldwide.

Find out more here.

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The 5Rights Foundation are proud to announce the The Digital Futures Commission (October 2020)

Professor Sonia Livingstone is one of the Commissioners. 

Find out more here.

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Professor Ellen Helsper's work on cyber-bullying published in a report (September 2020)

The report evaluates the Cyberscene project. A collaboration between theatrical charity Masterclass and anti-bullying charity Kidscape, Cyberscene worked with London teenagers aged 16-19 to produce an original theatre play about cyberbullying. Professor Ellen Helsper was engaged to evaluate the project and its impact.   

Find out more.

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Professor Nick Couldry co-writes an opinion piece for CNN on COVID-19.(September 2020) 

Alongside Bruce Schneier, Professor Couldry has titled the piece 'The unrelenting horizonlessness of the covid world'.

Read more here.

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Congratulations to Professor Robin Mansell (September 2020)

Professor Mansell has been elected in 2020 as a member of the Academia Europaea – Film, Media and Visual Studies section.

Find out more here.

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Professor Orgad appears on The Leaders with Babies podcast (September 2020)

Professor Orgad shares her research on why mothers leave the workforce and what we can learn from it, including how we can make structural changes at work and at home to improve the lives of working parents.

Listen here.

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Professor Nick Couldry participates in a stakeholder meeting to discuss the human rights implications of the collection and circulation of health data (September 2020)

The meeting was hosted by the Governing Health Futures Commission. 

Find out more.

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Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan speaks to the Digital Freedom Fund (August 2020) 

The discussion included reflections on facial recognition, racial bias and racial injustice. 

Read more here.

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Professor Ellen Helsper discusses what it means to be human in a digital age (August 2020) 

Professor Helsper along with Phyllis Seeger, considers identity and data ethics.

Find out more.

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Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan takes part in a podcast with the Guardian on COVID-19 ethics and digital contact tracing (August 2020) 

The discussion is split over two episodes and covers themes relating to data privacy, involving companies like Google and Apple, and whether tracing apps will become a normal part of future life. 

Listen here

Sonia Livingstone

New book published by Professor Sonia Livingstone and Dr Alicia Blum-Ross (August 2020)

Parenting for a Digital Future: How hopes and fears about technology shape children's lives.

Find out more here.

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Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser discusses the suffrage movement with USC Annenberg (August 2020)

The discussion covers popular media representations of the misogynistic backlash to the suffrage movement.

Find out more here.

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New book released by Robin Mansell and colleague W. Edward Steinmueller: Advanced Introduction to Platform Economics (August 2020)

Find out more about the book here.

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Professor Sonia Livingstone quoted in an article published in the Evening Standard (July 2020)

The article is titled 'Is London calling time on TikTok? How fears over privacy are threatening the Gen-Z focused app'.

Read the article here

Sonia Livingstone

Professor Sonia Livingstone takes part in a webinar, 'COVID-19: Screen Time and the Developing Brain' (July 2020)

The webinar was hosted by the New York Academy of Sciences. 

Find out more.

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Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan's 'Our Data Bodies' mentioned in an article for Nature (July 2020)

The article is titled 'Don’t ask if artificial intelligence is good or fair, ask how it shifts power' and is written by Pratyusha Kalluri.

Read more.

Omar Al-Ghazzi

Dr Omar Al-Ghazzi talks to Jean Kassir, Megaphone News Co-Founder and Managing Editor (July 2020)

The discussion covered the Lebanese revolution in times of Coronavirus.

Listen here.

Myria 2017

New article published by Professor Myria Georgiou (July 2020) 

The article is titled 'Suspension: disabling the city of refuge'?

Read more.

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Professor Alison Powell contributes to a policy discussion on ethical questions about antibody and immunity testing cutting across bio and tech ethics (June 2020) 

This discussion was part of the Just AI project co-hosted by the LSE and the Ada Lovelace Institute.

Find out more.

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Professor Nick Couldry and co-author Ulises Mejias discuss their book with RadicalXChange (June 2020)

The panel discussion was titled 'Colonized by Data: The Costs of Connection'.

Find out more.

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Professor Livingstone talks at event by ConnectSafely (June 2020)

The talk discussed youth, social media, protest and COVID-19. 

Listen here.

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Professor Lilie Chouliaraki takes part in an online lecture the populist uses of victimhood (June 2020)

This talk was part of the 'Performing Resistance: Dialogues on Arts, Migrations, Inclusive Cities' International Summer School at the University of Bologna. 

Watch the lecture here.

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Professor Charlie Beckett gives evidence to the House of Lords (June 2020)

Professor Beckett offered his opinions on Journalism and AI:

"Support technological knowledge, improve training and news media’s collaboration with tech companies".

Find out more.

Simidele Dosekun 2019

Dr Simidele Dosekun releases her new book, Fashioning Postfeminism: Spectacular Femininity and Transnational Culture (May 2020)

Find out more about the book here.

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Professor Lilie Chouliaraki announced as an ICA Fellow (May 2020)

Fellow status is primarily a recognition of distinguished scholarly contributions to the broad field of communication. 

Find out more.

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Dr Bingchun Meng interviewed by BBC Newsnight (May 2020) 

Dr Meng spoke about COVID-19 and global geopolitical order, alongside former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. 

Watch the episode here.

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Dr Alison Powell & Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan take part in LSE's public event series COVID-19: The Policy Response (May 2020)

Their talk was titled 'Data–driven Responses to Covid-19: opportunities and limitations'. 

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Online Symposium with Professor Ellen Helsper, Citizenship in a Networked Age (May 2020)

Register here.

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Professor Robin Mansell wins the 2020 C. Edwin Baker Award (May 2020)

The Communication Law & Policy Division of ICA has announced Professor Robin Mansell as the winner of the 2020 C. Edwin Baker Award for the Advancement of Scholarship on Media, Markets and Democracy.

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Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan delivers keynote at Trustworthy Machine Learning (May 2020)

Find out more here.

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Spotlight On...Get to know our staff and students through our new Spotlight series (May 2020) 

Throughout the academic year, our Spotlight series sits down with a member of the Department to discuss their areas of expertise, their academic and non-academic interests and any advice they might give to anyone starting out in the field. 

Find out more.

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PhD researcher Winnie M Li, speaks at BookBound 2020 Festival (May 2020)

Winnie M Li recorded her conversation with acclaimed Uruguayan novelist, Daniel Mella. The discussion explored personal trauma and autobiographical fiction.

Find out more.

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JournalismAI publishes a new training course on machine learning for journalists (May 2020)

Mattia Peretti, who works on JournalismAI at POLIS with Professor Charlie Beckett, explains the course in more detail in a recent blog post.

Read 'Helping journalists understand the power of machine learning'.

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Professor Shakuntala Banaji interviewed for the Evening Standard in an article 'Fake news in COVID-19: how misinformation is spreading online during the pandemic' (May 2020)

Professor Shakuntala Banaji argues that  'misinformation is being weaponised against vulnerable communities in a particular place at a particular time'

Read the article here.

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Dr Dylan Mulvin interviewed for a podcast by Rottin' in Denmark to give his thoughts on the Y2K bug (May 2020)

Click here to listen. Read Dylan's paper 'Distributing liability: the legal and political battles of Y2K'. 

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Professor Sonia Livingstone receives Award for Distinguished Contribution to Social Psychology from the British Psychological Society (BPS) (May 2020)

The BPS Award for Distinguished Contributions to Social Psychology is given in recognition of a distinguished contribution to research in social psychology.

To read more about her research, click here, and here for details of the award. 

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Professor Cammaerts produces a radio show (May 2020)

Together with David Wybrow (Director of the Cockpit Theatre), Professor Cammaerts has produced Sound Bites, a show with sounds that bite.

It focuses on a theme, academic concept and related texts and music.

Listen here.

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The Portuguese translation of The Mediated Construction of Reality published (May 2020)

The book, written by Professor Nick Couldry and Andreas Hepp has been published in Portuguese.

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Associate Professor Alison Powell participates in the BM Show (April 2020)

The discussion talks about how data gets measured, and how to fight back as a community against emergency powers.

Listen here.

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Professor Nick Couldry participates in the BM Show (April 2020)

Professor Couldry, co-author of The Costs of Connection, talks about data colonialism and how every aspect of the human experience is being colonized.

Listen here

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Parenting for a Digital Future: How Hopes and Fears about Technology Shape Children's Lives by Professor Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross available for pre-order (April 2020)

Pre-order the book here, and find out more information here.

Myria 2017

Spontaneous Solidarity written by Professor Myria Georgiou published on the Fabian Society website (April 2020)

Professor Myria Georgiou argues that austerity has weakened our institutional ability to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. She explores how hyperlocal digital activism is filling the gaps.

Read more.

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Professor Sarah Banet Weiser co-authors The Beguiling: Glamour in/as Platformed Cultural Production (February 2020) 

Written by Sarah Banet Weiser and Alison Hearn. 

Read the full piece here.

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PhD Researcher Zöe Glatt interviewed by Abby Ohlhesier for the Washington Post (January 2020) 

The article about is the ambivalent relationship between social media users/influencers and the platforms that host their content. 

Read more here.

Dr Dylan Mulvin 2

 

Dr Dylan Mulvin interviewed for The New York Times for a feature on the y2k crisis (January 2020) 

Dr Dylan Mulvin argues that 'there were legitimate dangers, and there were hysterical overstatements, and we still don’t know which was which'.

Read more in this section written by Nellie Bowles.  

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Professor Nick Couldry participates in the BM Show (April 2020)

Professor Couldry, co-author of The Costs of Connection, talks about data colonialism and how every aspect of the human experience is being colonized.

Listen here

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Associate Professor Alison Powell participates in the BM Show (April 2020)

The discussion talks about how data gets measured, and how to fight back as a community against emergency powers.

Listen here.

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The Portuguese translation of The Mediated Construction of Reality published (May 2020)

The book, written by Professor Nick Couldry and Andreas Hepp has been published in Portuguese.

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Professor Cammaerts produces a radio show (May 2020)

Together with David Wybrow (Director of the Cockpit Theatre), Professor Cammaerts has produced Sound Bites, a show with sounds that bite.

It focuses on a theme, academic concept and related texts and music.

Listen here.

zlag9lv4

Professor Sonia Livingstone receives Award for Distinguished Contribution to Social Psychology from the British Psychological Society (BPS) (May 2020)

The BPS Award for Distinguished Contributions to Social Psychology is given in recognition of a distinguished contribution to research in social psychology.

To read more about her research, click here, and here for details of the award. 

Dr Dylan Mulvin 2

Dr Dylan Mulvin interviewed for a podcast by Rottin' in Denmark to give his thoughts on the Y2K bug (May 2020)

Click here to listen. Read Dylan's paper 'Distributing liability: the legal and political battles of Y2K'.

 

2018

sarah-banet-weiser-2017

Sarah Banet-Weiser comments on Gillette's latest 'woke' campaign strategy (December 2018)

Gillette's new ad about toxic masculinity and #MeToo drew quick and sharp criticism. Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser spoke to NBC News to highlight the campaign as part of a much longer tradition of 'commodity activism', where political messages are harnessed to boost the reputation of the company and to sell products.

Find out more.

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Rodolfo Leyva appears on LSE's IQ Podcast (December 2018) 

In Episode 21 of LSE's award-winning podcast series LSE IQ, Dr Rodolfo Leyva talks about whether we can afford our consumer society, and explains that the emphasis on materialism as a way to be happy makes us more inclined to be selfish.rs on LSE IQ Podcast about consumerism and society.

Find out more.

Zoe2018

PhD Researcher Zoë Glatt's Q&A with LSE about her research and life as a doctoral candidate (December 2018)

Zoë Glatt, a second year ESRC-funded PhD researcher in the Department talks to LSE News about her doctoral project capturing experiences of content creators as they navigate an unpredictable and precarious career; and about LSE's world-leading academics, wonderful and welcoming PhD community, and fantastic resources.

Find out more.

Shani portrait 2017

Professor Shani Orgad wins SAGE prize for Excellence/Innovation (August 2018)

Congratulations to Rosalind Gill and our very own Professor Shani Orgad for winning the SAGE prize for Excellence/Innovation. Their prize-winning paper examines the notion of 'the resilient woman' in cultural discourse. The judges called it "an excellent and innovative paper that provides novel insights into how austerity and resilience are complex and interconnected".

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Welcome to our New Head of Department (August 2018)

On 1 August 2018, Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser joined LSE as Head of the Department of Media and Communications. Professor Banet-Weiser joins the Department from USC Annenberg, where she was Vice Dean and Director of the School for Communication. Her research interests include gender in the media, identity, citizenship, and cultural politics, consumer culture and popular media, race and the media, and intersectional feminism.

We thank Professor Robin Mansell for her term as Head of Department for 2017-18. Professor Mansell will now return to focus on her research, writing, teaching and super vision.

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New report on data-driven discrimination (July 2018)

A new report written by the team behind the Justice, Equity and Technology project has been released focusing on automated discrimination in data-driven systems. The report explains how algorithms discriminate and why this raises concerns for civil society organisations across Europe.

 More here.

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Sonia Livingstone advises on Council of Europe recommendations to EU states (July 2018)

The Council of Europe announced new recommendations to member states on children's rights in the digital environment. Professor Sonia Livingstone was Expert Advisor in drafting these recommendations.

 More here.

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New report on the economic benefits of connected airline operations (June 2018)

Visiting Fellow Dr Alexander Grous has released chapter 2 of his report Sky High Economics. Following the first instalment, Quantifying the Commercial Opportunities of Passenger Connectivity for the Global Airline Industry, which focused on revenue potential, this second report shines new light on the cost benefits of inflight connectivity.

More here.

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Jane Vincent and Leslie Haddon release new book (June 2018)

Smartphone Cultures, a new edited collection by Departmental researchers Jane Vincent and Leslie Haddon, explores emerging questions about the ways in which this mobile technology and its apps have been produced, represented, regulated and incorporated into everyday social practices. The various authors in this volume each locate their contributions within the circuit of culture model.

More here.

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Skakuntala Banaji and Bingchun Meng launch new books (June 2018)

The Department of Media and Communications was delighted to host the launch of two new books by Departmental faculty, Children and Media in India by Dr Shakuntala Banaji and The Politics of Chinese Media by Dr Bingchun Meng. Dr Banaji and Dr Meng gave short presentations on their books, followed by reflections from discussants Prof David Buckingham and Prof Harriet Evans.

More here.

Sonia Livingstone

Sonia Livingstone appears on The Digital Zen Podcast (May 2018)

Professor Sonia Livingstone talks to Helen Roe of The Digital Zen Podcast in this episode about maintaining emotional wellbeing in a digital age.

More here.

Shani news 2018

Shani Orgad speaks at LSE Education Symposium (May 2018)

Dr Shani Orgad gave a public talk at the LSE Education Symposium about learning through film-making, showcasing the migration storytelling project she developed for the MSc course Representation in the Age of Globalisation.

Find out more.

NewsDamianTambini2018

Damian Tambini compiles report for Council of Europe (May 2018)

A new Council of Europe publication entitled  “Internet and electoral campaigns - Study on the use of internet in electoral campaigns” has been prepared by the committee of experts on media pluralism and transparency of media ownership (MSI-MED) of the Council of Europe. The rapporteur for the report was Associate Professor Dr Damian Tambini.

More here.

Omar Al-Ghazzi

Omar Al-Ghazzi discusses chemical weapons attacks in Syria (April 2018)

Dr Omar Al-Ghazzi, Assistant Professor, spoke to Al-Jazeera’s The Listening Post about chemical weapon attacks in Syria, and specifically about the way in which images have been politicized to adhere to political agendas. Watch here.

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LSE Media and Communications researchers present findings at major industry event (April 2018)

Prof Terhi Rantanen and Atte Jääskeläinen were invited speakers at the spring conference of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) in Bucharest, where they shared some of the preliminary findings from their project, The Future of National News Agencies in Europe. You can find out more about the project here.

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Rafal Zaborowski wins LSE Student-led Award (April 2018)

Dr Rafal Zaborowski, LSE Fellow and PhD Alumni of the Department, has won an LSE Student-led Teaching Excellence Award in the ‘Class Teacher’ category. The panel commented: “Students particularly appreciated his emphasis on fair, respectful participation and innovative seminar activities which allow students to consider the views of different stakeholders.”

Sonia 2018

Sonia Livingstone tells BBC News parents and children ‘want more support online’ (April 2018)

In the wake of the UK Health Secretary’s threat that social media companies will be faced with new legislation if they don't do more to protect children online, Professor Sonia Livingstone, an expert on child online safety, talks to BBC News about how parents and children would like to see social media companies do things differently.

Watch here.

Shaku 2018

Shakuntala Banaji speaks to Al-Jazeera about race and representation (April 2018)

Dr Shakutala Banaji, Associate Professor, spoke to Al-Jazeera’s The Stream about how an institution like National Geographic can confront its own racist reporting, after the 130-year-old magazine apologised for portraying the world through a racist lens.

Watch here.

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Damian Tambini comments on the taming of big tech (April 2018)

In a recent piece for LSE News, Dr Damian Tambini, who has studied the growing power of internet companies since the late 1990s, summarises the wider change in mood as going from ‘hope to despair’. Dr Tambini's comments draw on the chapter he contributed to his 2018 co-edited collection Digital Dominance: The Power of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple.

Find out more.

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New report from Parenting for a Digital Future's national survey of UK parents (April 2018)

The Parenting for a Digital Future team, led by Professor Sonia Livingstone has released a second report ahead of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into force. The report found that parents want more protection for their teens online, and raises the question of who is looking out for children and their data privacy?

Find out more.

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Sam Mejias talks to LSE Thinks about why so many young Britons have a European identity (April 2018)

In this short video for LSE Thinks, Dr Sam Mejias, research officer for CATCH-EyoU talks about what Brexit means for today's generation of British young people and how the current turbulent and changing political climate of the UK influences the way that young people consider Europe. 

Watch the video.

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Winnie Li discusses social media and rape survivors on LSE Thinks podcast (April 2018)

Winnie Li, doctoral researcher, joins LSE's Prof Beverley Skeggs and Prof Jennifer Brown to discuss her research around rape survivors and social media in Episode 13 of the LSE IQ podcast Are we seeing a new gender equality revolution

Listen here.

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Lee Edwards launches new book Understanding Public Relations: Theory, Culture and Society (March 2018)

In her latest monograph, Dr Lee Edwards argues that public relations is not merely an organizational tool, but a powerful influence on social and political life. From carefully considered communication by multinational corporations, to government campaigns that manage public opinion, to the self-promotion of celebrities via social media, public relations is central to our individual and collective lives. “Lee Edwards’ important book offers a crucial and unique perspective on public relations by emphasizing society and culture as a sense-making context for PR.” (Sarah Banet-Weiser, USC Annenberg School for Communication). 

Find out more.

The Circulation of Anti-Austerity Protest

Bart Cammaerts releases new book The Circulation of Anti-Austerity Protest (March 2018)

In Dr Bart Cammaerts’ newly published monograph The Circulation of Anti-Austerity Protest (©2018, Palgrave) a set of theoretical and methodological resources are presented to study the way in which protest, resistance and social movement discourses circulate through society. Dr Cammaerts looks specifically at the role of media and of communication in this process. Empirically, the focus of this book is on the UK’s anti-austerity movement. “This is a very important and valuable book that that places mediation and communication processes at the heart of the social, cultural and political phenomena associated to protest, collective action and social change.” (Maria Rovisco, University of Leicester, UK). 

Find out more.

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Omar Al-Ghazzi discusses media freedom in Egypt with Al-Jazera (February 2018)

Dr Omar Al-Ghazzi, Assistant Professor, speaks to Al-Jazeera's The Listening Post about media freedoms and dissenting voices in Egypt.

Watch here.

Bart 2018

Bart Cammaerts talks to BBC Radio 4 about technology and resistance (February 2018)

Dr Bart Cammaerts, Associate Professor, was interviewed by Aleks Krotoski for BBC Radio 4's The Digital Human. Dr Cammaerts discussed the means by which technologies get taken up by individuals to express resistance or dissatisfaction, but that the effects and trajectory of social change are unpredictable.

Listen here.

The Politics of Chinese Media

Bingchun Meng releases new book The Politics of Chinese Media: Consensus and Contestation (February 2018)

Dr Bingchun Meng’s new monograph The Politics of Chinese Media: Consensus and Contestation (©2018, Palgrave) offers an analytical account of the consensus and contestations of the politics of Chinese media at both institutional and discursive levels. It considers the formal politics of how the Chinese state manages political communication internally and externally in the post-socialist era, and examines the politics of news media, focusing particularly on how journalists navigate the competing demands of the state, the capital and the urban middle class readership. “With vivid examples and timely case studies, Bingchun Meng offers a historically informed, engaging, and insightful mapping of the rapidly changing, increasingly multifaceted, and ever-contentious landscape of communication and contemporary Chinese politics.” (Yuezhi Zhao, Simon Fraser University).

 Find out more.

Cesar Jimenez

PhD alumnus César Jiménez-Martínez interviewed (February 2018) 

PhD alumnus Dr César Jiménez-Martínez appeared in Brazil’s Brasilianismo Blog to discuss the global Image of Brazil during the June 2013 demonstrations. Dr Jiménez-Martínez discussed some of the main points of his PhD research, such as the influence of the international media and the impact of the protests on the way Brazil is viewed abroad.

See here.

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New Report for Safer Internet Day 2018 (February 2018) 

On February 6, the team behind Preparing for a Digital Future, led by Professor Sonia Livingstone, has released a brand new report summarising the results of a national survey of UK parents entitled In the digital home, how do parents support their children and who supports them? The report is released to mark Safer Internet Day 2018.

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Visiting professorship for Bart Cammaerts (February 2018) 

Dr Bart Cammaerts has been appointed Bonnier Guest Professor at the University of Stockholm's Department of Media Studies for Spring 2018. As part of his guest professorship, Dr Cammaerts gave a public lecture on 7 February entitled The Mainstreaming of Extreme Right-Wing Populism: What is to be done?

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New chapter for PhD alumnus César Jiménez-Martínez (February 2018) 

PhD alumnus Dr César Jiménez-Martínez has recently published a chapter in the edited collection Branding Latin America: Strategies, Aims, Resistance (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018). The chapter 'Constructing and Projecting the Image of Brazil during the June 2013 Demonstrations' builds on research conducted in his doctoral thesis, available here.

 

2017

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Prof Sonia Livingstone awarded honorary doctorate (November 2017) 

On 17 November, Professor Sonia Livingstone was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. To mark the occasion, Sonia gave a public lecture entitled 'Where are the (implied) audiences in mediation and mediatization research?'. More here.

Commenting on the honour, Professor Livingstone said: "It’s wonderful to receive such an honour from the University of Copenhagen, for my work on media audiences and publics, and the mediation of childhood, as I have long admired and engaged with the excellent work of colleagues in the Department of Media, Communication and Cognition."

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Doctoral Researcher Paula Kiel gives TED-x Talk (September 2017) 

On 1 September, Paula Kiel gave a TED-x Talk at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, entitled 'Keeping communications alive when you're dead'. Watch here.

The theme of the event was ‘The Next Stage’, with Paula’s talk centred around the ways we communicate with the deceased in contemporary life. Paula writes and researches on the subject of post-mortem digital interaction as part of her doctoral project, which you can learn more about in this LSE video that Paula recorded introducing her research.

Watch here.

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Wendy Willems features on Al Jazeera programme on ‘Mugabe’s Media Legacy’ (September 2017) 

Dr Wendy Willems, Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Communications, was featured in Al Jazeera’s ‘The Listening Post’ on 3 September to discuss ‘Mugabe’s Media Legacy’. Dr Willems was invited to participate as a result of her research on media and the ‘Zimbabwe crisis’. 

Watch here.

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Alison Powell leads 'data walk' for Royal Geographical Society (August 2017) 

Dr Alison Powell will be leading a ‘data walkshop’ in the vicinity of the Royal Geographical Society on Friday 25 August. Explore and discuss the data surveillance processes at play, and their effects on trade and exchange.  Alison and the group will be working through a process of rapid group ethnography that Alison has developed with the Museum of Contemporary Commodities and other projects to investigate data mediations and their effects. Book a place here. See more about Alison’s innovative research proecess of ‘data walking’ here

Sonia Livingstone

Sonia Livingstone interviewed about Child Exploitation Online (August 2017) 

Professor Sonia Livingstone OBE has spent years talking to tech companies about how they should tackle the growing problem of online child abuse. The question is: do they want to? Professor Livingstone is interviewed on this and more by Thomas Fox-Brewster of Forbes. 

More here.

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Shani Orgad presents research to Cabinet Office (July 2017) 

On 17 July, Dr Shani Orgad (Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications) gave an opening presentation to the Women Returners Project Sprint, organised by the Policy Lab at the Cabinet Office. Dr Orgad’s presentation drew upon her research into women who have left paid employment, entitled Heading Home: Cultural Representations and Lived Experience of Women, Work and Family

Click here for more on this project.

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Dr Shakuntala Banaji comments on UK General Election 2017 (June 2017) 

Dr Shakuntala Banaji, Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications, has contributed a piece to Election Analysis about young people and propaganda in the wake of the 2017 general election. Dr Banaji comments "The election result is a resounding confirmation that young voters, socialist values, alternative leftwing media and grassroots work on doorsteps can challenge mainstream media." 

 Click here for more information.

Sonia Livingstone

Sonia Livingstone contributes to Governmental report

Professor Sonia Livingstone has contributed to a report for the Lords Select Communications Committee, Growing up with the Internet. The Committee called on the Government to establish a Children’s Digital Champion to ensure coordinated and sustained action from Ministers across all departments and to present robust advocacy on behalf of children to industry.

More here.

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New publication by PhD Researcher

Doctoral researcher César Jiménez-Martínez published the article 'Making Chile visible: purposes, operationalisation and audiences from the perspective of nation branding practitioners', in the journal Geopolitics. The article is part of an special issue focussed on nation branding. 

Sonia Livingstone

Sonia Livingstone speaks to the International Institute of Communications' Policy

Watch Professor Sonia Livingstone speaking about her role as an advocate of children's rights online and her 'edit' of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to include the challenges of the digital environment.

Read more here.

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PhD Researcher wins prestigious Canadian award

Brooks DeCillia, doctoral researcher in the Department of Media and Communications was selected as 2017 recipient of Canada’s Dalton Camp Award for ‘Best Essay by a Post-Secondary Student’  The Dalton Camp Award, presented by Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, is an essay competition which focuses on the link between democracy and the media in Canada. Brooks’ award-winning essay ‘In Defense of CBC’ is available to read here

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New special issue co-edited by Sonia Livingstone

‘Children’s and Young People’s Rights in the Digital Age’ is an important and timely special issue of New Media & Society which focuses attention on rights-based approaches towards balancing children’s need for protection online with their capacity to maximize the opportunities and benefits of connectivity. Guest edited by Sonia Livingstone (LSE) and Amanda Third (Western Sydney University), this special issue offers a collection of papers which draw out the wider tensions and dilemmas driving the emerging agenda for children’s rights in the digital age.

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New Report from Visiting Professor Jim Macnamara

The Department of Media and Communications, along with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) are proud to jointly publish Creating a 'Democracy for Everyone' Strategies for increasing listening and engagement by government, a report of a two-year, three-country research study by Visiting Professor Jim Macnamara of how, and how well governments, corporations, and other types of organisations listen to their stakeholders and publics. In the wake of Brexit, the shock election of Donald Trump, the rise of the Alt-right in Europe and other countries, and ‘hung’ parliaments in Australia in recent years, the findings send a warning signal to governments and all types of organisations.

Myria Georgiou

Myria Georgiou in new videos on migration and media

Myria Georgiou contributes to online learning resources for refugees and non-refugees by discussing media narratives on the “migration crisis” in Europe. This e-learning resource is produced by Migration Matters and the curriculum is developed in collaboration with Sharing Perspectives Foundation (an EU-funded organisation that conducts virtual exchanges with refugees and non-refugees to promote mutual understanding and dialogue on contemporary themes).

Myria’s video is available here.

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PhD Researcher César Jiménez-Martínez presents at UK conference

On 6 April, PhD researcher César Jiménez-Martínez presented a paper called 'Replacement, adjustment and reappropriation: Examining the role of the media during the June 2013 protests in Brazil', during the annual conference of the Society of Latin American Studies, at the University of Glasgow.

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Public event given by Wendy Willems

On 23 February, Dr Wendy Willems spoke at the Oxford Internet Institute. Her talk, Spatializing Publics engaged in issues around mobile social media, urban sociability and the materiality of civic engagement.

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New book co-authored by Nick Couldry

The German Communication Association (DGPuK) has awarded its 2017 Theory Prize to The Mediated Construction of Reality (2016, Polity) by Nick Couldry (LSE) and Andreas Hepp (University of Bremen). The book innovatively and originally builds on existing theories and develops a basis for an understanding of a society that is shaped by media, digitalization and datafication. In their monograph, Couldry and Hepp discuss the question of the profound role digital media play in shaping and changing the social world, the consequences which can arise from that, but also what this means normatively for human coexistence

“A profound and illuminating attempt to bring core traditions of social theory into the study of media in the digital age. An excellent and pathbreaking book”  ­ - Anthony Giddens.

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Media and Communications comes #1 in UK and #3 globally

LSE's Department of Media and Communications has been rated #1 in the UK and #3 globally in the 2017 QS World University Rankings, with USC Annenberg School of Journalism and Communication again rated #1 in the world. The two institutions collaborate on a double degree in MSc/MA Global Media and Communications, as well as joining forces to research the profound implications of media and communications technologies for our shared futures.

Find out more.

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New book co-edited by Shani Orgad

Caring in Crisis? Humanitarianism, the Public and NGOs

By Irene Bruna Seu and Shani Orgad

With commentaries from Alison Carlman, Leigh Dayness, Paul Hoggett, Monika Krause, Sonia Livingstone, Glen Tarman

Drawing on an original UK-wide study of public responses to humanitarian issues and how NGOs communicate them, this timely book provides the first evidence-based psychosocial account of how and why people respond or not to messages about distant suffering. The book highlights what NGOs seek to achieve in their communications and explores how their approach and hopes match or don’t match what the public wants, thinks and feels about distant suffering.

Irene Bruna Seu is Reader in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, UK, and a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist.

Shani Orgad is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

“This volume presents cutting edge multi-method research which will contribute greatly to our understanding of strategies that can successfully motivate bystanders, NGOS, and governments to act in positive ways about humanitarian issues. This carefully-designed volume offers a careful, incisive analysis and impressively includes essays by both influential academics and advocates. A first-rate book!”

- Alison Dundes Renteln, Professor of Political Science, University of Southern California, USA)

Click here for a review from Paul Vanags, Head of Public Fundraising, Oxfam GB, UK.

Sonia Livingstone

The Culture Secretary has commissioned Professor Sonia Livingstone, Professor Joanne Davidson and Dr Jo Bryce to provide up to date evidence of how young people use the internet, the dangers they face, and the gaps that exist in keeping them safe. The report will contribute to the Internet Safety Strategy aimed at making Britain the safest country in the world for children and young people to be online. The new cross-Government drive is being led by Culture Secretary Karen Bradley MP on behalf of the Prime Minister with a green paper expected in summer 2017.

The report will be an updated version of this 2012 literature review produced for the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) Children's Online Activities: Risks and Safety.

Professor Livingstone commented:

“It’s really important that the UK’s new Internet Safety Strategy is grounded in solid evidence about children’s online risks and safety. We are now reviewing all the latest studies we can find, to counter some of the panicky headlines, put the risks into perspective, and guide the optimal mix of actions from government, industry, schools and parents.”

Current students

We are delighted to announce the Rankin Frost Scholarship for the MSc in Strategic Communications. The scholarship will fully cover the tuition fees for a student on the MSc in Strategic Communications

Eligibility

The recipient of the scholarship will be selected among candidates for the programme. Priority will be given to students from Sub-Saharan Africa, India and the UK.

How to apply

Once you have submitted your application for admission to LSE you will be emailed with a link to the LSE Graduate Financial Support Application form online. The deadline for completing the form is 26 April 2017, although we recommend you apply as soon as possible after receiving the link.

Please visit the Graduate Admissions website for information on how to apply.

Sonia Livingstone

On Friday 27 January, Professor Sonia Livingstone will speak at the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection 2017 conference ‘The Age of Intelligent Machines’

Professor Livingstone will participate in a panel which discusses how best to protect the privacy & welfare of children & teens – so called digital natives – who are increasingly targeted by companies across their devices and online activities. She will bring insight from her work with the UK Council for Child Internet Safety Evidence Group to examine how and when children’s commercial media literacy develops, necessitating protection from regulation, parents and media education.

Nicole Garnier

In the LSE Values in Practice (VIP) awards, Nicole Garnier, MSc Programmes Manager, was nominated in all three individual categories and highly commended  in the LSE Citizenship Individual award. James Deeley, Departmental Research Manager was nominated in the ‘Unsung Hero’ category. Well done, Nicole and James! We are proud of you!

Sarah Banet-Weiser

The Department of Media and Communications is delighted to announce that Sarah Banet-Weiser will be joining us as full Professor of Media and Communications from 2018

Sarah is currently Director of the USC Annenberg School of Communication, Los Angeles, and will become our Head of Department from 1 September 2018.  

Follow Sarah on Twitter at @SBanetWeiser.

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"After everything that happened in politics in 2016 is there anyone left in the world who doesn’t think that journalism matters to democracy?" 

On 6 January, Charlie Beckett published a piece in the New Statesman on the relationship between journalism and politics. The article, Did the press create post-fact politics? also features on the Polis blog.

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Sonia Livingstone

Sonia Livingstone receives new funding for Maximising children’s online opportunities and minimising risks (MOMRO)

Sonia Livingstone and Mariya Stoilova have recently been awarded a grant from the LSE Knowledge Exchange Fund for working on Maximising children’s online opportunities and minimising risks for children around the world (MOMRO). This LSE funding will allow them to collaborate with colleagues from UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti and with partners from ArgentinaMontenegroSerbiaSouth Africa, and the Philippines to extend and deepen the knowledge exchange and impact (KEI) from the Global Kids Online research project. MOMRO will involve developing a KEI toolkit for the GKO online platform with existing and new partners specifically designed to maximise opportunities and minimise risks online for children around the world.

Global Kids Online is attracting considerable interest from states, private sector and NGOs, and the pilot research in four countries has already informed the development of national policy and practice. Following the launch of the research toolkit in November 2016, it is vital to sustain and extend the project capacity for cross-national knowledge exchange among present and new partners and to embed the growing evidence base within policy and practice. MOMRO will aim to harness the international potential of the growing evidence-based and child rights approach to maximising opportunities and minimising risks in a fast-expanding, globalising digital environment. 

The new funding will be used to exploit the KEI potential of just-completed research, running concurrently with expansion of the research to support the translation of the emerging evidence base into effective policy and child rights solutions, especially in the middle- and low-income countries where children are now gaining internet access. This is consistent with the commitment of the Global Kids online team to an active partnership between central coordinators and national projects, and between researchers and research users/stakeholders.

Further information here.

You can sign up to receive the latest research news from Global Kids Online by email.

Details about the Global Kids Online project and the work of Sonia Livingstone and Mariya Stoilova.

More about the LSE KEI Fund.

Watch the video

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Nick Couldry has been appointed as a lead coordinating author for Media and Communications chapter of the International Panel on Social Progress 2017 Report 'Rethinking Society for the 21st Century'. The final report will be published in 2017, following the current period of consultation and an authors’ conference in Lisbon in January 2017.

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On 28 November, Dr Alison Powell of the Department of Media and Communications was featured on the BBC World Service to talk about the rise of 'social bots' - pieces of software which aim to mimic human behaviour on social media to sway support towards, or away, from political candidates or parties.

Listen to the segment and read more about the rise of social bots in Dr Powell’s co-written article Bots and Political Influence: A Sociotechnical Investigation of Social Network Capital

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On 29 November, Sonia Livingstone (@Livingstone_S) will give a plenary session at The 4th annual Child Internet Safety Summit in London. Professor Livingstone’s speech entitled Living & Learning in the Digital Age – connected youth and digital futures.

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On 22 November, Dr Shani Orgad of the Department of Media and Communications will be a talk on ‘refugees and the media: a crisis of imagination’ at the J. P. Morgan symposium on Philanthropy’s Role in the Refugee Crisis. Other speakers include UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein and Mark Golding, Chief Executive of Oxfam GB.

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On 18 November, media policy expert Dr Damian Tambini (@DamianTambini) of the Department of Media and Communications gave a keynote address at the 2016 Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights in Brussels. The colloquium theme was ‘Media pluralism and democracy’ and Dr Tambini’s talk focused on protecting pluralism and media freedom and the free flow of opinions and ideas within and outside the EU. Dr Tambini is Director of the Media Policy Project and its accompanying blog, which aims to promote media policy communication between academics, civil society, media professionals and policy makers.

Sonia Livingstone

On 17 November, Professor Sonia Livingstone of the Department of Media and Communications will give the opening keynote at the European Schoolnet’s annual Expert Meeting in Education Networking (EMINENT) in Prague. Professor Livingstone’s keynote will focus on the topic of ‘Digital citizenship: what it is, what it should be’. Her talk will draw on insights from her new book, ‘The Class: Living and learning in the digital age’, relating this to the European policy context for youth learning and participation.

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Professor Robin Mansell has been elected to the Board of Directors of TPRC – Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy – which meets annually in Arlington VA, US

Its mission is to promote "interdisciplinary thinking on current and emerging issues in communications and the Internet by disseminating and discussing new research relevant to policy questions in the U.S. and around the world. It serves researchers, policymakers, and members of the private sector and civil society, from students to well-established practitioners”.

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Sonia Livingstone appeared on Czech national radio station Český rozhlas on 10 November to discuss the Global Kids Online project.

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LSE’s Learning Technology & Innovation have highlighted the amazing work of Dr Shani Orgad, Associate Professor, as one of four LSE Innovators case studies for Michaelmas Term 2016.  You can find the link to her case study here. Her case study celebrates her work as an advocate for student learning and innovative pedagogy.  Both through the interview and the case study, Shani demonstrates a critical but curious approach to teaching and learning, and her use of fictional characters like Paddington bear introduces a playful yet serious element to her teaching. This comes through clearly and passionately in the video that celebrates her work. Shani is the first of the LSE Innovators announced for 2016/17 and joins 11 other LSE academics as part of the Innovators series, which you can find here.

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Professor Robin Mansell of the Department of Media and Communications was keynote speaker at the EuroMedia Research Group ECREA Pre-Conference, 8-9 November, Prague. Professor Mansell spoke on ‘Inequality and Digitally Mediated Communication: Divides, Contradictions and Consequences’.

Global Kids Online

The Global Kids Online project, launched on 2 November 2016 at the Children’s Lives in the Digital Age seminar held at UNICEF Headquarters in New York, aims to build a global network of researchers investigating the risks and opportunities of child internet use. The Global Kids Online website makes high quality, flexible research tools freely available worldwide.

Speaking at the New York launch event, Principal Investigator Professor Sonia Livingstone observed: “As the internet reaches more children in more countries, it is vital to extend the evidence base to guide policy makers as they balance children’s rights to participation, provision and protection online.”

For more information, visit www.globalkidsonline.net.

Professor Livingstone writes about the project in The Conversation.

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On 2 November, Dr Ellen Helsper (@EllenHel) of the Department of Media and Communications was in Chile to present a paper at the COES-LSE Conference on Inequalities entitled ‘Digital inequalities in Latin America:  An evaluation of the definition, development and potential effectiveness of Policies’.  On 3 November, Dr Helsper presents her book chapter: Inequalities in Digital Literacy: Definitions, Measurement, Explanations and Policy Implications (from the TIC Household Survey Book, 2016) in Sao Paolo.

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Dr Bart Cammaerts of the Department of Media and Communications was in Sweden on 29 October to present a paper entitled ‘Self-mediation practices of the anti-austerity movement. A dialectic between the symbolic and the material’  at a colloqium on Communication, material and discursive power dynamics, co-organised by Uppsala University and DESIRE, the Centre for the study of Democracy.

Photo 1 (c) Derya Yuksek

Photo 2 (c) Derya Yuksek

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Professor Lilie Chouliaraki of the Department of Media and Communications will present a public lecture at Northwestern University's School of Communication in Illinois on Monday 31 October. Professor Chouliaraki will present findings from her and Myria Georgiou's fieldwork conducted in December 2015 on the Greek border island of Chios in a lecture entitled The Digital Border: The Communicative Networks of Reception during the European Refugee Crisis. This event will follow a symposium co-sponsored by the Department of Media and Communications and Northwestern University on The Ethics of Mediataking place on 27 and 28 October and featuring keynotes by Paul Frosh (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Nick Vaughan-Williams (University of Warwick). She will also give the keynote lecture at the 6th International Conference on Digital Ethics at Loyola University and offer a faculty talk at the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

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LSE’s inaugural Excellence in Education Awards were made in June 2016, to a total of 5 members of faculty from the Department of Media and Communications:

Dr Myria Georgiou, Associate Professor
Dr Ellen Helsper, Associate Professor
Dr Shani Orgad, Associate Professor
Dr Alison Powell, Assistant Professor
Dr Damian Tambini, Associate Professor
Dr Sadie Wearing, (convenor of the MSc Gender, Media and Culture, the Department’s co-taught degree with the Gender Institute)

Read an interview with Dr Damian Tambini about his teaching on LSE’s Education Blog

Myria Georgiou

Can the media make us more welcoming?

Is the European media reflecting the “refugee crisis” or helping create it? This is the question posed by Myria Georgiou, Deputy Head of LSE Media and Communications, in her project analysing how newspapers in nine European countries covered the so-called refugee crisis in 2015.

Myria's seemingly impossible idea is for the media to be more productive in helping us understand complex issues around migration. Check the video here.

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Fanning the Flames: Reporting Terror in a Networked World

Charlie Beckett has written a report in collaboration with Tow Centre for the Digital Journalism in New York that looks at the problems facing journalism around terrorism: the increasing speed of the news cycle; new technologies and the limits on resources; the challenge of verification, definition, proportionality; and dealing with spin and propaganda. The report was recently launched at an event in the Columbia Journalism School in NYC on 17th October.

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Dr Shani Orgad of the Department of Media and Communications will be presenting her research on media representations of working and stay-at-home mothers at a panel discussion Women and the Workplace: Separating Myths from Reality, hosted by Bloomberg on 4 November.  Dr Orgad will present findings from her research publications Incongruous encounters: media representations and lived experiences of stay-at-home mothers and The cruel optimism of The Good Wife: the fantastic working mother on the fantastical treadmill  and then take part in a panel discussion with industry leaders from Dell, BP and Barclays. 

Sonia Livingstone

On Tuesday 27 September, Professor Sonia Livingstone presented evidence to the first meeting of EC Commissioner Oettinger’s new Alliance to Better Protect Minors Online, in Brussels, building on the work she led by the EU Kids Online network. The Alliance, comprising CEOs of leading ICT and media companies and representatives from civil society, will report on progress on Safer Internet Day in early 2017. 

On Wednesday 28  September, Professor Livingstone addressed the Ad hoc Committee for the Rights of the Child (CAHENF) at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on developing guidance for its 47 member states regarding the rights on the child in the digital environment. In presenting discussing the priorities for action, illustrated with good practice case studies and framed by an analysis of the legal standards in Europe related to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, she built on her earlier presentation to the Conference on the Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of the Child (2016-2021) Sofia, April 2016.

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Professor Marc Raboy, Visiting Professor in the Department of Media and Communications, has been shortlisted in the 2016 Governor General’s Literary Awards for his book Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World, (Oxford University Press). Professor Raboy will be giving a public lecture based on his book on Tuesday 11 October entitled The Man Who Networked the World: Guglielmo Marconi and the invention of modern communicationProfessor Raboy has also blogged about the subject: The first company that wanted to ‘connect the world’ wasn’t Google or Facebook.

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Congratulations to Paula Kiel, doctoral researcher in the Department of Media and Communications who has won the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) 2016 Best Student Paper Award.  Her paper - The emerging practices of the collective afterlife: multimodal analysis of websites for post-mortem digital interaction - particularly impressed the judging panel for its strong theoretical grounding, the novelty of its object, and its overall relevance to the field of internet research. 

The paper will be presented in Berlin at the AoIR Conference (#AoIR2016) on 7 October 2016. More about Paula’s presentation here.

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Professor Nick Couldry (@CouldryNick), Head of the Department of Media and Communications, was featured in The Conversation  on 23 September in an article focusing on ‘The price of connection: ‘surveillance capitalism’.  Professor Couldry’s article explores the risks to freedom, autonomy and democracy posed by living in a society which increasingly relies on connecting individuals through internet platforms. The article is part of a wider project on The Price of Connection that Professor Couldry is undertaking for The Enhancing Life Project, funded by the University of Chicago.

Sonia Livingstone

Professor Sonia Livingstone has been appointed as a specialist adviser to the Communications Committee Inquiry into children and the internetMore details are available. 

Professor Livingstone commented: “It’s an honour and a challenge to act as specialist advisor to the Communications Committee inquiry. An honour, because it’s a fantastic group to work with, and I know we’re about to be deluged with evidence in response to the call. A challenge, because there’s so much that needs to be done.” 

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Dr Ellen Helsper, Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communicationsprovided input to the Barclays Digital Development Index, which benchmarked 10 countries around the world on their readiness to compete in the digital economy.  Launched on Tuesday 19 July, the report, which can be found here, highlights that the UK, one of the most active online consumer markets globally, lags behind other countries when it comes to being able to create new digital technologies.

Dr Helsper commented: “One organisation – whether government, business or charity – will not be able to tackle this problem alone. Nor can there be a ‘one size fits all’ approach. The solutions must be tailored to the needs and circumstances of the people that are going to be using these technologies.”

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European Migration Crisis and the Media: Preliminary findings

During the 2016 POLIS conference on April 21, researchers from Media and Communications department’s European Migration Crisis and the Media project presented their preliminary findings for the first time. A panel consisting of Dr Myria Georgiou and Dr Rafal Zaborowski along with student researchers Antonis Dimitriadis, Lisa Elkhoury, Afroditi Koulaxi, Sadichchha Pokharel and Pauline Vidal discussed their research on European media coverage of the migration crisis. See here for powerpoint presentation and audio.

Myria Georgiou

Dr Myria Georgiou and Dr Wallis Motta are winners of The International Association for Media and Communication Research -IAMCR- and the Urban Communication Foundation 2016 Urban Communication Research Grant for their project Community Through Digital Connectivity? Communication Infrastructure in Multicultural London. The research grant will be awarded at the IAMCR 2016 Conference during the plenary session on 28 July. Find out more.

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Congratulations to Rafal Zaborowski who was awarded an LSE Students’ Union (LSESU) Class Teacher Award for his excellent teaching during the 2015-16 academic year. The award was presented to Dr Zaborowski at the Teaching Awards Celebration event in The Venue on the evening of Wednesday 11 May. See the full listing of LSESU Teaching award winners 2016 here.

Sonia Livingstone

Congratulations to Professor Sonia Livingstone, who has been shortlisted for the prestigious ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize 2016. Professor Livingstone has been recognised in the Outstanding International Impact category. For more on Professor Livingstone's work, see her latest book The Class and her world-leading impact case study Protecting and empowering children in digital environments.

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PhD Researcher Winnie Li has been shortlisted for the prestigious Asian Women of Achievement Awards 2016 in the Social and Humanitarian category, for her work on the issue of sexual assault and consent, including launching the Clear Lines Festival. Winnie writes about her nomination on her blog. 

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On 18 April, Professor Charlie Beckett of the Department of Media and Communications appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week to discuss news reporting on war, conflict the rise of citizen journalism. Listen here.

Sonia Livingstone

On 19 April, Professor Sonia Livingstone of the Department of Media and Communications appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today to discuss the first parliamentary inquiry into the scale of sexual harassment and violence in schools. Listen here from 1hr 9mins.

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On 19 April, Dr Nick Anstead of the Department of Media and Communications appeared on BBC Radio 4’s World Update to discuss party politics and identity. Listen here.

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On 28 April, Dr Bart Cammaerts of the Department of Media and Communications will be giving a public talk at Northwestern University in Illinois on The Circuit of Socio-Political Struggle: The encoding, mediation and decoding of anti-austerity discourses. Dr Cammaerts will also be holding a multi-method research designs and triangulation session for postgraduates studying media and communications courses. Dr Cammaerts' visit is the latest event held as part of the ongoing research initative between LSE’s Department of Media and Communications and the Northwestern University School of Communication.

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LSE's Department of Media and Communications has been rated #1 outside of the US and #3 globally in the 2016 QS World University Rankings, with USC Annenberg School of Journalism and Communication again rated #1 in the world. The two institutions collaborate on a double degree in MSc/MA Global Media and Communications, as well as joining forces to research the profound implications of media and communications technologies for our shared futures. See more Find out more.

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On 17 March, Associate Professor Dr Bart Cammaerts gave a paper on The Transgressive Nature of the Mainstream Media Representation of Jeremy Corbyn at the Media and Transgression Symposium held at Lund University in Sweden. In this paper, co-written with Media and Communications PhD Researchers  Brooks DeCilliaCésar Jiménez-Martínez and João Carlos Magalhães, Dr Cammaerts presented the preliminary results of a small-scale research project on mainstream media  representations of Jeremy Corbyn funded by the Department of Media and Communications.

Global Kids Online

LSE Department of Media and Communications convenes a meeting of Global Kids Online ahead of launch of global toolkit for research on children’s digital experience

LSE’s Department of Media and Communications and UNICEF Innocenti are convening the second Global Kids Online network meeting at LSE on 21 and 22 March 2016. The network will be presenting the lessons learned from international research findings on children’s internet use and will develop research and policy recommendations for the launch of the toolkit in late 2016.

The meeting will host close to 40 academics and UNICEF staff from 14 different countries, including Argentina, South Africa, Serbia, the Philippines, Montenegro, India, and Ghana). A report from the meeting will be published on the project website shortly after the meeting. See here for more information on this meeting.

Global perspectives on media events

PhD Researcher César Jiménez-Martínez published the book chapter 'Integrative disruption: The rescue of the 33 Chilean miners as a live media event', as part of the edited collection Global Perspectives on Media Events in Contemporary Society.

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Dr Alison Powell has been highlighted by LSE’s Learning Technology & Innovation team as one of three LSE Innovators case studies for Lent Term 2016. Check out her case study on An Ethical Approach to Teaching

Alison comments: “I am interested in how people think about technologies, and how they can build them in ways that transform the world… when we build technologies, especially of communication, we actually build them with a set of values that are in the world that we occupy at the time that we build them.”

Alison will be giving an LSE networkEd seminar organised by LSE’s Learning Technology & Innovation team us on 18 May 2016.

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Professor Livingstone awarded honorary doctorate from the University of Panthéon-Assas

On Friday 29 January, Professor Sonia Livingstone was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). The award was conferred to her by the President of the University, William Leyte, in the great amphitheatre.

Professor Livingstone said: "Collaborating with researchers across Europe has long been central to my work on audiences, given the transnational nature of media, so it was a pleasure to receive this honour from the University of Panthéon-Assas.

See more images below:

Honorary Doctorate Professor Livingstone 1
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Honorary Doctorate Professor Livingstone 4

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Robin Mansell, Professor of New Media and the Internet and LSE Deputy Director and Provost, has been featured in the January 2016 Newsletter of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). Professor Mansell has been highlighted for the contribution to the life and work of IAMCR. She joined IAMCR in 1984 and over the years has been an active member and served as a section head as well chair or member of numerous committees. Read more here.

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Dr Ellen Helsper, Associate Professor, participated on 6 & 7 January in a meeting launching the Kids Online Chile survey and the Latin American Kids Online project. The meeting was organised by the Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso and the Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago, where 30 experts from Chile and abroad discussed how to adapt the surveys of Kids Online Europe to the contexts of different Latin American countries and to design the Chilean survey.

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PhD Researcher Cesar Jimenez-Martinez was interviewed by the Brazilian blog Brasilianismo about the media coverage of the January 2016 protests in Sao Paulo. 'Given that violence has become the centre of the debate, the reasons why people are protesting get buried', he said.

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Dr Shani Orgad, Associate Professor will be a panel-member at the Reading The Pictures Salon event on The Visual Framing of the Migrant Crisis. The event will be held on Sunday 10 January 2016 on a Google HangOut platform accommodating live audio and video with involvement from viewers via live chat. 

Event abstract: Photos of the migrant crisis have dominated the media space over the past year. What can we learn from the way traditional and social media, primarily in the west, has depicted the crisis in terms of context; scale and scope; demographics (including gender, race and nationality); geopolitics; aesthetics; empathy and sensitivity?

2015

GregoryAsmolov

Gregory Asmolov, PhD Researcher in the Department of Media and Communications, has been published in the Oxford Internet Institute’s Policy and Internet blog. The article, entitled  Controlling the crowd? Government and citizen interaction on emergency-response platform discusses the use of crowdsourcing tools and practices in emergency situations.

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Dr Bart Cammaerts, Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications will give a keynote lecture on 2 December in Sorbonne, Paris at the Institut des Sciences de la Communication (CNRS/Paris Sorbonne/UPMC) Times and Temporalities of the Web conference. His lecture is entitled “The Resistant Shaping of Technologies of Self-Mediation: hacking print, telecoms, broadcasting and the internet”.

"This presentation will be focusing not only on digital technologies, but also on what are commonly  called traditional media, print cultures, audio and broadcasting, especially radio, but also on the role of telecommunication. The temporal dimension in my intervention will thus relate to a historical  dimension and the various ways in which counter-cultures and activists have over time  appropriated and subsequently perverted information and communication technologies to suit their particular needs and to shape the media and communication technologies at their disposal into  tools of resistance. At the same time, we can also observe that the powers-that-be do everything  they possibly can to disrupt, regulate, impede, limit, the impact of resisting groups appropriating  their own means of communication… not always successfully. In fact, the creativity of activists to  bypass the multiple repressive tactics by the state and the corporate sector is quite astonishing  and consistent over time; very often activists use or deturn – to use a Debordian term – the system against the system, which amounts to a hack.

Besides this historical perspective at an empirical level, I will also mobilize Foucault’s notion of Technologies of the Self to make sense of the various ways in which the self-mediation practices of  activists and social movements feed into the construction of their collective identity as well as the enactment of their protest mobilizations and actions. The Technologies of the Self also serves theoretically to understand how this process, which has a symbolic as well as a material side, is  characterized by simultaneously operating and ever changing agentic as well as constraining dynamics. The interplay between these dynamics tends to give rise to productive and innovative  activist interventions when it comes to the shaping of media and communication technologies for activist needs."

Charlie Beckett T3

Charlie Beckett, Professor and Director of Polis has been appointed as Special Advisor on broadcasting to the House of Commons Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport

Professor Beckett says: "This is a critical time for broadcasting in Britain and I look forward to contributing some insights from my time both as a journalist and academic to the policy-making process."

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Dr Shani Orgad, Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications spoke at the Public Policy Exchange Symposium Towards Gender Equality: Supporting Women in the Workplace  on 10 NovemberHer talk was entitled Heading Home: What can workplaces learn from the women who left them?

Cesar Jimenez

César Jiménez-Martínez, PhD Researcher in the Department of Media and Communications, participated in the colloquium 'Trauma and Memory: Europe and Latin America', which took part in the Embassy of Argentina. The colloquium is part of the European Union funded project MEMOSUR: Lessons for Europe from Argentina and Chile. 

Youth participation in democratic life

New book: Youth Participation in Democratic Life: stories of hope and disillusion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)

Bart Cammaerts, Michael Bruter, Shakuntala Banaji, Sarah Harrison, Nick Anstead.

This book analyses and assesses the contexts, nature and the diversity of young people's participation in European democratic life. The authors provide an interdisciplinary conceptual framework addressing participation, power, democracy, efficacy and media. Using dynamic, original data collected in surveys, focus groups, interviews and a field experiment, Youth Participation in Democratic Life address young people's attitudes towards voting, participation and representation in policy processes and politicians. Democracy is, however, much more than voting, so volunteering and contentious politics are also elaborated upon. Examining the role of traditional and new media in facilitating youth participation in democratic life, as well as the complex dynamics of youth exclusion from economic, educational and social spheres, the book reveals that most young people are far from apathetic about democracy but rather they are critical of current representative democratic systems and the political elites who appear to run these.

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A new online Digital Exclusion Heatmap tool which shows, for the first time, a single nationwide measure of the likelihood of digital exclusion across the UK was launched today by Go ON UK in partnership with LSE, the BBC and Local Government Association

The Department's Dr Ellen Helsper who developed the methodology behind the map, said: “The heat map is a wake-up call. It shows clearly how social and digital exclusion are closely related. The lack of basic digital skills and access in already disadvantaged areas is likely to lead to an increase in inequality of opportunity around the UK.”

Charlie Beckett T3

Professor Charlie Beckett has been appointed as Special Advisor on broadcasting to the House of Commons Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport.

He will be advising the committee on its inquiries into the future of Channel 4 and the BBC's Charter renewal as well as identifying future topics for the committee to address.

Migration

The European migration crisis and the media

The Department of Media and Communications has launched a major research project about the effect of the media on public understanding of the migration and refugee crisis.

The research is led by Professor Lilie Chouliaraki and Dr Myria Georgiou, and builds on the Department’s earlier work on migration and the media, and on the effects of media ethics on human wellbeing.

Sonia Livingstone

"British parents are among the most fearful and confused when it comes to allowing their children to access the internet", says Professor Sonia Livingstone in Daily Telegraph article Cyber safety: How protected are your children online?

Confronting gender inequality

13 October 2015 saw the launch of Confronting Gender Inequality, the final report of the LSE Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power. Professor Nick Couldry and Dr Shani Orgad were Commissioners for the section on Gender and Media/Culture, which gave four key recommendations:

  • Establish a standing committee to monitor media representation of gender.

  • Foster critical media literacy skills in schools.

  • Training on gender to be part of professional qualifications for journalists.

  • Implement the Leveson Report to allow action on third party complaints, eg from women’s groups.

Thank you shanghai

'Thank you Shanghai', video by LSE-Fudan MSc alumnus Ariel Margalith, goes viral in China, reaching over 60 million views. The video has been covered by media in China, Israel and the United States, and has been shown on outdoor screens all over Shanghai.

Watch the video 

Cesar Jimenez

PhD Researcher César Jiménez-Martínez was invited to present his work 'Between the streets and the stadiums: looking at the international image of Brazil through the eyes of a Chilean' at the conference 'Remapping Brazilian Cultural Studies', organised by the European Network of Brazilianists working in Cultural Analysis, Rebrac, at Senate House, in London.

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Shani Orgad, Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications, gave a talk at the Global Imaginations Symposium in Leiden (the Netherlands), and participated in a dialogue with artists whose work was displayed at the Global Imaginations exhibition.

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Nick Couldry, Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory and Head of Department is to be awarded an honorary doctorate by Södertörn University in Stockholm, Sweden.

Professor Couldry will be giving a public lecture “The Social Construction of Reality - Really!” on 27 November, at the university’s annual Commencement Ceremony.

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Dr Shakuntala Banaji, Lecturer in the Department of Media and Communications, has been selected as recipient of the fourth annual European Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Social Sciences and Humanities. See more here. Dr Banaji discusses her teaching methods in a Times Higher Education interview How to be a better teacher: ‘madness’ and media mash-ups.

QS logo

USC Annenberg School of Journalism and Communication was rated #1 in the 2015 QS World University Rankings, with LSE's Department of Media and Communications rated #1 outside of the US. The two institutions collaborate on a double degree in MSc/MA Global Media and Communications, as well as joining forces to research the profound implications of media and communications technologies for our shared futures. Find out more.

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Nick Couldry, Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory and Head of the Department of Media and Communications has launched a brand new website nickcouldry.org, which features information on Nick's work, with regular updates on events, books and research activities.

Sonia Livingstone

Digital technology advances are opening up new ways to communicate, with the potential to enhance student–teacher relationships.

Professor Sonia Livingstone followed a class of London teenagers for a year to find out more about how they are, or in some cases are not, connecting online. Read more about The Social Network.

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Nick Couldry, Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory, has been appointed as a lead coordinating author for the International Panel on Social Progress 2017 Report 'Rethinking Society for the 21st Century'. Professor Couldry will work with Professor Chua Beng Huat (National University of Singapore) to coordinate a chapter on Media, Communication and Languages. See a full list of authors. 

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Dr Shani Orgad was one of the keynote speakers of the conference 'Myth(s) in the Social Sciences and Humanities', on 13 May 2015, at the University of York. The name of her talk was ‘The Others are Coming: Ambivalent and incomplete imaginings beyond dreams and nightmares’. 

Charlie Beckett T3

Ahead of the UK General Election 2015, Charlie Beckett argues in The Guardian that the UK party political newspapers should be using their journalists to drive real election debate, not drum up party support. Read ‘Our party political newspapers need to grow up’ here’.

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We are proud to announce that Media and Communications faculty have been recognised by LSE students in the LSE Teaching Excellence Awards Congratulations. Dr Shakuntala Banaji won the Award for Exceptional Contribution to Teaching, with Dr Sally Broughton-Micova also receiving an award for her contribution to teaching this year.

A-way-with-words

In 2014, Polis and StockWell Communications launched a research prize open to LSE post-graduate students

Applicants were asked to submit original research proposals on the topic of ‘Corporate Reputation, Media and Society’. The winner was Nina Chung who worked with StockWell and interviewed a broad range of people on the topic of corporate apologies to produce the research paper 'A Way With Words: Chasing a Definition for Corporate Public Apologies'. 

Sonia Livingstone

This week's Gearty Grilling: Sonia Livingstone on keeping children safe online

Professor Livingstone is the latest LSE academic to undergo a Gearty Grilling, a series of short video debates from LSE’s Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) on key issues affecting the world today. Here, Professor Livingstone discusses the challenges of keeping children safe online.

Charlie Beckett T3

Radio 4 Documentary - No News is Good News

Charlie Beckett documentary explores whether there is an unrelenting negativity in the mainstream news agenda, preoccupied with violent crime, human accident, misfortune and disaster. In addition, you can read his article for The Guardian.

Cameraman

REF 2014

We are delighted to announce that the Department has been ranked first in the UK in its Unit of Assessment in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework assessment: 47% of our outputs were world-leading as were both impact case studies, our impact environment and our general research environment.

Claire-Milne

Claire Milne, Visiting Senior Fellow in the Department of Media and Communications, has been awarded an MBE for services to the telecommunications sector in the 2015 New Year's Honours list. Many congratulations to Claire, who has had a long and varied career with telecommunications policy as its central theme. Read more here.

ulrich-beck

The Department of Media and Communications mourns the sudden death on 1 January 2015 of Ulrich Beck, Centennial Professor at LSE and a leading theorist of cosmopolitanisation, and media and communications' role within it. LSE Director Craig Calhoun has written a piece commemorating Professor Beck, which can be found here.

2014

PhilipSchlesinger

Visiting Professor Philip Schlesinger has been appointed to UK regulator OFCOM’s Media Content panel. Congratulations to Professor Schlesinger from the whole Department on this very important appointment.

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The StockWell Communications/Polis Research Prize

This year’s Prize will be launched with a presentation by Mr Anthony Silverman, Partner at StockWell Communications. If you are interested in applying please attend next week’s talk as the application process and requirements will be explained.

Date: Wednesday 19 November

Time: 1pm - 2pm

Room: G06, 32 Lincoln’s Inn Fields

Sonia Livingstone

Sonia Livingstone's new grant, Preparing for a Digital Future, is part of Connected Learning, a way to approach education in the 21st century that takes advantage of today's abundance of information and social connection, and recipient of a $4.9 million grant.

Phones

Alex Free – a PhD student in the department – recently published ‘Development’, profiles and prospects: labour in Kenya's outsourced call centres (Critical African Studies) an analysis of the development legacy of Kenya's outsourced call centre sector.

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New Trajectories in Media and Communications Research #lsemc10

In 2013, LSE's Department of Media and Communications celebrated its tenth anniversary with an international one-day conference bringing together some of the world's leading media theorists.

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Governing Digital Spaces

The "Governing Digital Spaces: Issues of Access, Freedom and Privacy" plenary at the 2014 IAMCR dealt with internet governance. Video recordings of the presentations by Robin Mansell are online now.

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Silverstone Scholarship Awarded to MSc Global Media and Communications student Andrew Crosby

Andrew Crosby was awarded the 2014 Silverstone Scholarship for his research proposal on how Facebook users think about how social media fits into their lives. What do you think of when you think of Facebook? He asks. Below is a short excerpt of Andrew's proposal and you can read it in full on our Polis blog.

Sonia Livingstone

We are delighted to announce that Professor Sonia Livingstone has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Montreal. The award will be presented to Professor Livingstone in a Convocation of the University of Montreal’s Arts and Sciences Faculty on October 29th.

Many congratulations to Professor Livingstone in receiving this honour.

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Professor Robin Mansell’s new UNESCO report, Renewing the Knowledge Societies Vision for Peace and Sustainable Development, is available here

EU-Kids-Online

Online risk, harm and vulnerability: Presentation slides updated UK risk data (and press release)

Students

QS World University Ranking rate the London School of Economics as the best place in the UK to study media and communications and #2 worldwide.

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On Tuesday 4 March, Professor Sonia Livingstone collected her OBE, for services to children and child internet safety, at Buckingham Palace. Sonia is the first academic in the field of media and communications nationally ever to receive such an honour. The Duke of Cambridge presented Professor Livingstone with her medal and congratulated her on her important work.

Newspapers

The Euro Crisis in the Press

Max Hänska and Maria Kyriakidou invite contributions to a blog on the way the Euro crisis is covered in the news, and the way it is affecting the news media in particular, and public discourse in Europe in general.

Ofra Koffman

'The Girl Effect': Stereotyping the Developing World

It is close to 10 years since corporate giant Nike coined the slogan ‘The Girl Effect,’ claiming that girl power held the key to ending world poverty and launching a campaign to support that vision. In a new book chapter published this month, LSE Fellow Dr Ofra Koffman critically considers this policy.

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Two new reports on children’s safety online

The EU Kids Online project’s short report ‘Preventive measures - How young children avoid online risks’ examines children’s accounts of the various ways in which they manage different types of problematic situations that they encounter on the internet. 

The Net Children Go Mobile project, report finds that while smartphone and tablet users benefit from more online opportunities and along with this encounter more risks, they do not report more harmful experiences.

Sonia Livingstone, Department of Media and Communications, LSE: “Safer Internet Day sees the combined efforts of educators, industry and child welfare experts combine to call for a better internet for kids worldwide.

Big Ben

We are pleased to announce that Damian Tambini and Nick Couldry have been awarded LSE Research Committee Seed Funding to develop their research project on the 'Mediatization' of Government. This will include a seminar series and conference in Spring 2014. More details to follow.