Our Research Agenda

Comparative and international political communication: the internet's impact on political mobilization, campaigning and identity; the complex interactions among older and newer media logics; the relationship between media, war, new security challenges and conflict; audience reception studies in the context of the proliferation of media; the dynamic between citizens’ changing uses of media and a transforming news environment; citizen journalism; technology and mobilities.

Communication and comparative governance: online democracy and the changing interface between representative institutions, public bureaucracies and citizens; changing organizational practices shaped by new patterns of communication.

Comparative and international communication policy: internet and new media governance and regulation; privacy, surveillance and security, the political economy of newer media; the digital divide and development issues.

Ongoing Projects

In addition to our ongoing individual research the members of the Unit are currently engaged in a number of collaborative and funded projects. Below is a selection of ongoing projects. For more granular detail please visit our blog archive and our events and talks archive.

New parties and new(s) media

Funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant, NewNews is a project led by Professor Joost van Spanje. Read more about it on newnewsproject.com .

Featured

Media, Migration, and Violence: Public Responses to the Paris Attacks

How did publics respond on social media to the 13 November 2015 attacks by Islamic State on Paris? O’Loughlin and Vaccari's team gathered over 2 million tweets containing the hashtags #prayforparis and #prayforsyria in the days after the attack. This project explores how debate around these hashtags conflated the issues of media, migration and radicalisation and whether the debates amplified or contained public insecurity.

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Crisis, Conflict and Critical Diplomacy: EU Perceptions in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine (C3EU)

Our new Jean Monnet Network of seven international partners focuses on EU images in key issue areas of economy, politics, foreign policy, energy, climate change, RS&I, civil society and culture/ education. The team will research public opinion and news media in two conflicts that threaten Europe's Southern and Eastern edges to identify how EU communication and diplomacy may help mitigate tensions. The project is led by researchers at the University of Canterbury, NZ and will run until the end of 2018.