Journalism, Politics, & Communication

Jared’s research principally focuses questions of (self-)representation, power and identity in regard to non-state terrorism. He has principally written on print, broadcast and online portrayals of 'Islamic' terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, and is especially interested in the complex interactions that take place between terrorists, political elites, journalists and citizens in today's 'hybrid' media environment. His work is interdisciplinary and fuses approaches taken from cultural studies, political communications, visual culture, and poststructuralist theory.  

Jared’s current research focuses on the way different groups imagine the Islamic State phenomenon, and examines the interplay between the group’s propaganda and media, policy and public imaginations of the threat. He also has a growing interest in ultranationalist and far-right extremist propaganda narratives and imagery.   

PhD supervision

Jared is particularly interested in hearing from research students writing on the following areas:

• Media discourses and representations of the East, Islam, terrorism and political violence

• The politics/processes of terrorist/extremist (self)representation, knowledge and power 

• Violent Jihadi or far-right extremist propaganda

• Terrorism and visual political communication

Public Communication & Media Freedom

Jackie's area of expertise is the civil role and power of the news. Her research examines three particular aspects of this: the architecture and culture of the news; the mediation of civil society and social identity by the news; and issues of news freedom and standards. She has written extensively in these areas.

Jackie also chairs the interdisciplinary research body Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM). CFOM seeks to research and evaluate the role of free and independent news media in building and maintaining political and civil freedoms.

PhD supervision

Due to her numerous other commitments Jackie is unable to supervise new PhD students at present.

When her workload permits, Jackie will be interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

• The relationship between the news and civil society

• Post conflict reconstruction via the factual mass media

• Constraints and restraints on freedom of expression

International Media Law

Irini's research interests are in the areas of European, international and comparative media law and policy. She has published extensively in these areas. Her current research projects include 'Examining the impact of IPSO on editorial standards and complaints handling', funded by IPSO, and "Press Regulation in the Digital Era."

PhD supervision

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

• International, European and comparative media law and policy

• Freedom of expression

• Information law

Journalism, Media and Communication

Bina’s research interests include media representation, the relationship between the media and democracy, critical incidents in journalism, race equality in journalism, media policy, and media self-coverage. Bina’s research and publications have contributed to knowledge relating to key debates about press regulation, the public interest, public trust, media ownership, political economy of the media, paradigm repair, boundary work, and the public sphere concept. Her research into how the British press covered the press standards debate that followed The News of the World phone hacking scandal and the Leveson Inquiry employed content and critical discourse analyses and was interdisciplinary in content drawing from law, politics and psychology in addition to journalism. 

Bina’s research entitled, A meta-analysis of key concerns and developments on media standards informed the 2020-2022 Impress Code Review. The research findings were used by the press regulator, Impress to modernise the Standards Code and make it fit for purpose in the digital age. Her research on the WhatsApp, Black People and COVID-19 Infodemic explored the WhatsApp Communications of Nigerians in the UK and Nigeria, using the methods of interviews and content analysis. This work made contributions to knowledge about effective health communications in times of Public Health Emergencies. Bina’s current research investigates race-based student activism in journalism, media, and communication schools in the UK using the methods of content analysis, interviews, and surveys. 

PhD Supervision 

Bina is interested in supervising students in the following areas:

The relationship between the media and democracy

Race equality involving Black Asian and Minority Ethnic groups

Media representation on diverse platforms

Media self-coverage 

Political economy of the media

Public Communication & Civil Development

Stef’s research interest and expertise focus on the role that public communication can play in the building, developing and diminishing of civil society. She has previously focused on the European Community and now focuses on post-civil war settings. For her the communicative spectrum of civil society includes non-mediated verbal communication, the factual and fictional media as well as the performative and the visual arts. She is equally interested in communicative spaces and the role of civility in civil society.

Stef is co-founder and Chair of the Hub for the Study of Hybrid Communication in Peacebuilding (HCPB). She is currently working on her third monograph ‘Communication in Peacebuilding. Civil wars, civility and safe spaces’ (under contract) and acting as an advisor for UN Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (UN DDP) and their public information module.

PhD supervision

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

• The role of public communication (as conceived above) in peacebuilding
• The role of civility in civil societies
• Communicative spaces

Journalism, technology & society

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

PhD supervision

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

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

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

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

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

PhD Supervison 

Ilya is particularly interested in the topics related to:

• Disinformation and conspiracy theories

• Censorship and self-censorship in media

• Character assassination in politics

• Political communication in authoritarian regimes