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New Article on How Political Discussion Shapes Political Interest across the Lifespan

I am happy to announce that the International Political Science Review has published a new article I co-authored with Kari Steen-Johnsen and Mads Thau (Institute for Social Research, Norway). It is titled “The road to citizenship: How discussing politics shapes political interest across the lifespan“.

The study asks whether talking about politics makes people more interested in it — and whether this relationship varies by age. We leverage a seven-year panel study of the Norwegian voting-age population (n = 10,695) to estimate the effects of political discussion on political interest and to test whether those effects change across age groups. We find that people who discuss politics more do indeed develop stronger political interest over time. Rather than being confined to adolescence, these effects persist throughout adulthood, only fading at retirement age. Young adults benefit the most from political discussion, which is consistent with theories of political socialization — but our findings also challenge the assumption that political experiences stop mattering once people reach adulthood.

I think these results open up exciting new directions for research on political engagement across the lifespan and on the inequalities that shape who becomes — and stays — politically interested. That said, we also find that the reverse effect — political interest driving discussion — is stronger than the effect of discussion on interest, so the relationship between the two is better understood as mutually reinforcing rather than one-directional.

You can read the article here.

This study was made possible by a grant from the Research Council of Norway. We presented an earlier version of this study at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association and received the “Best Paper Award” from the Information Technology & Politics section.

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New chapter on digital media and democratic ambivalence

I am pleased to share that my chapter, “Digital Media and Democracy: Coping with Ambivalence,” is now included in The Routledge Companion to Digital Media and Democracy, edited by Zizi Papacharissi and published by Routledge in 2026. The volume brings together a wide range of perspectives on how digital technologies are reshaping democratic life, from participation and journalism to platform governance, misinformation, and AI. My chapter appears in the book’s “Futures” section and reflects on how research can better address the contradictory ways digital media can both strengthen and undermine democracy. 

In the chapter, I argue that debates about digital media and democracy remain unresolved not because scholars lack evidence, but because democracy itself is a complex and inherently ambivalent system. Digital media do not simply help or harm democracy; they often do both at once. They can widen participation while enabling misinformation, broaden access to information while deepening polarization, and diversify public debate while amplifying anti-democratic actors. Drawing on research on exposure to diverse viewpoints, news use, participation, and misinformation, I suggest that scholarship has too often examined these outcomes in isolation. To understand digital media’s democratic implications more fully, we need holistic frameworks that capture their interacting effects and the trade-offs they create.

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Inaugural lecture at the University of Edinburgh

I am delighted to share that on the 11th of March I will be giving my inaugural lecture as Chair in Future Governance, Public Policy and Technology at the University of Edinburgh.

The lecture will take place as part of the University’s series of inaugural addresses to reflect on the themes that animate my research and teaching. It will be titled “After social media: participation, power, and responsibility in digital politics“. Below is the abstract.

This inaugural lecture examines the transformation of social media into increasingly automated, individualized, and exploitative environments, which I call auto-media. These changes are reshaping the conditions of democratic citizenship, reducing opportunities for genuine user engagement while shifting responsibility for maintaining democratic norms in public communication from platforms, elites and institutions onto citizens themselves. Rather than causing democratic decline, these innovations amplify existing political dynamics and reconfigure the distribution of power among political elites and the public. As a result, sustaining democratic participation is becoming increasingly difficult: citizens who remain engaged must invest ever greater cognitive, emotional, and social effort, while many others withdraw from politics altogether. I suggest these dynamics may contribute to rising inequalities in participation and to a broader condition of democratic decay.

More details about the event, including time, location, and free registration, are available on the event page.

I hope to see colleagues, students, and friends from across the University and beyond there!

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My Keynote Speech on Visions of Political Participation in the Digital Age at ZeMKI

In October 2025, I was honored to be one of the keynote speakers for a conference marking the 20th anniversary of the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) of the University of Bremen.

The conference, titled “20 Years into the Future: What is our vision of media, data, and society?“, featured excellent contributions by scholars from different disciplines, backgrounds, and parts of the world, as well as keynote speeches by José van Dijck, Nick Couldry, Alenda Y. Chang, and myself.

In my keynote speech, titled “Visions of political participation in the digital age“, I took the opportunity of ZeMKI’s twentieth anniversary to reflect on how changes in communication environments have reshaped how citizens participate in politics and how that participation is imagined and constructed in everyday discourse and behaviors.

You can watch my keynote speech below. Videos of the other keynotes and important moments of the conference are available on ZeMKI’s YouTube channel.

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Elected as Vice Chair of the Political Communication division of ICA

I am delighted to have been elected as Vice Chair of the Political Communication Division of the International Communication Association. In this capacity, I will be responsible for planning the division’s program for the next two annual meetings (Glasgow 2027 and Bangkok 2028) and will then become the division’s Chair for 2029-30, serving on the ICA Board of Directors.

I am humbled and honored by the support of so many of the 850 outstanding colleagues who are members of our Division. I very much look forward to working with our diverse team of internationally minded scholars to support our community and advance our shared goals.

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Running to be Vice Chair of the Political Communication division of ICA

Every two years, the Political Communication division of the International Communication Association elects a Vice Chair, who is responsible for planning the division’s program for the next two annual meeting and then becomes the division’s Chair for the following two years.

This year, I have decided to run for this important position. My candidate statement is below:

Amidst mounting threats to democracy worldwide, political communication has never been more central or contested. Our Division is uniquely positioned to respond to these challenges, to advance scholarship that fosters democratic resilience, and to nurture a globally engaged community. As Vice Chair, I would promote innovative, pluralistic, internationally relevant research that deepens scholarly understanding and contributes to societal change. I would work to make our conferences more inclusive by designing panels that bridge subfields and regions and exploring formats that promote dialogue. To empower early-career researchers, I would develop sustained mentorship programs outside the conference as well as professional development and networking initiatives. I would strengthen the Division’s international engagement through expanded travel grants and enduring collaboration with underrepresented communities. Above all, I would work collegially and transparently to ensure priorities and decisions reflect the diverse voices, interests, and perspectives in our community.

My record of service reflects a sustained commitment to pluralistic and globally relevant scholarship. I led research collaborations across five continents. As Editor of The International Journal of Press/Politics, I elevated work from understudied regions, championed emerging voices, and organized six conferences that connected scholars from all around the world. In policy initiatives with the Council of Europe and the European Digital Media Observatory, I partnered with governments, industry, and civil society on data access for researchers, freedom of expression, and disinformation. These experiences have deepened my commitment to bridging diverse perspectives toward shared goals.

The Political Communication Division welcomed me with open arms when I joined ICA twenty years ago. I would be honored to give back by helping our vibrant community tackle the urgent challenges of our times.

The vote is now open until 12:00 noon EDT on 21 October. All members of the ICA Political Communication division are eligible to vote. To vote and read candidates’ statements for all positions, visit the ICA Political Communication Elections website.

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Roundup of Recent Publications from the Everyday Misinformation Project

A few articles have recently been published that report research conducted with my colleagues as part of the Everyday Misinformation Project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust and led by Andrew Chadwick (Loughborough University). This mixed-methods project ran from 2021-24 and focused on people’s everyday experiences, social contexts, and media diets to investigate how potentially misleading information spreads online, particularly on personal messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, or Apple Messages.

The latest publication is a study titled “Credibility as a double-edged sword: The effects of deceptive source misattribution on disinformation discernment on personal messaging“, published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly and coauthored with Andrew Chadwick, Natalie-Anne Hall, and Brendan Lawson. The abstract is below:

Disinformation often features reputable sources to boost false information’s credibility, but does this deceptive source misattribution shape its spread on personal messaging? In a preregistered between-subjects survey experiment on U.K. WhatsApp users (N = 2,580), we showed participants WhatsApp messages containing true or false news attributed to either British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News or no source. Attribution to BBC News significantly increased message credibility. Importantly, however, participants’ responses to false messages attributed to BBC News were statistically indistinguishable from their responses to true messages. On personal messaging, source credibility can boost the spread of accurate news but can also be used deceptively to propagate falsehoods.

Another recent addition is “Unpacking credibility evaluation on digital media: a case for interpretive qualitative approaches“, published in the Annals of the International Communication Association and coauthored with Pranav Malhotra , Natalie-Anne Hall , Yiping Xia , Louise Stahl , Andrew Chadwick , and Brendan Lawson. Here is the abstract:

We argue for more serious consideration of interpretive qualitative approaches in research on information credibility evaluation in digitally mediated contexts. Through reviewing existing literature on credibility and drawing on our own experiences of conducting research projects on credibility evaluation in diverse cultural contexts, we contend that interpretive qualitative approaches help researchers develop a much-needed communicative and relationally and culturally situated understanding of credibility, complicating dominant quantitative and psychologically-oriented accounts. We detail how these approaches add important nuance to how credibility is conceptualized and operationalized and reveal the complexity of credibility evaluation as a social process. We also outline how they aid researchers studying misinformation engagement, especially in popular bounded social media places like private groups and chats. The approach we develop here provides new insights that can inform ongoing global efforts by researchers, policy makers, and citizens to more fully understand the complexity of information verification online.

In 2025, two more articles were also published in a journal issue after being available online first for a while. First, “The trustworthiness of peers and public discourse: exploring how people navigate numerical dis/misinformation on personal messaging platforms“, which came out in Information, Communication & Society and was coauthored with Brendan Lawson, Andrew Chadwick, and Natalie-Anne Hall. Below is the abstract:

Numbers are essential to how citizens understand the world, but also have distinctive power to confuse or manipulate. Numerical claims permeate online dis/misinformation, yet relatively little is known about how people engage with them. We conducted in-depth interviews (W1N = 102, W2N = 80) to explore how people gauge the trustworthiness of numbers on personal messaging platforms – highly popular yet difficult-to-research online spaces. Adopting a relational approach to informational trustworthiness, we find that numbers were not perceived as objective facts but as biased, technical, and verifiable. This spurred participants to engage in three practices to establish trustworthiness: contextualising peers’ motivations with reference to public discourse, selectively trusting peers’ competence in light of public signals of salient expertise, and using public sources to assess what peers share. These practices, which we found endured over time, suggest that norms of verification and correction on messaging platforms involve a complex integration of information from interpersonal relationships and public discourse.

Finally, “Misinformation rules!? Could ‘group rules’ reduce misinformation in online personal messaging?“, published in New Media & Society with Andrew Chadwick and Natalie-Anne Hall. Here is the abstract:

Personal messaging platforms are hugely popular and often implicated in the spread of misinformation. We explore an unexamined practice on them: when users create “group rules” to prevent misinformation entering everyday interactions. Our data are a subset of in-depth interviews with 33 participants in a larger program of longitudinal qualitative fieldwork (N = 102) we conducted over 16 months. Participants could also donate examples of misinformation via our customized smartphone application. We find that some participants created group rules to mitigate what they saw as messaging’s harmful affordances. In the context of personalized trust relationships, these affordances were perceived as making it likely that misinformation would harm social ties. Rules reduce the vulnerability and can stimulate metacommunication that, over time, fosters norms of collective reflection and epistemic vigilance, although the impact differs subtly according to group size and membership. Subject to further exploration, group rulemaking could reduce the spread of online misinformation.

All articles are available open access. I hope you find them helpful!

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Stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of IJPP

After six years editing The International Journal of Press/Politics, today is formally my last day on the job. This has been one of the most fulfilling experiences in my career and I am very grateful I had the opportunity to serve our community.

Besides overseeing the publication of more than 250 articles and more than 60 book reviews and review essays focusing on internationally oriented scholarly research on media and politics, including five special issues, I also had the pleasure of organizing six journal conferences, two of which in-person in Loughborough, two online during the COVID-19 pandemic, and two in-person in Edinburgh.

In my farewell editorial, I share a few reflections on what I have learned and recognize the many colleagues and “friends of the journal”, as I call them, who have made this journey so rewarding. The key reflections I share are that our journal stands on the broad shoulders of the many outstanding colleagues who founded it, led it, and nurtured it since 1996; that it is a “big tent” that welcomes insights from diverse disciplines and subfields; that it is a lively, constructive, and respectful community held together by strong shared interests and values; that it is an institution that aims to reliably and transparently fulfill its role in the production and diffusion of social scientific knowledge; that it nurtures emerging voices that constantly expand our scholarship; and that it takes its “international” remit seriously and aims to bridge boundaries and broaden our understanding of media and politics across diverse contexts.

I am delighted that the new Editor-in-Chief, Taberez Ahmed Neyazi, will continue fulfilling this mission, together with the outstanding team that will support him. As I wrote in my farewell editorial, “As they open the IJPP treasure trove now entrusted to them, I am confident they will find in our community the same outstanding and unwavering support, insight, and collegiality that lit the way during my own editorial journey.”

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Program of the 10th conference of the International Journal of Press/Politics (University of Edinburgh, 17-18 October 2024)

On 17-18 October, more than 100 scholars from many different countries and disciplines will present research on the relationship between media and politics in an international perspective at the University of Edinburgh during the tenth conference of The International Journal of Press/Politics, for which I am honored to serve as Editor-in-Chief. The conference will be held at the John McIntyre Conference Centre at the University of Edinburgh. Registration is required to participate in the conference.

Browse the program by day
Wednesday, October 16
Thursday, October 17
Friday, October 18

Wednesday, October 16

19:30 Conference inaugural dinner
The Scotsman Hotel, 20 North Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1TR

Thursday, October 17

8:30-9:00 Coffee and badge pickup

9:00-9:15 Welcome 
Room: Pentland East
Cristian Vaccari (University of Edinburgh) 

9:15-10:30 Plenary session: “International (?) Journal of Press (?) Politics (?): Limited news consumption and what to do about it“
Room: Pentland East
Keynote speech by Magdalena Wojcieszak (University of California, Davis)

10:30-11:00 Coffee break  

11:00-12:30 Panel 1A – Incivility, Misinformation, and Radicalization
Room: Pentland East
Chair: Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)

Jennifer Stromer-Galley (Syracuse University) and Patricia Rossini (University of Glasgow) 
Attack and Incivility in U.S. Presidential Campaigns in 2016 and 2020

Curd Knüpfer (University of Southern Denmark), Yunkang Yang (Texas A&M), and Mike Cowburn (European New School, Viadrina) 
Connective Factions: How Hyper-Partisan Media and Highly Networked Elites Radicalize Parties

Taberez Ahmed Neyazi, Tan Khai Ee, and Ozan Kuru (National University of Singapore) 
Moderating Effects of Perceived Political Incivility on the Relationship Between Media Consumption and Misinformation Vulnerability: Evidence from the 2022 Malaysian General Elections

11:00-12:30 Panel 1B – Rethinking Trust in News: Identity, Consumption, and Perceptions Across Audiences
Room: Pentland West 
Chair: Ariel Hasell (University of Michigan)

Tali Aharoni (Hebrew University and University of Oxford)
Redefining trust in the news media 

Diego Garusi and Clara Juarez Miro (University of Vienna)
Unpacking news consumption and trust decisions through a folk theory approach. A study of Austrian young adults

Benjamin Toff, Carolina Velloso, and Michael Ofori (University of Minnesota) 
Bolstering trust by ‘letting them know who we are’: Political identity signalling in New York Times ‘enhanced bios’

11:00-12:30 Panel 1C – Digital Campaigning and Political Communication: Authenticity, Visuals, and Satire in Global Elections  
Room: Prestonfield
Chair: Nick Anstead (London School of Economics)

Filip Bialy (University of Manchester and Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań), Rachel Gibson (University of Manchester), and Karolina Koc-Michalska (Audencia Business School and University of Silesia)
Data-Driven Authenticity?: Unpacking the rise and relevance of relational organising in Digital Campaigning in the Polish Parliamentary and US Presidential Campaign

Gaetano Scaduto (University of Milan Bicocca), Fedra Negri (University of Milan Bicocca), Moreno Mancosu (University of Turin, Collegio Carlo Alberto), and Silvia Decardi (University of Milan Bicocca) 
Emotional Inconsistency in Online Political Communication: A Comparative Study of Text and Imagery by European Party Leaders on Instagram

Sarah Maria Schiffecker and Maria Shpeer (Texas Tech University)
Satirical Politics on Tap: An Analysis of the Austrian Beer Party’s Political Campaign Strategies

12:30-13:30 Lunch break

13:30-14:30 Plenary session: “It Takes a Village (to Edit a Journal)”
Room: Pentland East 
Chair: Cristian Vaccari (University of Edinburgh)

C.W. Anderson (University of Milan)
Danielle K. Brown (Michigan State University)
Sophie Lecheler (University of Vienna)
Sandra González-Bailón (University of Pennsylvania)

14.30-16:30 Panel 2A – Media Narratives and Framing: Candidates, Campaigns, and Policies
Room: Pentland East
Chair: Gaetano Scaduto (University of Milan Bicocca)

Erik P. Bucy (Texas Tech University) and Nathan Ritchie (Loughborough University)
Ideal candidate, populist campaigner, or sure loser? Visual framing of major party candidates in the 2024 US and UK general elections *** presenting remotely

David Smith (University of Leicester), Dominic Wring (Loughborough University), and David Deacon (Loughborough University)
Re-alignment in Parliament, De-alignment in the Press: The 2024 UK general election

Nick Anstead (London School of Economics)
A New Temporal Dimension in Political Communication? The Post-Election Campaign in Liberal Democracies

Niamh Sammon (Technological University Dublin)
The role of Boris Johnson’s journalism in the rise of Conservative Parliamentary Party Euroscepticism, from a critical elite theory perspective  

14.30-16:30 Panel 2B – Media Resilience and Resistance: Journalistic Strategies Against Democratic Backsliding and Populism
Room: Pentland West 
Chair: Adam Koehler Brown (The New School for Social Research)

Kate Wright (University of Edinburgh), Martin Scott (University of East Anglia), and Mel Bunce (City, University of London)
How journalists resist democratic backsliding

Simone Benazzo (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Colin Porlezza (Università della Svizzera Italiana)
Journalism Innovation in Autocratizing Countries: Comparing Independent Media’s Resilience Strategies in Poland and Slovakia

Raiana de Carvalho (Furman University), Joao V. S. Ozawa (University of North Dakota), and Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) 
Memory-Making of the January Attacks in Brazil and the United States: Examining the Role of YouTube in Collective Remembrances of Far-Right Insurrections

Azmat Rasul (Zayed University) 
Morally Disengaged Politics: Digital Media Use and Populist Politics in Pakistan

14.30-16:30 Panel 2C – Understanding the Diffusion and Effects of Misinformation across Different Contexts
Room: Prestonfield
Chair: Curd Knüpfer (University of Southern Denmark)

Thomas J. Billard (Northwestern University), Rachel E. Moran (University of Washington), Nash Jenkins (Northwestern University), and Walker West Brewer (Northwestern University)
Cross-National Agenda-Setting and the Global Spread of Misinformation: Unpacking the Transatlantic Flow of Anti-Transgender Misinformation between the US and the UK

Marlis Stubenvoll (University of Klagenfurt), Isabelle Freiling (University of Utah), and Jörg Matthes (University of Vienna)
Fact-bombing and fake-bombing: A dose-response experiment on the effects of repeated information sharing on social media

Augusto Valeriani (University of Bologna), Laura Iannelli (University of Sassari), and Giada Marino (University of Urbino)
The role of “News-Finds-Me” Perception, Political Knowledge, and Ideological Extremism in Misinformation Sharing Practices

Elena Broda (University of Gothenburg)
Seeing is not believing: The role of media trust and ideology in the differential susceptibility to media effects on misperceptions

16:30-17:00 Coffee break

17:00-18:30 Panel 3A – Political Communication and International Affairs: Geopolitics, Competition, and Conflict
Room: Pentland East
Chair: Babak Bahador (George Washington University)

Yaron Ariel, Dana Weimann, and Vered Elishar (The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College)
Influence of News Consumption and Psychological Factors on the Propagation of War-Time Rumors *** presenting remotely

Peter Berglez (Örebro University,) and Lea Hellmueller (City, University of London)
Towards Geopolitical Media Spheres? Theorizing Journalism in the De-Globalizing, Multipolar World Order

Yu-Chung Cheng, Hsin-HsienWang, Shinn-Shyr Wang, and Wei-Feng Tzeng (National Chengchi University)
Navigating Polarization: Understanding Twitter’s Dialogue on China in a Competitive Global Context

17:00-18:30 Panel 3B – News Sharing and Engagement Online: Messaging, Reporting, and Framing Contemporary Issues 
Room: Pentland West 
Chair: Raquel Recuero (Universidade Federal de Pelotas and National Institute of Science and Technology on Information Disputes and Sovereignty)

Isabele Mitozo (Federal University of Minas Gerais), João Cardoso L. Camargos (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Federal University of Minas Gerais), and Camila Mont’Alverne (University of Strathclyde)
Exploring information sharing on instant messaging: An analysis of public Brazilian WhatsApp groups pro-Bolsonaro from 2018 to 2023

Johanna Disdier (Swansea University)
Geographical Influences on Media Reporting and Sharing of Contested Political Election Outcomes

Sabena Abdul Raheemm, Uchenna Eze, and Sang Jung Kim (University of Iowa)
“Modern Day Slavery”: Exploring the use of emotional frames in Human Trafficking education videos on YouTube and audience engagement

17:00-18:30 Panel 3C – Artificial Intelligence and Journalism: Trust, Attitudes, and Perspectives
Room: Prestonfield
Chair: Maysa Amer (Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany)

Richard Fletcher, Felix M. Simon, Waqas Ejaz and, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (University of Oxford)
What influences attitudes towards the use of generative AI in news?

Sophie Morosoli, Valeria Resendez, and Emma van der Goot (University of Amsterdam) 
Trust in the age of AI. An experiment on how transparency impacts individuals’ trust in AI as a news source and perceived manipulation

Taewoo Kang (Michigan State University), Tim Vos (Michigan State University), Thomas Hanitzsch (Ludwig-Maximilians Universität Munich), Neil Thurman (Ludwig-Maximilians Universität Munich), and Imke Henkel (University of Leeds)
AI in the Shoes of Journalists: Which Journalists’ Perspectives Do LLMs Reflect?

19:30  Conference dinner

Playfair Library Hall, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL

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Friday, October 18

8:30-9:00 Coffee and refreshments

9:00-10:30 Panel 4A – AI in News and Elections: Public and Expert Perceptions 
Room: Pentland East 
Chair: Isabele Mitozo (Federal University of Minas Gerais)

Aqsa Farooq, Marina Tulin, Elske van den Hoogen, and Claes de Vreese (University of Amsterdam)
Generative AI and the European Elections 2024: A Citizens’ Perspective 

Amy Ross Arguedas, Felix M. Simon, Richard Fletcher, and Rasmus K. Nielsen (University of Oxford)
“For serious stuff like war or politics, you need people”: A qualitative study of public attitudes towards AI in news in Mexico, the United Kingdom, and United States

Bronwyn Jones (University of Edinburgh) and Vassilis Galanos (University of Stirling)
Generating risk: A qualitative study of experts’ perceptions of the risks posed by generative AI for journalism and the news ecosystem

9:00-10:30 Panel 4B – Media Influence on Political Attitudes: Negativity, Radicalization, and Partisanship in the United States
Room: Pentland West 
Chair: Sacha Altay (University of Zürich)

Ariel Hasell (University of Michigan)
Overwhelmed by abundance and negativity: The consequences of political defeatism in the United States

Jun Luo (University of California, Los Angeles), Brett McCully (Collegio Carlo Alberto), and Wookun Kim (South Methodist University)
Radicalized by Local News Broadcasting? How Partisan Media Affects Hate Crimes in the United States

Asfa Shakeel (London School of Economics)
Partisan News and Polarisation

9:00-10:30 Panel 4C – Popular Culture and Politics in the Digital Age: TikTok, Music, and Football
Room: Prestonfield
Chair: Matthew Powers (University of Washington)

Giovanni Boccia Artieri and Valeria Donato (University of Urbino Carlo Bo)
TikTok private sphere: understanding the new features of the algorithmic public sphere

Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice (Michigan State University), Mia Carbone (University of California, Los Angeles), Ezgi Ulusoy (Michigan State University), Dustin Carnahan (Michigan State University), Manu Sastry (Michigan State University), and Joanna Gusis (Michigan State University)
Now It’s All About Versace: Music Preferences and Partisanship

Caroline Patatt and Jéssica Sandes Furtado (Universidade da Beira Interior)
Football is Politics: Analyzing Public Emotions in Neymar Jr.’s Case and PEC das Praias through the Instagram Accounts of Folha de S.Paulo and O Globo Newspapers

10:30-11:00 Coffee break 

11:00-13:00 Panel 5A – Threats and Challenges to Journalistic Work: Dissent, Suppression, and Shifting Dynamics in Newsrooms   
Room: Pentland East 
Chair: Simone Benazzo (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Ricardo Ribeiro Ferreira (University of Edinburgh) 
Resistance is Futile: Covert Dissent and Rationalisation in Captured Newsrooms

Linette Lim (University College Dublin)
Unwanted Witnesses: Authoritarian Information Suppression Tactics and Resident Foreign Journalists in China

Roei Davidson and Oren Meyers (University of Haifa)
Under pressure: Journalistic work and the public interest in an era of media clientelism

Russell Hansen, Meagan Doll, Patricia Moy, and Matthew Powers (University of Washington)
The Feminization of Statehouse Reporting in the United States: A Field Analysis

11:00-13:00 Panel 5B – Media Narratives, Frames, and Public Perceptions in the Russia-Ukraine War
Room: Pentland West 
Chair: Lea Hellmueller (City, University of London)

Ben O’Loughlin (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Babak Bahador (George Washington University)
Framing Peace in the Russia-Ukraine War: Peace journalism and news narratives

Delia Dumitrescu (Heidelberg University)
Visions of the War in Ukraine across European Mainstream Media Facebook Sites: A Computer Vision Approach

Kenzie Burchell (University of Toronto) 
Newsfeeds of Individualized Suffering and Asymmetrical Power: Social Media Templates, Russian-language Reporting, and the Ukrainian War

Catherine A. Luther (University of Tennessee), Joshua D. Borycz (Vanderbilt University), Benjamin D. Horne (University of Tennessee), R. Alex Bentley (University of Tennessee), Suzie Allard (University of Tennessee), Brandon C. Prins (University of Tennessee), Garriy Shteynberg (University of Tennessee)
Media Trust and Opinions Regarding Russia’s 2022 Invasion of Ukraine Amongst Russian-speaking Populations in Belarus and Ukraine – Pre and Post Invasion 

11:00-13:00 Panel 5C – Navigating Media Manipulation: Disinformation, Corporate Messaging, and Regulation
Room: Prestonfield
Chair: Aqsa Farooq (University of Amsterdam)

Chris Wells, Michelle Amazeen, and Sara Weinberg (Boston University)
How fossil fuel companies position their sincerity about climate action through native advertisements in American and British news media

Sacha Altay (University of Zürich), Emma Hoes (University of Zürich), and Magdalena Wojcieszak (University of California, Davis and University of Amsterdam)
News on Social Media Boosts Knowledge Belief Accuracy and Trust. An Instagram and WhatsApp field experiment in France and Germany

Jaume Suau (Blanquerna School of Communications and International Relations) and Dren Gërguri (University of Prishtina)
Disinformation narratives in Eastern Europe: Reach, impact and spreading patterns

Maysa Amer (Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany)
Platform Regulations in the Mena Region: Countering Disinformation and Power Dynamics

13:00-14:00 Lunch break

14:00-15:30 Panel 6A – Evolving Landscapes in Digital Journalism: Time, Algorithms, and Hybridity
Room: Pentland East 
Chair: Benjamin Toff (University of Minnesota) 

C.W. Anderson (University of Milan), Danielle K. Brown (Michigan State University), Eugenia Michelstein (Universidad de San Andrés)
Time, Space, and the History of Digital News

Alexandra Colombier (University of Le Havre) and Duncan McCargo (Nanyang Technological University)
Hybrid Platformism: The Contentious Politics of Thailand’s Digital Media Landscape

Alyaa Anter (Ajman University) and Nermeen Ibrahim (Al-Ahram Canadian University) 
New Gatekeepers: The Impact of Social Media Algorithms on Arab TV News Channels Coverage of Arab Issues

14:00-15:30 Panel 6B – Populism and Media Performance: Far-Right Discourses and Political Imagery
Room: Pentland West 
Chair: Clara Juarez Miro (University of Vienna)

Ana Langer (University of Glasgow), Lluis de Nadal (University of Glasgow), and Eugenia Mitchelstein (Universidad de San Andrés)
Enter Milei: Performing populism in the hybrid media syste

Raquel Recuero (Universidade Federal de Pelotas and National Institute of Science and Technology on Information Disputes and Sovereignty) and Guilherme Curi (National Institute of Science and Technology on Information Disputes and Sovereignty)
From Newspapers to Newsfeeds: How Traditional Media and Facebook Legitimate Far-Right Discourses in Brazil and Argentina

Adam Koehler Brown (The New School for Social Research)
Corpus Exsecutiva: The Cultural Politics of the Body of Donald J. Trump

14:00-15:30 Panel 6C – Audiences in the Digital Age: The Role of Context, Group Dynamics, and Events
Room: Prestonfield
Chair: Walker Brewer (Northwestern University)

Shelley Boulianne and Kim Andersen (University of Southern Denmark)
Tuning Out on Current Affairs: Global Variations in Non-Use of News on Traditional and Social Media and Across Age and Political Interest

Subham Basak (University of Oxford)
Views and Voters: Interaction with online political information among young men from low-privilege backgrounds in Kolkata (India)

Claire Roney (University of Vienna), Daniel Wiesner (University of Vienna), Andreas A. Riedl (Ludwig-Maximilians Universität Munich), and Jakob-Moritz Eberl (University of Vienna)
Rally and Recalibrate – Political Dynamics Of Audience Expectations Of Journalism During Times of Crisis

15:30-16:00 Coffee break

16:00-17:30 Panel 7A – New Perspectives on Media Effects: Self-Censorship, Polarization, and Reinforcement
Room: Pentland East 
Chair: Shelley Boulianne (University of Southern Denmark)

Moran Yarchi (Reichman University), Dana Markowitz-Elfassi (Reichman University), Tsahi (Zack) Hayat (Reichman University), and Amir Leshem (Bar-Ilan University)
The Spiral of Silence 2.0: Is the theory still relevant in social media group discussions?

Emelie Karlsson (Uppsala University) 
Social media bots, trolls and political polarization: Evidence from a survey experiment

Kim Andersen (University of Southern Denmark) and Adam Shehata (University of Gothenburg)
Preference for Valenced News and Reinforcement of Societal Beliefs

16:00-17:30 Panel 7B –  Trust in News and Science: Media Influence, Fact-Checking, and Public Perceptions
Room: Pentland West
Chair: Michelle Amazeen (Boston University)

Kathleen Beckers and Edina Strikovic (University of Amsterdam)
Public Opinion in Public Spaces. The Influence of Social Media on News Credibility and Public Perceptions

Matus Sloboda, Andrej Findor, Pavol Hardoš, and Artsiom Klunin (Comenius University)
The Effects of Information Provision about Fact-Checking on News Credibility and Reader Support: Evidence from Field-Experiments in Five CEE Countries

Afonso Biscaia (University of Lisbon), Susana Salgado (University of Lisbon), João Carlos Sousa (University of Lisbon), and Rosa Berganza (University Rey Juan Carlos)
Anti-elitism and trust in science: A complex relation moderated by media use? Evidence from the UK, Portugal, and Spain

16:00-17:30 Panel 7C – Media, Politics, and Influence: Scandals, Social Media, and Politicians’ Perceptions
Room: Prestonfield
Chair: Patricia Rossini (University of Glasgow)

Yukio Maeda (University of Tokyo) and Matthew Carlson (University of Vermont)
Political Speech, Scandals, and the News Media in Japan

Shepuya Famwang (University of Southampton) 
Discursive Practices of Political Social Media Influencers in the 2023 Nigerian Election

Karolin Soontjens (University of Antwerp) Kathleen Beckers (University of Amsterdam), Emma van der Goot (University of Amsterdam), and Sophie Morosoli (University of Amsterdam)
Press and Prejudice: an interview study on why politicians feel disadvantaged by the media

17:30-18:15 Concluding remarks
Room: Pentland East
Cristian Vaccari (University of Edinburgh)
Taberez Ahmed Neyazi (National University of Singapore)

18:15  Farewell drinks reception

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Call for papers for the 10th annual conference of The International Journal of Press/Politics (University of Edinburgh, UK, 17-18 October 2024)

Call for papers
10th Annual Conference of the International Journal of Press/Politics
University of Edinburgh, UK, 17-18 October 2024
Deadline for abstracts: 14 June 2024 via https://bit.ly/IJPP2024

On 17-18 October 2024, the University of Edinburgh will host the 10th annual conference of the International Journal of Press/Politics, focused on academic research on the relationship between media and political processes around the world.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 14 June 2024. Attendees will be notified of acceptance by 1 July 2024. Registration fees will be due 30 August 2024 and full papers based on accepted abstracts will be due 4 October 2024. A selection of the best papers presented at the conference will be published in the journal after peer review. Previous special issues based on conference papers can be found here, here, and here. An editorial discussing the selection and review process for conference special issues can be found here.

The conference brings together scholars conducting internationally oriented or comparative research on the intersection between news media and politics around the world. It aims to provide a forum for academics from a wide range of disciplines, countries, and methodological approaches to advance knowledge in this area.

Examples of relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the political implications of changes in media systems; the importance of different types of media for learning about and engaging with politics; the factors affecting the quality of political information and public discourse; media policy and regulation; the role of entertainment and popular culture in how people engage with current affairs; relations between political actors and journalists; how emerging applications of Artificial Intelligence affect key political communication processes; the role of visuals and emotion in the production and processing of public information; the role of different kinds of media during conflicts and crises; and political communication during and beyond elections by government, political parties, interest groups, civil society organizations, and social movements.

The journal and the conference are particularly interested in studies that represent substantial theoretical or methodological advances on these issues in an international perspective, especially by adopting comparative approaches and/or focusing on parts of the world that are under-researched in the English-language academic literature.

Titles and abstracts for papers (maximum 300 words) are invited by 14 June 2024 via the online form available at https://bit.ly/IJPP2024. Abstracts should clearly describe the key questions, the theoretical and methodological approach, the evidence presented, and the wider implications of the study for understanding the relationship between media and politics in an international perspective. Authors are encouraged to provide as much detail as possible about the spatial and temporal context of their study, the research design and methods employed, the data collected, and the main results of the analyses.

The registration fee for the conference will be GBP 300, to be paid by 30 August 2024. The fee covers two conference dinners on 16 and 17 October, lunches and coffee breaks on 17 and 18 October, and farewell drinks on 18 October. The conference will take place at the University of Edinburgh’s John McIntyre Conference Centre.

A limited number of registration fee waivers will be available for early career scholars and scholars from countries that appear in Tiers B and C of the classification adopted by the International Communication Association. Applications for fee waivers must be made via the abstract online submission form available at https://bit.ly/IJPP2024.

The conference is organized by Cristian Vaccari, Editor-in-Chief of IJPP. Please contact Professor Vaccari with questions at cvaccari@ed.ac.uk.

More about the University and the journal below.

The University of Edinburgh has been influencing history since it welcomed its first students in 1583. Through the many achievements of its staff and students, the University has delivered on its central principles of providing cutting-edge research, inspirational teaching and innovative thinking, attracting some of the greatest minds from around the globe. Politics and International Relations (PIR) is one of the largest and most vibrant subject areas at the University of Edinburgh. It is home to more than 600 undergraduates and 100 postgraduate students annually. Its alumni include government ministers, members of parliament, policy analysts, broadcasters, business leaders, teachers, and social entrepreneurs. Its world-leading research directly informs policymakers, ministers, and NGOs.

The International Journal of Press/Politics is an interdisciplinary journal for the analysis and discussion of the role of the media and politics in an international perspective. The journal publishes theoretical and empirical research which analyzes the linkages between the news media and political processes and actors around the world, emphasizes international and comparative work, and links research in the fields of political communication and journalism studies, and the disciplines of political science and media and communication. The journal is published by SAGE Publishing and is ranked 14th in Political Science and 17th in Communication according to Clarivate.