My research interests lie in political communication, with a particular focus on social media, political participation and citizenship, and digital news. I also have an interest in British politics and social inequality.
Listed below is a selection of major projects that I have been involved in. You can find further details on my research activities on the University of Portsmouth research portal, Google Scholar, and ORCID.
The School of Film, Media and Communication at the University of Portsmouth will host the PSA Media & Politics Specialist Group Annual Conference in October 2023. The conference theme is “Re-imagining Media and Politics”.
Against a backdrop of austerity, Brexit, and growing fears surrounding the spread of misinformation and polarisation on social media, this project analyses how young people in England who experience social inequality in their daily lives use social platforms to consume news.
As of July 2018, I am a Co-Convenor of the Political Studies Association Media and Politics Group. The PSA is the leading association for the study of politics in the UK. The Media and Politics Group has over 220 members and brings together scholars with interests in the study of media policy, journalism, political communication, and digital culture.
This special issue explores how digitally-native advocacy organizations evolve and whether they influence the organizational norms of other NGOs and advocacy groups.
This project explores how Momentum, the political activist group founded in the wake of Jeremy Corbyn’s rise to leader of the Labour Party, uses Facebook and Twitter within its campaigning. By exploring this social media-enabled activism at the national and local level, I seek to understand the extent to which Momentum offers member-driven campaigning.
In September 2018, Nina Hall and I organised a workshop a two-day workshop entitled Understanding and Examining the Digital Advocacy Pioneers. Featuring contributions from leading scholars in the field of political communication, including Professor David Karpf (George Washington University), Professor Hahrie Han (University of California, Santa Barbara), and Professor Ariadne Vromen (University of Sydney), this event explored a new generation of digital advocacy organisations have emerged around the world which challenge conventional models of collective action.
The 2017 UK general election saw a significant growth in youth engagement. This ongoing project examines how the election was reported to younger audiences by two new-media organisations, BuzzFeed and VICE.
This project explores “slacktivism,” a pejorative term that refers to low-threshold forms of political engagement online. I argue that slacktivism is an inadequate and flawed means of capturing the essence of contemporary political action.
Drawing upon a three-month participant observation, ethnographic data from interviews, as well as campaign emails and content from Facebook and Twitter, this research project examines how 38 Degrees facilitates political engagement through their use of social media.
Drawing on Twitter data, news analysis, interviews, and ethnography, this completed project evaluates how the BBC was engaging audiences during the 2012 Games in Arabic, Russian, Persian and English language services.
