What exactly is India's strategic narrative? New publication by @monikabd.bsky.social in a special issue @profmiskimmon.bsky.social and I edited. Congratulations Monika!: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

James Dennis has a neat little overview of the "private turn" young and especially marginalised people are taking in their news engagement - fits with what my students tell me about how they engage with politics: impactum-journals.uc.pt/mj/article/v...

Tales We Were Told - on oral storytelling, remembrance, and inherited narratives. Bhavika Sachan's call for submissions to an edited eBook, which will be published by U Southampton Press: drive.google.com/file/d/1fxLI... Open to all PhD students, early career +independent creative writers/artists.

If you're in Valencia tomorrow, I'll present work @profmiskimmon.bsky.social and I've been doing on the multiple world orders co-existing. Pluralist yet antagonistic, polycentric yet hemispheric ... makes my head hurt. In-person. Thanks hosts Mélany Barragán and Marco Guglielmo.

We're hiring! Permanent Lecturer in IR, esp. if can research one or two of: Russia, China, Race/Ethnicity, and Environment/Climate Change. Deadline 20 August. Details here: jobs.royalholloway.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Actors' use AI videos of speculative futures (Gaza as luxury resort) to justify, reward action (+investment) in the present, to commit mass violence = a big take on the #temporality of #media and #security. Its not #premediation. Well done Donatella Della Ratta: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

New article out now on Russia's strategic narratives about its war against Ukraine www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @europeansecurity.bsky.social

Our CfP: AI, War, Conflict, and Political Violence, 21 July London, with @akilnawan.bsky.social . Abstract deadline 1 July. How to submit here: www.newpolcom.rhul.ac.uk/npcu-blog/20...

Trump =first non-hypocritical president because he doesn't hide his selfish agenda behind a cloak of universal values? Does the world like his amorality? #Flailing: physically (coercion) + figuratively (confusion). Matias Spektor & @kevcomms.bsky.social: www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/series...

If you work on AI + war/violence, do submit an abstract to us:

South-to-North Dialogues on AI: Launch of the Favel IA Report (A Global Classroom Event), 18 June from 2pm UK time, w/ @andreamedrado.bsky.social - join online, register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/south-to-n...

Q: Shrimp Jesus was two years ago taken as a sign AI was killing the version of the internet of humans interacting with humans. In what ways is the internet more dead or alive in 2026? www.sciencealert.com/is-the-dead-...

If we look past Trump and notice the consistent statements by Vance, Rubio and Hegseth, we get a reliable indicator of roughly where Trump stands on foreign policy. New by @kevcomms.bsky.social: theconversation.com/trumps-cabin...

Just found a folder of acknowledgements footnotes I drafted for articles that then got rejected 😕

The programme is out for our Media, War and Conflict ICA preconference: www.newpolcom.rhul.ac.uk/npcu-blog/2026/5/8/media-war-and-conflict-ica-preconference-programme-is-out

So happy that a paper from the special issue I edited on "Grappling with the climate crisis in IR" won the journal's best article award! Check it out!👇

New in our MWC journal!: Nataliya Roman @nataliialaba.com & John H. Parmelee, with “The architect of the invasion” vs. “a symbol of resilience”: How AI chatbots frame Zelenskyy, Putin and the Russia–Ukraine war - they struggle making sense of Russian propaganda: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

☺️@paulinesophieh.bsky.social and I won a prize for this article: www.ceeol.com/search/artic... Thanks to @michelpoiccard.bsky.social and the editorial team! Are you seeing actors use bad faith, for what, and do they get away with it?

Anyone working in history of comedy/satire, television, modern British politics - there's a fully funded PhD to research the Spitting Image archive @theul.bsky.social, with supervision at Exeter Uni. All disciplines considered, pls do share widely. www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

Please complete this v.brief survey about news and crime, for my brilliant dissertation student Alex Land. Thank you! 🙏https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDd9wTnwSrrjcXRSmYE01VJoguaA6e44S8DbD43BpKEzKeCg/viewform

Free registration 13 April panel: How strategic narratives transformed the study of public diplomacy, 4pm UK time: www.newpolcom.rhul.ac.uk/npcu-blog/2026/4/7/join-13-april-panel-how-strategic-narratives-transformed-the-study-of-public-diplomacy

Have we already entered a 'new influence domain' through the intersection of emotional AI, social media and behavioural targeting? Are you being targeted? h/t @andrewhoskins.bsky.social information-professionals.org/ai-companion...

Media as #fatal to thinking about and feeling for human beings? Re AI + Iran war, Malik writes: 'When the true and false jostle constantly in the content slipstream, nothing feels real.' Its hard to care about the unreal: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... #compassionfatigue #compassionprevention

Great new article by Bradley Ward and Christian Sherrington: why the AI-based #technosolutionism of the #Starmer government won't rescue UK governance ➡️ more public alienation ➡️ open goal for the populist right: link.springer.com/article/10.1... #doomspiral #cyclesofinsecurity #vacancy #AIpolitics

New in Media, War and Conflict: From laughing to learning: How TikTok genres influence American youth understanding and sentiments about the war in Ukraine, by Kateryna Bystrytska: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

In a research seminar now: if corruption will never end, what would be a more inclusive, democratic corruption?

Conference CfP: My friends are convening Urban Elites, Rural Margins? Comparative Perspectives on Urban-Rural Divisions from Post-Socialist Europe and Latin America, at UCL on 15-16 June. How to apply: www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...

CCTV is really having fun with Trump, the dollar as global currency, and the US economy, in a little film about the Iran war. Captions are fast but its worth the 5 minutes. What do cats and eagles mean in China? Are cats cool and eagles idiots? What do red eyes mean? www.youtube.com/watch?v=As0r...

Our Media, War and Conflict journal has gone from 8 articles per issue to suddenly double. A sign of today’s wars prompting a lot of quality research? journals.sagepub.com/home/mwc

On April 13, the journal Place Branding and Public Diplomacy will host a webinar focusing on the topic: Shaping the Discipline: How #StrategicNarratives Transformed the Study of #PublicDiplomacy. Kindly convened by Ilan Manor. Free registration here: www.eventbrite.com/e/panel-and-...

Let me explain our new article in International Journal of Communication. We ask who can create meaning in discourse in human-AI interactions, and the impact on power relations broadly.

Our new article is out! When we interact with ChatGPT and other Generative AI systems, who is shaping whom? Does the machine gradually substitute our interpretive capacities, or can it extend them? Thanks @ijoc-usc.bsky.social: ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

In autocratic contexts, 'Visibility becomes vulnerability. Silence becomes rational.' But AI can speak. Great new piece by @michalmaly.bsky.social and Asker Bryld Staunæs theloop.ecpr.eu/synthetic-di...

1/2 Great article by Noordenbos & Tuters: Russia is v.good at using digital platforms to narrate resistance to the West across the Global South. Its not just narrative content but how narrative elements circulate that creates effects - #ambient #parapolitics: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Wonderful that my friend and collaborator @profvaccari.bsky.social's #inaugural lecture will happen 11th March, Edinburgh, in-person. A great moment for Cristian and an urgent topic he addresses: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inaugural-...

X is hiring a creative writing specialist at $40 an hour to make Grok better at writing and a true LOL at the qualifications

I had a chat about what @profmiskimmon.bsky.social and I wrote recently about how many narratives used in politics are deliberately ambiguous - watch here, responses appreciated:

Today’s topic: spiritual warfare.

This sums a lot of what AI offers, some blurry vibes, and how its promise is part of a longer history of dealing with some pretty big dilemmas. By @tomdivon.bsky.social + Christian Pentzold: AI can make the dead talk – why this doesn’t comfort us: theconversation.com/ai-can-make-...

Thread 👇 on a new article by @profmiskimmon.bsky.social and I, Strategic narrative: its origins and evolution, its connection to public diplomacy, and some future paths. Read here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Researching how and why journalists are being targeted and killed in huge numbers today? Apply to attend our journal's event in Cape Town in June. 31 Jan abstract deadline: link.icahdq.org/discussion/c...

New book by @maydinger.bsky.social - Discourse, Voice, and the Politics of Participation in the Scottish Independence Referendum - important on the difficulty of creating inclusive #participation: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

New online: A PhD thesis exploring how Russia does #strategic #narrative work against the West, by @christierns.bsky.social [bias: I examined it ✋]. Adds historical perspective re: why certain actions to address Russia's efforts will or won't work today. Read here: cadmus.eui.eu/server/api/c...

Great time at the @psampg.bsky.social annual conference in Bournemouth. #AI #theory #discourse and #moderation discussed by our team me, Marco Guglielmo and @andreucasas.bsky.social. Thanks Dan Jackson and all the organisers.

2026 Statistic of the Year is already decided 🤷 Very interesting analysis here of how #Trump uses #shrugs to communicate several different things, by @chrishartlinguist.bsky.social and Steve Strudwick, here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

How to help young people become full political agents? They want to be. The new 'civic mentoring model' from @jamessloam.bsky.social, based on what works or doesn't, in various cities. How to help local authorities make this pathway happen? Read in detail at: www.google.co.uk/books/editio...

The Vacancy is being written. @paulisci.bsky.social and I have caffeine and words to write.

A lovely MSc graduation day is over, and lovely to hear who has started PhDs elsewhere and to meet the parents who help it all happen. They also waived the one drink per person rule so some of them were very happy.

My article on #mythology is now open access. Carter, Porter, Herrera: Overcoming Mythology to Achieve Agency (Sometimes) Effectively. Read here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

PhD opportunity in Memory Studies: granduniondtp.web.ox.ac.uk/contested-hi...