Next in the series "A Qualitative Look at Journalists’ Reporting & Potential Harm to Democratic Norms" at bit.ly/4ngz6S0, with the spotlight on the @poqjournal.bsky.social article by @ferreira-rr.bsky.social and @jfdaoust.bsky.social discussing when & how to report disturbing political news.

ICYMI: 📰 The Leverhulme Trust September Newsletter is out! Read it on our website now: www.leverhulme.ac.uk/newsletter @mphiljill.bsky.social @ferreira-rr.bsky.social @manmetuni.bsky.social @sheffielduni.bsky.social

My new research project is featured in the @leverhulme.ac.uk September newsletter — and it made the cover! A great start to my Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at @commmedia.bsky.social @liverpooluni.bsky.social. Grateful for the support and the generous spotlight on my work. Trying not to blush 👇

In the middle of this devastating news cycle, I got to meet my journo hero: @arusbridger.bsky.social, now @prospectmagazine.co.uk, ex @theguardian.com, always fearless. We had a great conversation, with sharp @lionelbarber.bsky.social joining us online. Give it a listen 👉 shorturl.at/P2FtG

WTF is this? Normalizing authoritarianism repression as an electoral strategy www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Arrived at the office today to a wonderful surprise — a copy of my dear friend @panievsky.bsky.social’s brand-new book. A powerful and timely take on how media can be twisted to undermine public deliberation and amplify anti-democratic forces. Looking forward to learning from her brilliant work! 📚

📣 Hot off the press! Thrilled to see this paper with @jfdaoust.bsky.social published in Public Opinion Quarterly @aapor.bsky.social. Open access link below, followed by a short 🧵with our key findings.../1 academic.oup.com/poq/advance-...

If you are applying to a PhD, don't use an LLM in composing your proposal. If you are doing a PhD, don't use an LLM to do the writing and reading and thinking for you. Sorry, I am going to die on this hill.

Grateful for the opportunity to present at the #ICA2025 in Denver. I explored with @jfdaoust.bsky.social the journalists’ perceptions and editorial decisions on content potentially harmful to public opinion. Thank you to everyone who attended the session and contributed to the discussion.

I am attending the 75th Annual International Communication Association Conference in Denver, Colorado. Excited to join brilliant colleagues from around the world to explore critical questions at the intersection of media, journalism, and democracy. If you are here and would like to chat, DM me.

The US Administration has indefinitely blocked *all* student visa applicants from getting a visa interview. Worldwide, unconditional, no end date. All. International students are crucial to the US university system, American innovation, and future US prosperity.

More morally abhorrent and politically counterproductive speech from Starmer. 1. It propagates a nativist narrative by blaming immigration/immigrants for the UK’s economic and social ills. 2. It thereby also whitewashes Tories for years of destructive economic and social policies.

The race to the bottom is on as Starmer delivers his great immigration reset | John Crace

BREAKING: "Given these circumstances, we have decided not to hold another ICA conference in the United States during this administration and have delayed our contract with Chicago until May 2029." #ICA25

Competitive Authoritarianism. Textbook definition.

Take 5 min, email your alma mater, and ask them to follow suit (if they haven't already, and most haven't). President, provost, and public relations officer.

The Trump administration is asserting the power to disappear people into foreign gulags without due process and openly discussing putting citizens there next. This is tyranny. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/u... www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04...

It was a pleasure to participate in the Milton Wolf Seminar, organised by the American Austrian Foundation, the Annenberg School for Communication, and the Diplomatische Akademie Wien. I am grateful for the kind invitation and the opportunity to share my research. 1/3

Tariffs are not just bad for the world economy, but also for science. This is one more hit to research. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Beyond the politics of it all, this a good case for placebo effects in natural experiments

This is an excellent piece on the current threat to regional universities, which educate and impact far more people than the Ivies, but are completely ignored in the legacy media and national debate.

“Demoralised university staff, whose pay has been declining steeply in real terms, are not responsible for the dysfunctional marketisation of higher education, which is at the root of today’s financial black hole. Successive Conservative governments are, having failed to foresee how treacherous… 1/3

How do you cover a country in a constitutional crisis? Learn from actual crisis communication. No two-sideism, no euphemisms but strong words, focus on consequences, and point to help. @froomkin.bsky.social 💡 #journalism

Excited to be part of this episode of a new podcast series organised by the Canada team of the JRP Project. Thank you to the team for the opportunity to share my research, and a special thanks to Mariam Kourabi for being such a great interviewer. m.youtube.com/watch?v=UOr5...

Scenes from Syria’s prisons are streaming across social media sites. For a history of the horrors within them, which serve as a further testament to the unbreakable spirit of the Syrian people in the face of immense violence, this book was published by I.B. Tauris one year ago.

Now I have just read this new great book by @vstetka.bsky.social and @sabinamihelj.bsky.social! It can be recommended anyone interested in the role of media and communication in processes of democratic backsliding! And it is open access! @polcomm.bsky.social library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...

“It may well amount to the best defense we have for maintaining democratic norms and holding politicians accountable.” Nik Usher👇🏻

When X feeds experimentally show people fewer posts with antidemocratic attitudes, people feel more positively toward outpartisans, finds @tiziano.bsky.social @msaveski.bsky.social @jiachenyan.bsky.social @mbernst.bsky.social et al. arxiv.org/pdf/2411.14652

This ⬇️ As executive board member of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) responsible for (disinformation) research I can only say that this fear is also palpable in Europe. The playbook travels. #commsky #eusky #polcom #misinformation #academicfreedom

New article in Journal of Communication looking at changes to trust in news across 46 countries in the last 10 years. Trust in news declined in just over half of countries. It decreased more in countries where TV news use has declined, and/or where social media news use has grown. A thread:

To my US friends, that is what you do 👇🏻

700+ journalists at Britain’s only liberal newspaper(s) believe that something has gone so profoundly wrong in their own organisation that 93% of them have voted to go on strike 1/ pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/n...

I’m thrilled to announce that I passed my PhD viva yesterday at the University of Edinburgh! I am deeply grateful to my examiners, Silvio Waisbord and @profvaccari.bsky.social, the chair, Wilfried Swenden, and my supervisors, @newsprof1.bsky.social, Benjamin Martill and @jfdaoust.bsky.social