Research
In my career, I have studied the role of tech and politico-cultural factors in news production and what it means for who is a journalism and what journalism means for publics. With a background in sociology, I have explored the changing roles of professions and working conditions. I am increasingly focused on who gets a voice in the process and its related power relations, especially in the context in which journalism seeks to report truth and knowledge to a public that is increasingly skeptic as demonstrated by research on trust and news. While I have mainly used interviews and ethnographic observations in my research, I have also used insights from quantitative methods including surveys. I have also sought to make these findings accessible to a larger public. Here are a few examples of ongoing projects.
Wellbeing
and changing contemporary work and labor
This research looks at the consequences of tech on the work and labor of journalism and proposes solutions for its management. In a forthcoming book the Paradox of Connection (with Bossio, Holton and Molyneux), we argue that forms of disconnection from recalcitrant policies (from blocking, muting to taking breaks) as well as online labor should be routinized and normalized within media organizations and in journalists’ own practices in and approaches to journalism. And in Happiness in Journalism (with Holton, Deuze and Mellado) we are looking into concrete practices and solutions to journalism well-being.
Coordination,
platform and knowledge production
This research considers the role of tech and journalistic actors in knowledge production. For example, the Source Criticism and Mediated Disinformation (SCAM) grant (2020-24) main objective is to develop principles for and practices of digital source criticism and media and information literacy in relation to emerging technologies, with special emphasis on detection and countering of disinformation. This objective includes the advancement of journalists’ ability to critically scrutinize sources and information in a digital age; journalism educators ability to teach digital source criticism; and an improvement of the skills and knowledge needed to enhance media and information literacy in societies at large.
