Dead Men’s Propaganda Ideology and Utopia in Comparative Communications Studies 
(September 2024)

In Dead Men’s Propaganda: Ideology and Utopia in Comparative Communications Studies, Professor Terhi Rantanen investigates the shaping of early comparative communications research between the 1920s and 1950s, notably the work of academics and men of practice in the United States. Often neglected, this intellectual thread is highly relevant to understanding the 21st-century’s challenges of war and rival streams of propaganda.

How can we tackle online hate? (June 2024)

Professor Shakuntala Banaji discusses how the rise of online hate is fundamentally linked to historical tensions and differences, and how this needs to be challenged. Learn more about this research in the book Social Media and Hate.

How do misinformation and fake news affect voters (June 2024)

If people are getting inaccurate information they cannot make informed decisions in democracies. Dr Nick Anstead explains today's new information environment, its impact in politics in the UK and elsewhere, and how we can regulate it.

The Weaponization of Victimhood (June 2024)

The US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and roll back abortion rights in the United States encapsulates the use of victimhood as an exercise of power in public culture. Professor Lilie Chouliaraki in her latest book, Wronged: The Weaponization of Victimhood, argues those who historically are privileged benefit from their power to claim victimhood, reversing who is a victim and who is a perpetrator. Find out more about the book here.

Being Human in Digital Cities (June 2024)

Professor Myria Georgiou unveils in her new book Being Human in Digital Cities how those in power use digital technologies to reshape the social order. The promise of a better future that reimagines urban spaces that are humane, sustainable, and progressive comes at a cost to those in the margins. Find out more about the book here.

What is data colonialism? (February 2024)

Colonialism has not disappeared – it has taken on a new form. In the new world order, data is the new oil. Big Tech companies are grabbing our most basic natural resources – our data – exploiting our labour and connections, and repackaging our information to control our views, track our movements, record our conversations and discriminate against us. In 'Data Grab: The new colonialism of Big Tech and how to fight back', Professors Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias, founders of the concept of data colonialism, reveal how history can help us both to understand the emerging future and to fight back. Find out more about the book here. 

Read Nick Couldry's article for LSE's magazine, Research For The World here.

How are journalists using AI in their work? (December 2023)

This short animation summarises findings from JournalismAI's second global survey, in which more than 120 editors, journalists, technologists and mediamakers from 105 small and large newsrooms across 46 countries share their learnings on the use of AI and genAI.

Professor Charlie Beckett’s JournalismAI initiative launched its second global survey, in which more than 120 editors, journalists, technologists and mediamakers from 105 small and large newsrooms across 46 countries share their learnings on the use of AI and genAI.

JournalismAI is a Polis project, supported by the Google News Initiative, that aims to explore the potential of using AI technologies responsibly for journalism. It launched in 2019 to inform media organisations about the opportunities offered by AI-powered technologies and to foster debate about the editorial, ethical, and financial implications of using AI in journalism. Find out more here. 

Polis is LSE's media think-tank based in the Department of Media and Communications and aimed at working journalists, people in public life and students in the UK and around the world.

Re-reading Habermas in the context of slavery and the slave trade (November 2023)

Recent discussions on “decolonizing” knowledge production have often foregrounded the importance of centering “marginal” perspectives, which is crucial but insufficient as it risks leaving the canon untouched. Jürgen Habermas’ book on the bourgeois public sphere is one of the most frequently cited and debated canonical texts in media and communication studies. Situating London’s 17th and 18th century coffee houses and newspapers in the context of slavery and the slave trade, Dr Wendy Willems argues for a critical re-engagement with canonical thinkers.

Synthesising institutional racism, public policy, and ethnic minority media (November 2023)

In this film, Dr Suzanne Temwa Gondwe Harris explains how public policies in Argentina and the UK have impacted the emergence, vitality, and sustainability of ethnic minority media, arguing for media and public policies to be centred around social justice. Looking specifically at Afro-descendant communities and their media in Argentina and the Black Press in Britain, she highlights the importance of studying public policies and political strategies that are shrouded in racist ideologies and discourses that have impacted the growth of ethnic-minority led media.

Rights of Children in a Digital Age (June 2023)

The digital world has brought a wealth of information, opportunities and experiences to us all - with children no exception. But with these benefits also come risks like inappropriate content and potentially dangerous situations. How do we help our kids navigate the world of apps, websites, games and social media? What are some of the issues developers of these products and spaces need to consider when they’re designing for young audiences? The research of LSE’s Professor Sonia Livingstone and Dr Mariya Stoilova help us answer these questions.

This short animated film features as as part of LSE Festival 2023: People and Change, highlighting LSE research which explores some of the major changes affecting the world.

Read more about Sonia Livingstone's research on the LSE British Politics and Policy blog here, or visit ySKILLS and 5Rights Foundation.

Social media and the 'hierarchy of hate' (June 2023)

What is the link between online misinformation and hate speech and offline politics and power? In this film, Professor Shakuntala Banaji explains how different kinds of oppression across the world are deeply engaged with what’s happening online. She details the concept of a hierarchy of hate: hate and abuse on social media is directed at people because of who they are, rather than what they say, and certain identities attract far more hate online than other groups do. Learn more about this research in the book Social Media and Hate.

Unearthing the meaning of ‘Big, Bad, Scary’ China (June 2023)

How has Western media reacted to the rise of China? In this film, Professor Bingchun Meng explains how Western media tend to fall back on familiar stereotypes and dystopian imaginaries. China’s increasing economic and geopolitical presence means that Western countries are forced to deal with a country with a very different political and values system, posing many complicated questions.

Why are some people calling for a more open radio access network (RAN) architecture?(June 2023)

Why are some people calling for a more open radio access network (RAN) architecture? In this film, Dr Jean-Christophe Plantin explains why there has been a move to disaggregate some of the key technology that the telecommunications industry relies on. Since 2019, when then US President Donald Trump banned US companies from using technology from Huawei, one of the main three providers of cell tower technology, there has been strong momentum to look at Open RAN. This is increasing as tech giants take a larger role in building network infrastructure.

5 things you need to know about Big Computing (June 2023)

You may be familiar with big data, but what about all the systems behind big data? Who owns, controls and benefits from these systems? What might advances in AI and computing mean for marginalised communities who already face discrimination in both the material and virtual worlds? Big computing is the new big term that you need to know. Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan explores the impact of Big Computing ambitions on freedom and control. Find out more about this research in LSE Research For TheWorld.

How can we tackle digital inequalities? (June 2022)

Accessing digital technologies is only part of the problem of our unequal digital world. Inequality exists also in the different levels of skill people have to engage with that technology, and even more crucially in the differing outcomes they achieve from that engagement, or thanks to the digitisation of society more broadly. In her recent book, Digital Disconnect, Professor Ellen Helsper examines the way that historical social inequalities play out in a digital world – some amplified, some ameliorated by technology – and the solutions that go beyond simply a more equal provision. 

Proxies: the hidden stand-ins that shape your life (June 2022)

What are proxies and how do they influence our lives? This film — inspired by case studies in Dr Dylan Mulvin’s new book from Proxies: The Cultural Work of Standing In — explores the power of proxies and how they shape our lives.

Media coverage of Ukrainian refugees has been different to other conflicts (July 2021)

Media coverage of Ukrainian refugees has been different to other conflicts. For #WorldRefugeeDay, Professor Myria Georgiou compares the warm welcome given to Ukrainian refugees to the suspicion extended towards people who come from other parts of the world. Read more about Professor Georgiou's research.

Spectacular Femininity: the unattainable standards of postfeminism (June 2021)

Postfeminism is an upbeat, celebratory cultural address to women, and promise, that they are past or post- the need for feminism, that they are already individually empowered and can ‘have it all’, ‘do it all’. Drawing on her book, Fashioning Postfeminism: Spectacular Femininity and Transnational Culture, Dr Simidele Dosekun will tell the stories of women she interviewed in Lagos, Nigeria, who practise a spectacularly feminine style and what their lives and attitudes tell us about postfeminism in Africa. She discovers that the postfeminist emphasis on happy affects and choice and ‘can do’ leave little imaginative and emotional space for complaint, critique or resistance. Its encouragement to women to work on themselves, to work on their attitudes and their confidence, to ‘lean in’, obscures the material conditions that it requires.