Seminar programme
Each year, our staff and students are invited to a range of seminars that touch on the most relevant topics and emerging research in the study of journalism, media and communication.
If you'd like to suggest a speaker for a future research seminar, please email the seminar series coordinator Dr Joan Ramon (Mon) Rodriguez-Amat (mon.rodriguez@sheffield.ac.uk).
Our research seminars are being presented in a mix of hybrid, online and in-person formats. Where these sessions are hybrid or in person, they will be held in Lecture Theatre 3 of The Wave, Whitham Road. Please ensure you check the below programme before attending.
If you are not a current staff / student member from the School and are interesting in attending any of these talks, please email the seminar series coordinator.
Silvia Masiero - 'Unfair ID: Digital Identity from Injustice to Resistance'
Friday 14th February, 12:00
The Wave, Seminar Room 4 (hybrid)
Silvia Masiero will present her new book Unfair ID (Sage, Data Justice Series, October 2024). Using a data justice lens to explore narratives of unfairness in, and harm caused through digital ID, she will present some of the stories contained in the book, building on her 14-year research on the use of Aadhaar's biometrics in the Indian Public Distribution System (PDS). Based on this, she will discuss routes to build activist mechanisms to combat unfairness.
This talk is organised by the Information Systems Research group (ISRG) in the School of Information, Journalism and Communication (IJC) and the Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD)
Kelly Lloyd - 'Using behaviour change theories to explore medication use for cancer prevention'
Wednesday 19th February, 12:00
The Wave, Seminar Room 5 (in-person)
Behaviour change theories and frameworks are valuable tools for understanding the determinants of health behaviours, such as medication decision-making. This presentation will explore the benefits of using behaviour change theories to improve our understanding of health-related behaviours and demonstrate the range of theories and frameworks available. The presentation will also provide a practical example of how to apply behaviour change frameworks, such as the Theoretical Domains Framework, to explore the barriers and motivators to the use of aspirin for cancer prevention among patients and healthcare professionals.
This talk is organised by the Health Informatics Research Group (HIRG) in the School of Information, Journalism and Communication.
Wednesday 26th February, 14:00
The Wave, Lecture Theatre 3 (hybrid)
Often reduced to the role of sensationalist gossipmongers online tabloids are a vital source of political news for the public. 鈥(Not) kidding: Politics in online tabloids鈥 provides a detailed analysis of the media coverage during the 2015-2016 US presidential and Brexit campaigns focusing on the articles and reader comments in major British Polish and US online tabloids: Mail Online, Pudelek and Gawker. In addition, interviews with 20 journalists and editors from these outlets shed light on the newsrooms production techniques and professional values. The book explores the emotional public sphere of comment sections and introduces the concept of the 鈥(not) kidding鈥 frame which highlights the ambiguity and reactive nature of tabloid media and how they navigate accusations of undermining democracy.
These findings remain particularly relevant also in light of the most nationalist and populist turn observed in the recent elections in the United States, Austria, France, and other democratic countries, as well as in current debates about censorship and content moderation on social media platforms.
Wednesday 12th March, 14:00
The Wave, Lecture Theatre 3 (in-person)
This talk explores the evolving role of cartography as a potent media practice, one that is casually 'performed' through everyday smartphone use while simultaneously exerting a profound influence on public discourse, decision-making, and spatial practices. Far from being neutral tools of navigation, cartographic representations are complex multimedia constructions. They integrate visual, textual, and interactive elements to craft narratives that influence socio-political landscapes and cultural understandings. Therefore cartographic representations shape our perception of spaces and places, influence processes of spatial appropriation and thus have space-generating qualities.
The rise of digital and interactive cartography has blurred traditional distinctions between map producers and users. Platforms such as Google Maps and social media-integrated GIS systems demonstrate how maps are no longer merely read but actively performed, interpreted, and reshaped. This shift has profound implications: maps become immersive experiences, shaped by user interaction and commercialized by the pervasive logic of data economies. Cartographic representations become dynamic interfaces, influecing individual and collective spatial ontologies.
Apart from this individual perspective, cartographic representations have taken on a central role in the visual storytelling toolkit of newsrooms. Cartographic representations are used to explain complex phenomena, from election results to humanitarian crises, often shaping audience interpretations and emotional engagement. A critical examination of the mechanisms through which maps construct meaning allows for a deeper understanding of their impact, including the ethical and power dynamics embedded in these visualizations. This talk concludes with examples from the field of news cartography, inviting the audience to critically reconsider the role of maps not only in spatial understanding but also in shaping the broader sociocultural fabric. Maps are not mirrors of reality鈥攖hey are dynamic agents of its (re)construction. This underscores their importance in journalism and their broader role in public communication and decision-making.
Elinor Carmi - 'Data Citizenship as Literacies to Address Digital Resignation'
Wednesday 19th March, 12:00
The Wave, Seminar Room 5
This talk will discuss how the sense of 鈥榩owerlessness鈥 many people feel in relation to the Big-Tech companies is articulated, and what literacies and support mechanisms people need to challenge Big-Tech companies. I aim to challenge the notion of 鈥榚mpowerment鈥 and show the nuances and complexities behind this term often used by tech companies and regulators.
Diyi Liu - 'The Balancing Act: Communicating Legitimacy in Transnational Speech Governance'
Wednesday 19th March, 14:00
The Wave, Lecture Theatre 3
Content moderation is a political battleground fraught with competing social expectations. In this talk I will present a chapter of my PhD thesis entitled 鈥淐ontent Moderation, Platform Governance, and Legitimacy: TikTok in South and Southeast Asia鈥. The study draws on interviews with subject matter experts from the government, industry, and civil society in Indonesia and Pakistan, two countries with vast market potential and delicate speech norms. It examines the normative and pragmatic legitimacy claims deployed by different actors, and how they communicate with each other.
The findings highlight that TikTok as a private platform positions itself as an enriching entertainment hub. It must navigate a significant trust deficit without disrupting the moral fabric of the host countries, and is recognized for its willingness to align with regulators compared to its Western counterparts. Local states acknowledge the substantial economic benefits provided by global platforms, yet their limited regulatory capacity prompts a defensive and paternalistic approach. Moreover, civil society organizations act as active legitimizing forces, whose strategic activism, coalition building, and international connections balance the accountability relationships in the tripartite network. While misalignment exists between private and public interests, the mutual reliance and shared desire drive all parties to find common ground. I conclude the study by discussing tensions that emerge from these claims, and highlighting essential prospects that could foster more legitimate online speech governance sensitive to local cultural contexts.
Chrysi Dagoula - 'Before Twitter became X: Twitter鈥檚 impact on News Journalism'
Wednesday 26th March, 14:00
The Wave, Lecture Theatre 3 (in-person)
How do social media platforms and especially Twitter (now 鈥榅鈥) affect news journalism? It is true that ever since Twitter shifted from being a channel for banal chatter to functioning as a newsroom, the platform has had a significant impact on news journalism. This influence is widely accepted both by academic and news media actors, however, there is no agreement on the nature of its impact. For some, Twitter is seen as enabling news journalism, by being an ambient news environment and a 鈥榞lobal village鈥. For others, Twitter is seen as distorting news journalism, by underpinning information disorder and by coarsening political and civil discourse. Based on her research on Twitter (presented in her book News Journalism and Twitter: Disruption, Adaption and Normalisation), Chrysi Dagoula will discuss her analysis of the costs and benefits of Twitter鈥檚 impact on both the institutional values and practices of news journalism today. Doing so she will address the question whether Twitter altered the core of news journalism practice. Her analysis allows us to understand the nature of Twitter before it became 鈥榅鈥 and the differences between the two, and to examine why news journalists are faced with the dilemma of staying or leaving social media platforms.
Margaret E. Peacock - 'Frequencies of Deceit: How Propaganda Shaped the Middle East'
Wednesday 2nd April, 14:00-15:00
The Wave, Lecture Theatre 3 (hybrid)
On June 8, 1967, Egypt's most famous radio broadcaster, Ahmed Said, reported that Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian forces had defeated the Israeli army in the Sinai, had hobbled their British and US allies, and were liberating Palestine. It was a lie. For the rest of his life, populations in the Middle East vilified Said for his duplicity. However, the truth was that, by 1967, all the world's major broadcasters to the Middle East were dissimulating on the air. For two decades, British, Soviet, American, and Egyptian radio voices created an audio world characterized by deceit and betrayal. In the end, this betrayal contributed to the loss of faith in Western and secular state-led political solutions for many in the Arab world, laying the groundwork for the rise of political Islam.
Join Dr. Margaret Peacock as she discusses her new book, Frequencies of Deceit: How Propaganda Shaped the Middle East (Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 2025). In this timely talk, Peacock will discuss her research journey uncovering the history of deception and propaganda in Middle Eastern international radio.
Wednesday 14th May, 14:00
The Wave, Lecture Theatre 3 (online)
In this talk, Yesil provides critical insights into state-sponsored global communication, focusing on politics of victimhood, essentialization of East-West binaries, and obfuscation of facts through identitarian narratives. Drawing on her latest book, she examines the ruling AKP government鈥檚 global communication strategies, which present Turkey as a rising power while discrediting the West. Going beyond traditional frameworks of public diplomacy and soft power, Yesil analyzes the AKP鈥檚 English-language communication ventures in the context of historical grievances and sociocultural legacies. While the AKP鈥檚 proxies claim to decolonize global communication and advocate for the Global South, Yesil argues that their counter-hegemonic mobilization is transactional, selective, and exclusionary, highlighting the leveraging of Muslim identity politics and the instrumentalization of postcolonial sensibilities.