Members & case studies
Marie Curie Fellow
Phelan Sean (PhD, Ireland): Media critique. Sean is investigating how journalism is critiqued online and how journalists in different European countries negotiate and experience media critique by different online publics.
Junior Research Fellows
Pepermans Yves (PhD, Belgium): Climate change. Starting from a perspective of agonistic pluralism, Yves investigates the discursive construction of climate change in legacy and alternative news media, public discourse and public policy.
Van der Steen Laurens (PhD, The Netherlands): Ethical consumption. Starting from a discourse-theoretical framework, Laurens investigates the variety in interpretations of fair trade in the field of organizations that promote fair trade in Flanders.
Basilaia Ekaterine (Georgia). Hydro Power Plants. Ekaterine investigates potential shifts in agonistic media pluralism in Georgian print media from the Soviet era until today (1979-2014), by focusing on a particular socio-ecological controversy: the construction of the Khudoni Hydro Power Plant.
Faris Jiyan (Kurdistan Region of Iraq): Media in transitional democracies: The case of Iraqi Kurdistan. From a perspective of political economy and media capture, Jiyan investigates the media system in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Hau Priscilla (Belgium): Migration. Priscilla is investigating the differences between legacy media (public broadcaster and commercial newspapers), alternative news outlets and social media when it comes to the social debate on migration.
Nicolaï Jonas (Belgium): News satire. Jonas is investigating the role and performance of popular culture, and more specifically comedy and late-night political satire television, in facilitating democratic conversation and media pluralism.
Peeters Maud (Belgium): Alternative media. Maud is investigating the role and performance of online news startups in contributing to media pluralism in Dutch-speaking Belgium.
Previous members:
Kassirer Shai (PhD, Israel): Hydro-policy debate. Starting from the perspectives of agonistic media pluralism and climate resilience, Shai analyses the discursive role of Israeli news media in the hydro-policy debate between the years 2000-2018 at the University of Brighton (UK).
Raeijmaekers Daniëlle (PhD, Belgium): Austerity. Daniëlle has investigated potential shifts in agonistic media pluralism from the age of pillarization to the age of depillarization, by focusing on the representation of socio-economic crises and austerity policies in newspapers from the 1960s until today, to track their evolution from pillarized media to depillarized, commercial media. Today she works as a researcher in Digital Media Experiences at the Thomas More University College.
Deneckere Karel (Belgium): Nuclear energy. Starting from a discourse-theoretical framework, Karel is investigating the discursive struggle surrounding the nuclear power debate in Belgian news media from a longitudinal perspective at the Free University of Brussels.
Reul Robin (Belgium): Human rights. Starting from a perspective of both agonistic media pluralism and the performativity of journalistic discourse, Robin investigates how both legacy and alternative news media report on human rights issues and how journalists and NGOs co-construct news discourses on human rights.