[Commlist] Free online conference. Navigating Digital Democracy

Join us for the online conference of the Political Studies Association's 
Media and Politics Group and Technology, Information and Policy group 
Annual Conference, themed around ’Navigating Digital Democracy”. Held on 
7th January 2026.

We have four panels plus a keynote by Prof Jonathan Corpus Ong on 
"Exposing Disinformation Economies: Lessons from Asia and the Global South”.

Non-presenting participants can register for free 
here:https://bournemouth-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/jYm1d6rQT1Cpye_lKtyxvA 
<https://bournemouth-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/jYm1d6rQT1Cpye_lKtyxvA>

The final programme is below. All times are UK (GMT).

We hope to see you there.

*9.00 – 10.15am*
*Panel: Platforms for Politics*

 1. *Fajar Martha* (University of Indonesia)
    /Influencer Activism, Elite Critique, and Democratic Backsliding in
    Indonesia: Lessons from the Failed ‘17+8’ Movement/
 2. *Paweł Surowiec-Capell, Chris Miles* (University of Sharjah; AFG
    College with the University of Aberdeen)
    /Public Engagement with Foreign Policy Using ‘Diplotainment’:
    Evaluations of a Hybrid Genre/
 3. *Sara I. Kreishan* (University of Sharjah)
    /Digital Platforms and Civic Mobilization: The #CeasefireNow
    Movement in the United States (2023–2025)/
 4. *André Almo, Ana Jovanovic-Harrington, Maíra Amaral* (Technological
    University Dublin; Dublin City University)
    /Games as Political Communication in Authoritarian Regimes/

*10.15 – 10.30am*
Break

*10.30 – 12.00pm*
*Panel: The Changing Face of Journalism*

 1. *Antal Wozniak* (University of Liverpool)
    /Media narratives of ‘the West’ in non-Western mainstream news: A
    case study of Brazilian, Indian, and South African reporting about
    the Russo-Ukrainian war/
 2. *Susana Sampaio-Dias* (University of Portsmouth)
    /“You’re so sensitive! I’ll make sure one of your KPIs is to develop
    a thicker skin!” Early-Career Women Journalists' expectations and
    experiences of breaking through the sector/
 3. *Alev Aslan, Nilüfer Timisi, Yeliz Dede Özdemir* (İstanbul University)
    /The Representation of ‘Women Experts’ as Speaking Political
    Subjects in Political Debate Programs on TV/
 4. *Leonardo Desideri* (Independent Researcher; PhD in Communication,
    Universidad de Navarra)
    /The Rise of Almost-News: How Proto-Event Coverage on Digital
    Platforms Turns Signals, Hints, and Moves into Breaking News/

*12.00 – 12.30pm*
Lunch

*12.30 – 2.00pm*
*Panel: Technology, Governance, & Democracy*

 1. *Lambrini Papadopoulou, Theodora A. Maniou* (National and
    Kapodistrian University of Athens; University of Cyprus)
    /Democracy Under Surveillance: Digital threats and challenges to
    press freedom/
 2. *Mohamed Ben Moussa* (University of Sharjah)
    /Technocratic Governance and Poverty in Morocco: Critical Discourse
    Analysis of Morocco’s Social Index/
 3. *Natacha Ferreira Moreira* (Universidade Federal Fluminense – UFF,
    Brazil)
    /Digital Colonialism: Discourses on the Construction of Data Centers
    in the Global South and the New Stage of Capitalism/
 4. *Qasim Mahmood* (National University of Modern Languages Islamabad)
    /Social Media and Youth’s Political Activism: The Rise of a
    Networked Public Sphere in Pakistan/

*2.00 – 3.00pm*
*Keynote: Jonathan Corpus Ong*
/Exposing Disinformation Economies: Lessons from Asia and the Global South/

/Disinformation studies’ hype cycle reached its zenith in the aftermath 
of 2016 global elections and birthed an industry of tools- and 
tech-first interventions. This talk offers a critique of the mainstream 
of the field as (1) disconnected from Global South priorities and (2) 
exacerbating power inequities between donors and 'on-the-ground' civil 
society leaders. Drawing on a South-to-South network-building project, I 
retell participants’ work of challenging top-down and extractive forms 
of collaboration, and reflect on how we can apply these lessons to other 
hype cycles. /

/Bio/

/Jonathan Corpus Ong is Professor and Founding Director of Global 
Technology for Social Justice Lab in the University of Massachusetts at 
Amherst, USA. His 2018 study “Architects of Networked Disinformation” 
applies a production studies approach in studying the social identities 
and moral justifications of clandestine digital operators in the 
Philippines. This study was ranked among “the most valuable” pieces of 
disinformation research in a Poynter poll of journalists around the 
world–(unfortunately) the only ethnographic and Global South-focused 
study in the list. He is an Andrew Carnegie Fellow (2022-25) and 
currently Co-Editor of the International Journal of Cultural Studies./

*3.00 – 3.15pm*
Break

*3.15 – 4.45pm*
*Panel: Discussing Politics in the Digital Age*

 1. *Vera Gailis* (Independent Artist, Curator, Researcher)
    /Reclaiming Visual Agency: Counter-Dataset Practices for Democratic
    Participation in the Age of AI/
 2. *Sameera Alotaibi* (Bournemouth University)
    /Constructing Saudi Arabia's Image through Mega Events:
    Institutional and Western Media Discourse/
 3. *Marta Cantijoch, Andrés Bernstein* (University of Manchester;
    University of the Balearic Islands)
    /Hostility on Social Media and the Moralization of Politics in the
    United Kingdom/
 4. *Iris Simón-Astudillo* (Universidad de Valladolid)
    /Unravelling social conversation: gender, institutions and digital
    democracy in Spain/

*4.45pm*
Conference close



---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ commlist.org)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------