MeDeMAP
ICSJ is one of the partners of the EU-funded MeDeMAP, which studies the extent to which certain media perform democratic functions for audiences as well as the conditions under which this takes place. Specifically, the project draws from large-scale quantitative analyses, in-depth qualitative approaches and participatory action research. It explores the entire range of news media, regardless of distribution channel, and consider the media’s potential to promote and support political participation. The findings are used to create a multi-layer map of European political information environments, highlighting good practice examples.
DeConPeace
Dr. David Ongenaert obtained a JUNIOR Fund Postdoc Grant in 2024 for his research project “(De)constructing peace. A multi-methods and multi-stakeholder project on mediated peace discourses on the Russian-Ukrainian war”. The ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war has ignited intense discursive struggles across different media platforms. However, mediated peace discourses and particularly the involved production processes and audience receptions have barely been researched, even though they can substantially shape media, public, political and corporate agendas, interests and support. Structural research into mediated peace discourses is necessary and arguably particularly relevant for the Russian-Ukrainian war. Under supervision of Prof. dr. Nico Carpentier, David therefore examines how various key stakeholders (i.e., news agencies, journalists, citizens and refugees) (de)construct and (re-)imagine mediated peace discourses on the Russian-Ukrainian war. The project adopts a start-to-end (i.e., production, text and reception) and comparative multi-method perspective.
EUMEPLAT
ICSJ was one of the partners of the Eumeplat Research Programme, which studied how media platforms or TV series on streaming services contribute to the ideas that we have about Europe and to what it means to be European. We were looking at anti-European fake news, the representations of immigration and gender in European media, and the struggle between US-based platforms and European policies. The project pointed out that the European dimension has never been obvious in the media landscape. This manifests itself at various levels in the so-called creative industry. The film industry counts more on national productions or cultural imports from the most influential countries, while American companies own commercial web platforms.
MISTRA-EC@ICSJ
ICSJ was one of the partners of the MISTRA Environmental Communication Research Programme. At ICSJ, we did research on the communication of environmental and sustainability issues in Swedish arts and media. We were particularly interested in the discursive struggles between the different environmental and sustainability discourses that circulated in Swedish arts and media. In addition, we worked on developing strategies to open up existing discursive patterns and constellations for a constructive engagement with new or marginalised perspectives. Moreover, we focused on how materiality intersects with these discourses on the environment, looking at how the material is entangled with the discursive, and how the material can play a primary role in dislocating particular discourses, but also in how the material invites for particular discourses to be assembled with it.