Relocated to Oslo

Summer is winding down, and I am now relocated to Oslo, where I’ll be a guest researcher at the Department of Media and Communication for the coming months. Moreover, a new publication based on my collaborations with Hallvard Moe just came out in Nordicom Review – ” Methodological and ethical challenges with large-scale analyses of online political communication“. It discusses some of the problems we’ve had to deal with during our research on Twitter use during Scandinavian election campaigns. Best of all, it’s free – avialable as a pdf here. Hope you enjoy reading it, and please get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions.

 

Post thesis defence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On may 16th, I (successfully) defended my PhD thesis.  The picture above was taken just afterwards, as I was presented with lovely gifts from friends and family. It’s been an intense couple of weeks after the big day: on may 22 I left for ICA in Phoenix, Arizona. Now, focus is on wrapping up things here in Uppsala. In a couple of weeks, we’ll be moving to Oslo, Norway, where I’ll be guest researcher at the Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo.

Interview for local TV

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yup, that’s my arm right there. I was interviewed for Uppsala local TV today – actually two separate local stations wanted to talk to me, but I’ve only managed to locate one of the interviews online. Unfortunately the clip could not be embedded into, say, this blog post – but you can see it here.

Two new publications

During the last couple of weeks, two papers I’ve written have been accepted for publication in two journals that I have followed since my start in academia. While it is satisfactory in itself to have your work accepted in journals that you’ve followed for some time, I am extra happy with these particular publications since they are both based in large parts on my PhD dissertation. As such, both papers take structuration theory [1, 2] (as developed by, in turn, Anthony Giddens and Wanda Orlikowski) as their starting points. The first of the two papers, Understanding non-use of interactivity in online newspapers – Insights from Structuration theory (to be published in The Information Society) discusses how the recursive relationship between macro and micro levels of society outlined in the theory can be employed in order to further understand what one of the reviewers of the paper called “the disappointments of online journalism” – why most readers and journalists do not tend to use interactive features in the online newspaper context. By using terminology derived from the work of Giddens and Orlikowski, the paper provides an overview of research done on audience-journalist interaction and suggests some ways forward for researchers and practitioners.

Similarly, the second paper, ‘Rejected bits of program code’ – Why notions of “politics 2.0” remain (mostly) unfulfilled (to be published in Journal of Information Technology & Politics), takes the same theoretical starting point but places its focus on the supposed potential of the Internet to rejuvenate political participation among the broader citizenry. While hopes regarding such a potential have generally been held high (especially now, in the “2.0” era), most empirical research on the matter has provided results indicating passivity in voters and somewhat cautious attitudes on behalf of politicians. As with the former paper, conceptual tools derived from structuration theory are used in order to explain why these somewhat conservative behaviors are apparent.

Thesis test print

Thesis test print

Just got this test print of my phd thesis from the printers. Looks good, to me at least. The cover picture turned out good, save for the small “wavy” traces visible above. The printers assured me that this will not be an issue with the final edition. The whole batch will be delivered on april 24th.

Looking forward to Phoenix

Just booked my flight tickets to go to the annual ICA conference – this time taking place in Phoenix, AZ, at the end of may. Last year’s Boston ICA was my first experience with this huge conference – there are just too many interesting sessions going on to be able to catch them all. This year is shaping up to be a rather hectic experience: I submitted two papers, both based on my PhD dissertation (which will most likely be defended just days before I leave for Phoenix), and one panel (to be co-arranged by Hallvard Moe). Both papers and the panel was accepted – great! The panel is entitled Researching Social Media – Methodological and Ethical Challenges panel and will feature presentations by Michael ZimmerEszter HargittaiCornelius PuschmannJean BurgessAxel Bruns and Merja MahrtZizi Papacharissi will serve as discussant. A great line-up indeed. Looking forward to Phoenix!