Research and Innovation Associate in Digital Media and Online Misinformation in London

The department of Digital Humanities is part of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at King’s College London. The department is a global leader in researching digital culture and society, and in exploring the use of digital methods in arts and humanities research. It is the largest and most prestigious department of its kind, ranked first in the UK (along with the Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries) in the latest Research Excellence Framework. Its current work includes topics such as platform studies, data studies, digital methods, digital culture, digital labour, digital infrastructures and digital methods (

About the role:

King’s College London is looking to hire a Research Associate to conduct research on online mis/disinformation ecosystems and on opposition to mis/disinformation counter-measures in Europe. The role holder will work as part of the Horizon Europe project COMPASS (COuntering Manipulation while Preserving Authentic Speech and Society). The aim of the project is to understand how democratic societies can counter sophisticated information manipulation, without compromising fundamental rights like freedom of expression and privacy. The position provides an exceptional chance to work with an interdisciplinary and cross-institutional team of leading experts on tackling a pressing societal problem.

We are looking for a colleague who can help develop interdisciplinary approaches to study the circulation of online mis/disinformation and responses to misinformation counter-measures, informed by fields and subfields such as digital methods, issue mapping, controversy mapping, internet studies, digital media studies, science and technology studies, communication studies, platform studies, infrastructure studies and software studies.

The post holder will be supervised by Dr. Liliana Bounegru, Senior Lecturer in Digital Media, Culture and Society, and will additionally be working with Dr Gregory Asmolov, Senior Lecturer in Global Digital Politics, and Dr. Jonathan Gray, Reader in Critical Infrastructure Studies.

The Research Associate will be responsible for designing and implementing digital media research, collecting and analysing data from social media and online platforms, and writing reports and other publications. The Research Associate will also be responsible for organising collaborative research events, workshops and meetings with project partners, stakeholders and other researchers and talented students.

Key responsibilities

• Work with the KCL Co-Investigators and the larger COMPASS team on developing theoretical and methodological approaches to the problem at hand.
• Design and implement digital media research on mis/disinformation ecosystems and opposition to counter-measures.
• Conduct a comprehensive critical review of academic literature and policy reports on disinformation, propaganda and countermeasures.
• Conduct social media research with digital methods, online issue mapping, and technography by combining the use of software tools and scripts for data collection, analysis and visualisation with qualitative close reading and interpretation of corpora of materials from online platforms, and a critical understanding of online platforms as socio-technical systems.
• Organise collaborative research sprints, workshops and meetings with project partners and stakeholders, as well as other researchers and talented students.
• Participate in research sprints and coordinate researchers and students to collaboratively design and implement research.
• Work with the KCL Co-Is, the COMPASS coordinator and other project teams on all aspects of the larger project, eg by participating in project meetings and coordinating with COMPASS project partners.
• Develop project reports, deliverables and publications documenting research findings and recommendations in close collaboration with the Co-Is and other project teams.
• Prepare presentation materials for various events, conferences, and meetings.
• Participate in the everyday life of the department and represent the project at external events and conferences.

Depending on the number of appointments, this will be either one full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed-term contract of two years, or , two part-time or full-time posts, on a fixed-term basis, for up to two years.

Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers , applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

• * PhD in relevant field (e.g. digital media studies, digital social studies, social studies of science and technology, science and technology studies, Internet studies, digital sociology, platform studies, software studies, digital culture, critical disinformation studies, critical AI studies or related fields).
• Demonstrable strong digital media research skills, digital or computational methods for social, cultural and media research with social media platforms
• Demonstrable experience or substantive interest in one or more of the research objects of this project, such as mis/disinformation, propaganda, crises, mis/disinformation countermeasures and freedom of expression.
• A record of relevant research and publications in international peer-reviewed journals and/or policy reports.
• Demonstrable ability to independently deliver research and reports as well as undertaking collaborative research as part of a team.
• Excellent analytical, communication, presentation and inter-personal skills, as well as written and spoken English.
• Excellent organizational skills, including experience organizing workshops and events.

* Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade

• Proficiency in European languages other than English.
• Experience with web and social media data collection and analysis, visual methods, network analysis, data visualisation and other quanti-qualitative methods for Internet studies

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.

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