International visiting professors to Bergen Media Use Group

Bergen Media Use Research Group researches democratic, political and socio-cultural dimensions of media use, and media use as a link between people and society. One of the group's goals for the coming years is to gain new professional impulses and expand the younger researchers' network through more international cooperation.

In 2024, the group is therefore pleased to welcome three international visiting professors with support from the L. Meltzer University Foundation:

Dr. Tim Kormelink

Tim Kormelink is Assistant Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and researches news use and media habits, especially how news is integrated into daily routines and the economics of news consumption. He will visit the Media Use Group at the beginning of May 2024. Kormelink has recently been awarded the prestigious Veni Grant from the Dutch research council NWO for the project "Beyond the news: How people encounter, engage with and make sense of societal issues".

During the visit, he will hold an open seminar organized by the Mediebruksgruppen where he will present his new project, as well as a workshop for the group's PhD candidates and postdocs where they will receive feedback on their work. The workshop will focus on method development in qualitative studies of media use. Kormelink's project is particularly relevant to the ERC project Prepare led by Hallvard Moe, to which several of the group's young researchers are affiliated.

Dr. Joëlle Swart

Joelle Swart is Assistant Professor at the University of Groningen, and will visit UiB for one month, from 21 May to 21 June 2024.

Swart researches young people's experiences with news and social media. Currently, she works particularly with the topics of digital inclusion/ digital dividing lines and with changes in critical media understanding. Like Kormelink, Swart will hold a seminar where she presents her ongoing research, as well as a workshop where she gives feedback on the work of young researchers. Furthermore, as part of the longer stay, she will take part in developing a publication or joint research application on the topic of digital inclusion and digital inequality, and/or on AI and user experiences.

Swart is currently working on developing a project on news inequalities (News Inequalities), which is closely related to the media use group's work. In addition, Swart's ongoing project 'Informed citizenship for all: Digital literacy as a prerequisite for an inclusive society' (2020-2025) is of great relevance to the group's postdoctoral fellow Hilde Sakariassen and her work with older people's news use and digital skills. Swart is participating in an ongoing longitudinal study of young people's mobile phone use, a study that will end in 2024 and which Swart will share experiences from during his stay. Swart and the group also share an interest in AI and user experiences with AI. This particularly applies to projects around 'algorithmic literacy', AI in the production and use of news, as well as AI's impact on citizens' public connections.

Dr. Anna Feigenbaum

Anna Feigenbaum is professor of digital storytelling at Bournemouth University, where she is also co-leader of the Science, Health and Data Communications Research Centre. She will visit the University of Bergen in September 2024, among other things in connection with a book project in collaboration with postdoctoral fellow Özlem Demirkol-Tønnesen.

Feigenbaum explores the intersection of communication, politics and social change, and she is an active communicator of science through work with journalists and media outlets. She has written several books, including “Tear Gas” (Verso Books, 2017) and “The Data Storytelling Workbook” (Routledge, 2020).