While working as a Research Assistant at the New Political Communication Unit, I contributed to a number of projects including: a project examining public responses on social media to the Paris attacks with Billur Aslan Ozgul, Ben O’Loughlin and Cristian Vaccari; a co-authored chapter with Andrew Chadwick and Amy P. Smith for the Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics; and research analysing the agenda setting power of the Institute for Fiscal Studies during the 2015 UK general election.
Click here for further information on the New Political Communication Unit at Royal Holloway.
Publications
O’Loughlin, B. Vaccari, C. Aslan Ozgul, B. and Dennis, J. (2017). Twitter and Global Political Crises: Cycles of Insecurity in #PrayforParis and #PrayforSyria, Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. 10(2-3), 175-203.
Abstract
This study examines social media responses to the 13 November 2015 Paris attacks by the Islamic State. First impressions of over 2,000,000 tweets containing hashtags #Pray- forParis and #PrayforSyria suggested a conflation of three issues: (1) Migration: were the attackers homegrown or carrying overseas passports? (2) Violence: why was Paris attacked and why is France bombing the Islamic State? (3) Media: what role should mainstream and social media play during events that are local and global, unique and yet part of a series? However, instead of conflating media, migration and terrorism, we found users of both hashtags discussing Syria, foreign policy, and justice and fair- ness. Building on previous research exploring how social media affordances encourage certain communication behaviors, we test whether Twitter’s reply function is more conducive to antagonistic comments than retweets, which we hypothesise allow for an expression of solidarity and universalism. Conversations about Syria contain greater antagonism, explained by aspects of the tweet, user and network effects. The #PrayforParis and #PrayforSyria conversations exhibit neither the contestation of global attention nor a media-driven cycle of insecurity. The high frequency of agonistic and non-visual tweets, particularly about Syria, suggests a robust exchange of claims, refuting pessimistic depictions of Twitter as a space for superficiality and hate.
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Chadwick, A. Dennis, J. and Smith, A. P. (2016). Politics in the Age of Hybrid Media: Power, Systems, and Media Logics. In Bruns, A. Skogerbø, E. Christensen, C. Larsson, A. O. and Enli, G. (Eds.), Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics (pp. 7-22). London: Routledge.
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Selected talks
Aslan, B. Dennis, J. O’Loughlin, B. and Vaccari, C. (2016). Media, Migration and Violence: #PrayforParis, #PrayforSyria and the Dynamics of Antagonism. Paper presented at the Communication and Conflict: Iraq and Syria Conference, SOAS, University of London, May 7.
Aslan, B. Dennis, J. O’Loughlin, B. and Vaccari, C. (2016). Moral Panics and the Cycle of Antagonism in #PrayforParis and #PrayforSyria. Paper presented at the Conference of International Broadcasters' Audience Research Services Annual Conference, Zeuthen, Germany, May 8-11.