Ben O'Loughlin - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Ben O'Loughlin is Professor of International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London

Royal Holloway, University of London

Royal Holloway, University of London is a constituent college of the University of London. The college has three faculties, 18 academic departments, and about 8,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from over 130 different countries...

. He is Co-Director of the New Political Communication Unit, which was launched in 2007 by Professor Andrew Chadwick. Before joining Royal Holloway in September 2006 he was a researcher on the ESRC New Security Challenges Programme. He completed a DPhil in Politics at New College, Oxford

New College, Oxford

New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...

in 2005 under the supervision of the political theorist Elizabeth Frazer and journalist Godfrey Hodgson.

Ben's expertise is in the field of international political communication. Through a number of projects, books and articles he has explored how politics and security are changing in the new media ecology

Media ecology

Media ecology is a contested term within media studies having different meanings within European and North American contexts. The North American definition refers to aninterdisciplinary field of media theory and media design involving the study of "symbolic environment, or the socially constructed,...

. This work is drawn together in the book War and Media: The Emergence of Diffused War (Cambridge: Polity, 2010), co-authored with Professor Andrew Hoskins. He has published articles in Political Studies

Political Studies (journal)

Political Studies is a peer-reviewed academic journal of political science established in 1953 and published quarterly by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Political Studies Association. The journal's approach is, according to its editors, not dominated by a particular methodological or theoretical...

, Review of International Studies

Review of International Studies

The Review of International Studies is an academic journal on international relations and the journal of the British International Studies Association. The editor-in-chief is Kimberley Hutchings ....

, International Affairs

International Affairs (journal)

International Affairs is Britain's leading peer-reviewed academic journal of international relations founded by Chatham House in 1924. It is published bi-monthly by Wiley-Blackwell . Currently its editor-in-chief is Caroline Soper...

, International Journal of Press/Politics, Journalism, and many other peer-reviewed scientific journals.

He has carried out projects on media and radicalisation for the Economic and Social Research Council and the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure

Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure

Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure is the United Kingdom government authority which provides protective security advice to businesses and organisations across the national infrastructure...

. This led to the book Radicalisation and Media: Terrorism and Connectivity in the New Media Ecology (London: Routledge, 2011) co-authored with Akil N. Awan

Akil N. Awan

Akil N Awan is a British academic and the current RCUK Fellow in the ‘Contemporary History of Faith, Power and Terror’ and Lecturer in both International Terrorism and Contemporary Islam in the Department of History and the Department of Politics and International Relations, at Royal Holloway,...

and Andrew Hoskins.

Ben is currently researching the new field of social media monitoring. In 2010 he completed a project for the UK Technology Strategy Board

Technology Strategy Board

The Technology Strategy Board is a UK public body operating at arm's length from the Government reporting to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills .- History :...

exploring how Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

data can reveal emerging crises, infrastructure problems, and shifts in public opinion

Public opinion

Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views....

. With Nick Anstead

Nick Anstead

Nick Anstead is an academic, currently a Politics lecturer at the University of East Anglia.He has been interviewed by national media including BBC2 TV, BBC Radio 4 and More4...

he calls this Semantic Polling. Ben is currently writing a new book on digital media and social change called The New Mass, with Andrew Hoskins.

Ben is Editor in Chief of the Sage

SAGE Publications

SAGE is an independent academic publisher of books, journals, and electronic products in the humanities and social sciences and the scientific, technical, and medical fields. SAGE was founded in 1965 by George McCune and Sara Miller McCune. The company is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California,...

journal Media, War & Conflict. The journal was launched in 2008. It is a major international, peer-reviewed journal that maps the shifting arena of war, conflict and terrorism in an intensively and extensively mediated age.

The concept 'strategic narrative' has been developed by Ben with colleagues Alister Miskimmon at Royal Holloway, Andreas Antoniades (Sussex

University of Sussex

The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....

) and Laura Roselle at Elon University

Elon University

Elon University is a private liberal arts university in Elon, North Carolina, United States. Formerly known as Elon College, it became Elon University on June 1, 2001. The campus is a botanical garden and features oak trees, brick sidewalks, fountains, and lakes...

. Strategic narratives refer to how states tell stories about international affairs in order to influence the behaviour of other states and non-state actors. This research has been supported by the International Studies Association

International Studies Association

The International Studies Association was founded by a group of scholars and practitioners in 1959 to pursue mutual interests in international studies. Representing eighty countries, ISA has over three thousand members worldwide and is the most respected and widely known scholarly association in...

(ISA) and the ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC).

Ben has presented research to the No. 10 Policy Unit, Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...

, OFCOM

Ofcom

Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...

, the European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

and European Broadcasting Union

European Broadcasting Union

The European Broadcasting Union is a confederation of 74 broadcasting organisations from 56 countries, and 49 associate broadcasters from a further 25...

(EBU), as well as expert groups like the Global Futures Forum. He has contributed to the New York Times, Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

, OpenDemocracy

OpenDemocracy

openDemocracy is a website for debate about international politics and culture, offering news and opinion articles from established academics, journalists and policymakers covering current issues in world affairs. openDemocracy was founded in 2000 by Anthony Barnett, David Hayes, Susan Richards and...

, Sky News

Sky News

Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...

and Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

. He blogs for the Duck of Minerva, an international relations community site, and the New Political Communication Unit.

External links

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