I’ve been interwied by El Español for an article on the UK’s EU membership referendum:
Las caras del referéndum británico sobre abandonar la UE
Las campañas a favor y en contra del ‘Brexit’ han abandonado la línea de salida y los principales partidos evidencian sus divisiones.
Read the article here
I have recently contributed to an expert consultation on media diversity in South Korea. The consultation, launched by Professor Kyung-sin Park and commissioned by the Ministry of Culture of South Korea, focussed on how and whether online intermediaries should be taken into account in the measurement of media diversity.
More information is available on opennetkorea.org.
The online experiment on Scottish independence and the UK election which I conducted at University of Edinburgh featured on The Times and The Herald Scotland:
Throwing Scottish independence into the electoral debate benefits the SNP and penalises the Labour, according to a study by the European University Institute conducted at the University of Edinburgh.
When the three main Westminster parties – Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems – directly attack the SNP and make explicit reference to the issue of independence in their electoral arguments, Scottish voters are more likely to vote for the SNP, instead of stepping away from it. On the other hand, framing the electoral competition in relation to Scottish independence slightly reduces the support for Westminster parties, and especially for the Labour, among Scottish voters. The results of the study, however, suggest that these “lost” Labour votes do not go directly to the SNP, but mostly to other parties, including the Lib Dems and the Green party.
A few weeks ago I moved to New York City where I’m going to spend a period as a visiting PhD student at New York University until June 2015.
I’m officially affiliated with the Department of Political Science and will work mainly with Professor John Jost and Professor Joshua Tucker. Besides attending seminars, I’m going to join the activities of the Center for social and political behavior and the Social Media and Political Participation (SMaPP) laboratory.
Published on the LSE Media Policy Project blog on 10, February 2015
With the approaching general election and a new charter due in 2016, the BBC is facing troubling months. “Colossal scrutiny” is expected from politicians, as Director General Tony Hall recently said, and if the Conservatives remain in power, severe cuts in public funding might be introduced. Irrespective of which policies will be implemented, it is worth questioning, however, if reducing the licence fee would align the BBC with the other public broadcasters in Europe. Do UK households pay excessively more for public service broadcasting compared to their European neighbours?
Infografica pubblicata su Repubblica con il contributo di Giuliano Balestrieri e Sandra Hiralal:
http://www.repubblica.it/economia/2015/01/26/news/rai_cenerentola_d_europa-105818572/
Published on EUI Times on 2, October 2014
After one of the longest and most intense campaigns in British political history, the referendum for the independence of Scotland is now over. The final result confirms what almost every opinion poll had predicted over the last year, a clear majority for the pro-union side. Yet, in the very last weeks of the campaign everything seemed to change and for the first time the ‘impossible’ outcome of a ‘Yes’ victory became conceivable.
Pubblicato sul sito del CISE – 6 ottobre 2014
Dopo quasi quattro anni dal suo annuncio da parte del Partito nazionalista scozzese (SNP), il 18 settembre si è celebrato il referendum per l’indipendenza della Scozia. La chiara vittoria degli unionisti con il 55 percento dei voti, oltre a spezzare i sogni degli indipendentisti, ha posto fine a una delle più lunghe e accese campagne della storia del Regno unito.
Published on the LSE Media Policy Project blog on 16, September 2014
With just a couple of days to go and opinion polls showing a strongly polarised electorate in Scotland, the only certainty is that the result of the independence referendum will be extremely tight. In such a context, delivering convincing messages can persuade a crucial handful of voters to take a stance and lead one side or another to a victory. This claim is supported by an experimental study that Céline Colombo and I carried out at BLUE Lab at the University of Edinburgh.