Civic Media hub

About Us

The Civic Media hub was established in 2014 and brings together a multidisciplinary, cross-Faculties team of researchers and students that work in collaboration with external stakeholders to co-create effective ways of tackling important social issues. We combine expertise from humanities, social sciences, geography, computer science and data analytics. In addition to dissemination through traditional scholarly channels, our outputs are targeted directly at policy-makers and journalists to maximise impact on the issues we investigate. We also aim to develop tools and methods that can be utilised by other researchers and third sector organisations.

Projects

From mapping youth experiences of climate change to researching social media and humanitarian responses to crisis, our team is engaged in a variety of digitally innovative projects aimed at addressing and informing social issues to create impact.

EVENTS

We host a range of activities and public events, including training days, seminar series and workshops. To facilitate impact we also engage in direct dialogue with policy-makers in the United Nations, UK and European Parliament through organised events and briefing meetings.

PARTNERS

Our co-creation project partners includes NGO, journalist and digital design collaborations with groups including Bahrain Watch, Omega Research Foundation, CAAT, Bellingcat, Publica, Open Security, Corporate Watch, AltCity.me, Tactical Technology Collective.

DATALABS

Working with NGOs, journalists and digital designers we run hands-on data aggregation, visualisation and digital storytelling workshops designed specifically for addressing civic and humanitarian issues. Data Labs is a Fusion funded initiative.

YOUR TEAM

We combine expertise from media studies, communications, geography, computer science and data analytics.

Dr. Anna Feigenbaum

Organiser of Civic Media Hub Senior Lecturer in Digital Storytelling

Anna Feigenbaum is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Storytelling at Bournemouth University and PI of the Datalabs project. Her research focuses on communication and social justice. Anna teaches data storytelling at BU, runs community workshops, and provides consultancy to NGOs and cultural organisations.

Dr Einar Thorsen

Principal Academic In Journalism & Communication

Einar is a Principal Lecturer in Journalism and Communication at Bournemouth University, and Associate Director of the Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community.

Dr Phillipa Gillingham

Senior Lecturer in Biogeography

Phillipa is a terrestrial biogeographer and macroecologist working in the School of Applied Sciences at Bournemouth University. Her interests could be summed up as ‘where species are found and why’. She runs the Bournemouth University GIS lab.

Brad Gyori

Senior Lecturer in Digital Storytelling

Brad is a senior lecturer in digital storytelling at Bournemouth University. For ten years, he was the Head Writer of the Emmy award winning Talk Soup. He has been nominated for five Emmys. Currently, his research focuses on new media rituals and project-based learning models.

Duncan Golicher

Senior Lecturer in Geoinformatics

Duncan is a researcher in geoinformatics at Bournemouth University

Dr Dan Jackson

Principal Academic in Media and Politics

Dan is a researcher, educator and consultant in the field of media, communication and politics. His research broadly explores the intersection of media and democracy.

Isabella Rega

Senior Lecturer in Education and Digital Literacies

Isabella Rega holds a Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and an Executive Master degree in Intercultural Communication from the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI). Her PhD dissertation dealt with the role of telecentres in socio-economic development

Bogdan Gabrys

Director of the SMART Technology Research Centre

His current research interests lay in a broad area of intelligent and biologically/nature inspired learning and complex adaptive systems and include a wide range of machine learning and hybrid intelligent techniques encompassing data and information fusion, learning and adaptation methods, multiple classifier and prediction systems, complex adaptive systems, processing and modelling of uncertainty in pattern recognition.

Katarzyna Musial-Gabrys

Principal Academic in Computing

Her research interests include; modelling of complex adaptive software systems, evaluation of a user position in a social network, multirelational social networks and network motifs method in social networks

Daniel Weissmann

Senior Research Assistant

Daniel Weissmann did his MA in International Political Communication at Bournemouth University and now teaches in the Faculty of Media and Communication. He is co-author of the Datalabs report ‘Telling Data Stories Together’ and works on the #RiotID project.

Ozlem Demirkol

Senior Research Assistant

Ozlem Demirkol graduated from the MA in Media and Communication in 2015 and is now a doctoral student at Winchester School of Art, Southampton University. She did her placement as a Senior Research Assistant on the Datalabs team. She also works on the #RiotID project.

Roman Gerodimos

Principal Lecturer in Global Current Affairs

Roman’s work focuses on emerging forms of civic engagement and on ways of using digital media and public space to facilitate urban coexistence and global awareness.

Dr Nathan Farrell

Senior Lecturer in Communication & Media

Dr. Nathan Farrell has research interests in celebrity politics and the intersection of popular culture and political communications.

Sam Goodman

Lecturer in English & Communication

Sam is a lecturer in English & Communication and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker. His work looks at pop culture, C.20th Lit and Medical Humanities.

Dr. Tauheed A. Ramjaun

Lecturer, Branding & Communications

Tauheed is a former United Nations staff member and also worked for several years in the advertising world. He is an expert on branding and provides consultancy services to both commercial and non-profit organisations.

Dr Shelley Thompson

Senior Lecturer in Corporate and Marketing Communications

Shelley is a senior lecturer in the Corporate and Marketing Communications at Bournemouth University. Her research centres on media framing of social and political issues, especially emerging/controversial science.

Dr Hamid Bouchachia

Associate Professor, Computer Science and Informatics

Hamid is currently Associate Professor at Bournemouth University, School of Design, Engineering and Computing. His major research interests include Machine Learning and Soft computing with a particular focus on online/incremental learning, semi-supervised learning, prediction systems, and uncertainty modeling

Phil Wilkinson

Postgraduate Researcher

Phil Wilkinson is a doctoral student in the Centre for Digital Entertainment and a researcher in CEMP at Bournemouth University. His work explores serious games and the role of digital literacy in the empowerment of learners and community members.

Thomas Matthews

Postgraduate Researcher

TJ Matthews is a Postgraduate Research Engineer with The Centre of Digital Entertainment based in Bournemouth University. His research focuses on prosocial gaming (games to encourage positive social behaviours) and motivational design.