Team EDIT

Sarah Ganter (Lead PI team EDIT)

Sarah Anne Ganter is an Associate Professor of Communication and Cultural Policies at the SFU School of Communication. She is the Director of EDIT and team lead of the Canadian division. She also runs the cultural industries in times of acute crises project group at the School of Communication. Sarah works at the intersection of digital journalism, platform studies, digital policies and governance, and cultural industries. Having lived, worked and studied in Germany, the UK, Argentina, Austria and Canada, her work is based on cosmopolitanism as an approach to academia. Therefore, she aims to integrate scholarly perspectives from different cultural, linguistic and geographical academic settings. She is an editorial board member of the International Journal of Press/Politics, Global Media Journal (the German edition) and the Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business book series. Sarah’s work has been widely published in international academic journals, book formats, and national and international news media. She is the co-author of “The Power of Platforms: Shaping Media and Society” (OUP) and the lead editor of “Media Governance: A Cosmopolitan Critique” (Palgrave Macmillan).

Bruce Mutsvairo

Bruce Mutsvairo is a Professor and Chair of Media, Politics, and the Global South at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, where he doubles as a UNESCO Chair on Data, Disinformation and Democracy. He studies the influence of technology on global journalism practices.

Silvio Waisbord

Silvio Waisbord is Professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. He is President and Fellow of the International Communication Association. He is Editor of the International Journal of Communication. He is the author and editor of nineteen books, as well as articles on journalism and politics, communication studies, media policy, and communication for social change. He is the author of the forthcoming Introduction to Journalism (Polity) and co-editor (with TJ Billard) of Public Scholarship in Communication Studies (U of Illinois Press, 2024). He served as Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University (2020-2023). Also, he is the former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Communication and the International Journal of Press/Politics. Waisbord received a Licenciatura in Sociology from the Universidad de Buenos Aires and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, San Diego.

Vinisa Nurul Aisyah

Vinisa Nurul Aisyah is a PhD student in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and a Transatlantic Partnership Research Fellow, where she researches the role of independent media in fostering democratization, with a focus on Indonesia. A former journalist and lecturer in Communication Studies in Indonesia, she merges practical experience with scholarly inquiry to critique systemic media dependencies.

She has presented on topics such as the challenges faced by journalists in Indonesia, including socio-political pressures and ethical dilemmas in resource-constrained environments. She has also explored media audiences as part of her research to examine the reception of media in society.

Morgan Krakow

Morgan Krakow is a journalist and researcher completing her master's research at SFU in the School of Communication. Having worked at both local and international publications, she's interested in the role of place in journalistic reporting on climate change at independent and alternative media outlets in Canada. She is also a research associate at SFU's Community-Engaged Research Initiative and the Climate Disaster Project.

Musawenkosi Ndlovu (Co-PI team EDIT)

Musawenkosi W. Ndlovu, the author of the book “Fees Must Fall and Youth Mobilisation in South Africa: reform or revolution?” (Routledge, 2017), is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Film and Media Studies, University of Cape Town, a Mandela Mellon Fellow in the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University, and C-rated researcher by the National Research Foundation. He is part of an international team of researchers comparing how global news media is covering the Russia-Ukraine War and the team lead of the South African Division at EDIT.

Sisanda Nkoala

Sisanda Nkoala is a former award-winning journalist turned NRF-rated Associate Professor in the University of the Western Cape’s Linguistics Department. She is a joint Chair of the UWC Media Inclusion and Diversity Chair. She holds a PhD in Rhetoric Studies.Her research on media, rhetoric and multilingualism has been published in the top journals in her field, including Journalism, Acta Juridica, and the International Journal of Multilingual Research. She has received research-related honours and grants from the National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, the International Communication Association, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. She has a track record of leadership in international academic associations and national professional organisations, including serving as a member of the International Council of the International Association of Media and Communication Research, Secretary General of the African Journalism Educators Network, and the board of Brand South Africa. She is also a public intellectual whose commentary has been featured by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, Reuters, University World News and several South African news media entities. She holds a PhD in rhetoric studies from the University of Cape Town.

Jaimy-Lee Meloyer

I am a linguistics scholar exploring topics in digital media, discourse analysis, and semiotics and its influence on language, identity and communication. As a Master of Arts candidate at the University of the Western Cape, my research explores how entertainment and pandemic discourse shape South African pop culture. My academic background includes psychology, political studies, and communication, giving me a multidisciplinary perspective on language and identity. I have tutored linguistics courses in discourse analysis, phonetics, and media studies, mentoring students in research methodologies and academic writing. I have also presented on topics such as digital activism, intertextuality in South African media, and multisemiotic identity construction. Beyond academia, I am passionate about career development and the automotive world. I design and deliver career growth programs for young creatives, helping them navigate professional opportunities. When I’m not mentoring students, I’m exploring car culture where I find the perfect blend of innovation, design, and storytelling.

Mel Bunce (Co-PI team EDIT)

Mel Bunce is Professor of International Journalism and Politics at City, University of London. Her research examines international news, media freedom, and the relationship between journalism and democracy. She is currently the Deputy Dean of the School of Communication & Creativity at City, University of London, and she was previously the Head of City's renowned Department of Journalism. Her books include 'Capturing News, Capturing Democracy' (Oxford University Press, 2024), 'Humanitarian Journalists' (Routledge, 2022), 'The Broken Estate' (Bridget Williams, 2019) and 'Africa's Media Image in the 21st Century' (Routledge, 2016). Her research seeks to improve and support sustainable and ethical journalism and she has partnered with a wide range of news outlets, media development NGOs, multilateral organisations and governments on this work, including: UNESCO, UN-OCHA, the UK government, Médecins Sans Frontières, The New Humanitarian and Voice of America. She is regularly featured in the media, including on the BBC, Al Jazeera, NPR, The Financial Times, and The Guardian. Mel holds a Doctorate in Politics from the University of Oxford, and is a Senior Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Association. She is the director of the UK division in team EDIT.

Richard Fletcher

Richard Fletcher is Director of Research at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. He is primarily interested in global trends in digital news consumption, comparative media research, the use of social media by journalists and news organizations, and more broadly, the relationship between technology and journalism. Richard primarily works on the Digital News Project and is lead researcher and co-author of the Digital News Report – the world's largest annual survey of global news consumption. Richard also uses this survey data to underpin comparative cross-national research into patterns of news consumption, audience fragmentation and polarisation, the effects of search engines and social media on news use, trust in the news, and paying for digital news.

Beth Pearson

Email: bethia.pearson@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Beth Pearson is Research Fellow at City St George’s University of London. A former journalist, her research has included media democratisation in Latin America, and media and migration issues in the UK using participative journalism approaches. She has published in journals including Journalism Studies and co-edited the award-winning ‘Media Capture in Africa and Latin America: Power and Resistance’ (Palgrave).

Caroline Winter-Jones

Email: caroline.winter-jones@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Caroline is a PhD student at City St George's, University of London, researching and writing the life story of Zambian press freedom champion turned presidential candidate, Fred M'membe. She is a senior journalist with experience on UK newspapers at local and national level. She has edited a medico-political magazine for UK doctors and worked for the independent Post newspaper in Zambia. She has also taught the history and culture of journalism on the BA Journalism course at City St George's.

Afonso de Albuquerque

Afonso de Albuquerque is a Professor of Communication at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF). A CNPq and Faperj research fellow, he also serves as Director of the National Institute of Science and Technology in Informational Disputes and Sovereignties (INCT-DSI), which brings together leading scholars from Brazil and abroad. His research focuses on political communication, journalism, media systems, and the historical formation of Brazil’s informational landscape. He has published widely in academic journals and edited volumes. His recent work examines how authoritarian logics shaped the development of Brazilian journalism in the twentieth century, arguing that the normalization of an authoritarian professional ethos left a lasting imprint on the field and remains at odds with the liberal vocation commonly attributed to the press.

Eleonora de Magalhães Carvalho

Eleonora de Magalhães Carvalho is Academic Coordinator and Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Institute of Science and Technology in Informational Disputes and Sovereignties (INCT-DSI) in Brazil. A former journalist, she researches political communication, disinformation, and the judicial harassment of journalists. Her research interests include the political economy of communication, with particular focus on media financing. She has also worked as a consultant for UNESCO, producing research on public integrity and anti-disinformation strategies. Eleonora holds a PhD and a Master’s degree in Communication from the Federal Fluminense University (UFF), and her doctoral research analyzed the rise of progressive digital media networks in Brazil as alternative infrastructures of political communication.

Yasmine Feital

Yasmine Feital is a PhD candidate in Journalism at City St George’s, University of London, funded by the School of Communication and Creativity. With a Master’s degree in Communication from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG/Brazil) and a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP/Brazil), Yasmine researches topics related to feminist and gender studies, media, and hate speech, and her undergraduate research on online misogyny was awarded the Adelmo Genro Filho Prize in 2021, by the Brazilian Association of Journalism Researchers (SBPJor). As a journalist, she worked at the Nuclear Technology Development Center (CDTN/Brazil), at the City Hall of Mariana and at the news agency Primaz, reporting on science and technology, politics, health and the environment. She also worked as a publicity assistant at Penguin Random House UK. Yasmine is the research assistant of the Brazilian division in team EDIT.