PhD Defense: Rianne Riemens (Radboud University)

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16 April 2025 | Radboud University Nijmegen
The dissertation maps how representatives of Silicon Valley propagate this myth and how it affects their position in public debates. I approach platform companies (Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft) and prominent tech figures (e.g. Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Elon Musk) as cultural producers and political actors. To understand how these actors engage in practic­es of mythmaking, I use methods of discursive and historical analysis to examine the narra­tives, green rhetoric, visual identity and underlying ideology of tech-on-climate discourse.

PhD Ceremony: Denise Mensonides (University of Groningen)

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This dissertation investigates how children aged 8 to 12 develop digital literacies in ways that are personally meaningful to them. It highlights the role of different social contexts, such as the home, school and afterschool care, in these processes. Through longitudinal participant observations and interviews with children, parents and teachers, it explores how the use of digital media within different social contexts can contribute to the development of digital literacies.

PhD Defence: Jeroen Boom (Radboud University Nijmegen)

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6 March 2024 | 16.30hrs | Aula Radboud University Nijmegen
Strangers Unseen explores images of refugees and migrants that are deliberately obscure, opaque, and illegible. It examines these images within a group of recent essay films that employ fractures and frustrations as expressive cinematic elements to engage with the different realities of displacement and statelessness.

PhD Defense: Gemma Newlands (University of Amsterdam)

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22 June 2023 | 16:00hrs | Agnietenkapel
As new occupations emerge in response to the growth of the digital economy, the relationship between digital technology and labour has resulted in significant changes in how work is evaluated. By critically examining the ways in which humans and artificial intelligence (AI) are co-evolving and the ways in which work is becoming more technical and less human(e), this dissertation provides insights into the challenges and opportunities of this rapidly changing landscape.

PhD Defense: Kun He (University of Groningen)

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29 June 2023 | 14.30hrs | Academy building RUG
Chinese populism exhibits unique features that distinguish it from populism observed in democratic settings. Notably, Chinese populism encompasses two distinct forms: communist populism and online bottom-up populism, each operating in its own distinct manner. Communist populism is propagated through the party-state system, mobilizing against perceived corrupt elites in the name of the majority Chinese people.

RMeS Podcast

In this podcast series the RMeS PhD council interviews media doctors that either work in or outside academia.

Join RMeS at Discord

The RMeS PhD Council invites RMa, PhD students, and postdocs in Media Studies to join the RMeS Grad Students Discord!