The theme was 'Electoral communication in 2024: Responding to a year of turbulence in media and politics' and looked at ways in which mediated political communication brought change in 2024. It asked: Are new actors and new ways of campaigning emerging? And how do we, as media and politics scholars, respond?
Academics attended from across the globe with interests in the study of media policy, journalism, political communications, new information technologies and elections. As this year's event was hybrid it enabled presenters from across the world to detail research on elections, political communication and media, including Botswana, Greece, Israel, South Korean and Spain.
Some notable attendees included our two keynote speakers: (University of Glasgow) whose expertise lies in the interplay between political communication and technologies, and (Bournemouth University) whose research experience concerns the strategic development of political communication and the impacts upon citizen engagement. Alongside papers from academics in the field was award-winning journalist and a recognized leader in the media industry, . Her paper on Brussels Press Corps’ EU media coverage of the European elections 2024 discussed the mainstreaming the populist radical right.
Multiple colleagues from Loughborough University's Centre for Research in Communication and Culture () presented their latest in-depth findings about the UK 2024 General Election. The CRCC have been conducting news audits for every General Election since 1992 and release timely analysis for journalists to consult during elections, so their panel at the end of Day 1 was important and well attended. This final panel also saw a discussion of the , featuring more than 100 contributions from leading UK academics including many in attendance at the conference.
The conference also afforded the opportunity for University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ scholars to attend and share their research. This included Professor Tim Haughton (Deputy Director of the Centre for Elections, Democracy, Accountability and Representation (CEDAR) and Dean Hill, Education Support Administrator in our School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion & Liberal Arts and Natural Science who presented his PhD research on Linguistic Fingerprints of Deepfakes. Dean reflected on the value of his experience at the conference:
