Inaugurated in 2023, our newly established research lab studies various forms of ideologically driven communications and their long-term influence, encompassing phenomena such as propaganda, disinformation and the exertion of soft power.
Our research is primarily directed towards the dynamics of contemporary media landscapes that are being profoundly shaped by the pervasive influence of emergent digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI), while also considering their contextual and historical underpinnings.
We engage in the systematic refinement and development of theoretical frameworks and conceptual paradigms that deepen our understanding of ideology, propaganda and disinformation, along with their dynamic interactions, and then draw on these in our empirical research.
Our methodological approach is based on rigorous and theoretically informed empirical work that utilises a blend of mixed and computational methods. As an inherently interdisciplinary research group, our endeavours span four primary domains situated within the field of global communications.
Group leader
Hannele Seeck
Research areas
We co-operate with
Group members
Cristiane Melchior
Kari Suomalainen
Doctoral Researchers
Visiting professors and other affiliated researchers
Partners from
Interested in becoming affiliated with the group?
Visiting Professors (on sabbatical from their home institutions)
- Please contact Professor Seeck directly, hannele.seeck@lut.fi
Postdoctoral Fellows
- We are currently accepting Marie Curie post-doctoral fellows: https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/postdoctora…. If you are planning to apply, please contact the group during the application period.
- If you are interested in becoming a longer-term postdoctoral fellow with external funding (such as the Academy of Finland funding) that you intend to apply for, please contact the group well in advance DPS-lab@lut.fi.
- Visiting postdoctoral researchers, please contact DPS-lab@lut.fi
- Note that you are expected to bring your own funding in full and your research needs to fit to key research interests of the group.
Doctoral Students
- Potential Doctoral Researchers/PhD candidates: If you are interested in conducting PhD at LUT in Communication Sciences, Department of Social Sciences and in this research group, please contact us DPS-lab@lut.fi. Please note that the application period is continuous.
- However, please note that just during the past six months, the group has received over 160 applications from potential PhD students.
- For general PhD/doctoral studies related information please see: https://www.lut.fi/en/research/doctoral-school/doctoral-programme-engin… (then select social sciences).
- Visiting doctoral students: You may request a visitor position in our research group, but please note that due to limited supervision resources, we seldom take on visiting PhD students to the group.
MSc Students
- If you are interested in conducting your LUT MSc dissertation on the Lab’s core themes, please contact dps-lab@lut.fi. Occasionally, we may have a topic and and data available that can be used for a MSc thesis. Please attach your CV and a writing sample (e.g. essay, etc.) to your message and briefly explain your previous knowledge (courses) in this field.
Study programmes and courses associated with the Lab’s core themes
