Ouroboros: The Infinite Loop of Media, Democracy, and Diplomacy - O'Loughlin in Vienna

At this year’s Milton Wolf Seminar on 8-10 April 2025 Ben O’Loughlin will talk on The New Geopolitics of Information. He joins a panel with professors Lina Dencik (Goldsmiths) and Srirupa Roy (University of Göttingen). The conference theme this year is Ouroboros: The Infinite Loop of Media, Democracy, and Diplomacy. Scholars, journalists, think tank staff and other experts will join for days of discussion, with a supportive hand to young researchers entering the world of media and diplomacy for the first time.

NPCU is very grateful that the Milton Wolf group have offered places to our early career scholars Joanna Szostek and Pauline Sophie Heinrichs, who have begun careers in this field.

Society for Terrorism Research 7-8 July conference: 11 April abstract deadline

On 7-8 July 2025 RHUL hosts the 17th Annual International Society for Terrorism Research Conference. All information is here.

The deadline for submissions is 11 April.

FAQ If you get any questions as a result, please direct them to STR2025@rhul.ac.uk for more info – in brief, we don’t do travel grants, we can’t accommodate online and yes it’s good for practitioners to attend even if they don’t present.

Webinar about AI, public diplomacy and strategic narrative 25 March - do join

What: Professors Ben O’Loughlin and Alister Miskimmon will talk #AI, #publicdiplomacy + #strategicnarrative with host Sean Aday at the George Washington University / online.

When: 25 March 12 PM EST

Link to register and join: https://form.jotform.com/250565460458158

This discussion is based on a chapter O’Loughlin and Miskimmon published in Sean’s new Handbook of Public Diplomacy.

The Left and Digital Politics, Marco Guglielmo, Tuesday 11 March, 17.00-19.00 Moore Annex Lecture Theatre - come along!

Please join us for the book launch seminar:

The Left and Digital Politics

Imagining progressive alternatives in the age of digital monsters.

Tuesday 11 March, 17.00-19.00

Moore Annex Lecture Theatre

Royal Holloway University of London, Egham Hill, Egham, TW20 0EQ

With the author:

Dr Marco Guglielmo, University of Valencia (Spain)

and

Professor Ben O’Loughlin, Director of the New Political Communication Unit

About the book (open access here):

Digital platforms are more than devices, algorithms and websites. They organise societies through the leadership of platform capitalists and their allies in political institutions. We know that this leadership, or hegemony, fosters exploitation and inequalities. We also know that a politics of resistance is emerging among platform workers and communities around the digital commons.

Less known is how the left has been changing to have a say in digital politics. And what do left-wing parties think and do about platform societies? The Left and Digital Politics answers these questions by developing an updated Gramscian critical theory of (counter-)hegemony in platform societies and a comparative analysis of the ideologies and practices of key European left-wing parties.

The book provides a map of left-wing ideas and practices on digital politics, a compass to point out how some left-wing parties perform as barriers or allies of radical change, and an analytical toolkit to open new routes towards platform socialism.

The seminar:

We have chosen to adopt an interactive format for this event. After a 20-minute presentation, we will start an interactive session with open-ended Q&A.

Navigating the book's contents will enable a collective and open discussion on urgent questions. Have progressive of all sorts lost the battle over the Internet? Is there any future for social media beyond nativist moguls as Donald Trump and Elon Musk? Are there any chances to halt the proliferation of ‘digital monsters’ spreading online hate and disinformation? What possibilities exist to redirect Generative Artificial Intelligence into a toolkit for emancipation?

Reflecting on how multiple actors among the Left have thought about the digital transition during the 2010s, alongside the author’s normative propositions for a progressive digital organisation, will engage the audience in thinking about reclaiming progressive values for transformative technologies.

The author:

Marco Guglielmo (he/him) is Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Valencia (Spain). Previously, he was Lecturer in Politics at the Department of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy at Royal Holloway. His current research focuses on progressive imaginaries of the digital commons and alternative forms of artificial intelligence. Marco is co-editing with Dr Kat Gupta, Dr Pauline Heinrichs and Professor Ben O’Loughlin the book Navigating Platform Power: Agency and Resistance in Digital Spaces.

“Transforming Gramsci’s project of the Modern Prince into a Digital Princess*+ may not happen overnight, but Guglielmo’s book provides great inspiration. It advances concepts in networked revolution and informs strategies for wars of position and movement for a socialist future. The author holds the left to account in its search for a better digital politics, by challenging us to unearth patterns of agency of the digital platform ‘subaltern’. I recommend The Left and Digital Politics whole-heartedly to all those fighting for digital justice, and beyond.”
– Professor Phoebe Moore, University of Essex

“This book sets a new standard for understanding the thorny relationship between the left and digital politics today. Combining innovative theory with detailed empirical studies, Guglielmo sets out to understand how left-wing political projects have made use of digital technologies, both practically and ideologically. In so doing, he sets out new pathways towards platform socialism in an era of neoliberal rule, exhaustively mapping out the contemporary terrain and lines of potential alliance and conflict.”
– Dr Alex Williams, University of East Anglia

Do platforms control our future? New review by O'Loughlin in IJPP

Do platforms have a lock on our future? Ben O’Loughlin has reviewed four books looking at how they can be challenged, newly published in the International Journal of Press/Politics. At stake is the operation of society, economy, and politics. For many it is existential. Yet some have found ways to counter-organise, and find alternative paths, as Ben finds in the books. Read here.

Talk Thursday: Dr Ashton Kingdon on The World White Web: Uncovering the Hidden Meanings of Online Far-Right Propaganda

Time: 5.00-6.30pm

Date: Thursday 23 January 2025

Place: Shilling Lecture Theatre

The World White Web provides an interdisciplinary analysis of far-right radicalisation in the digital age, drawing from criminology, history, and computer science to explore how technology and imagery accelerate extremist recruitment. The book examines 20,000 internet memes to reveal white supremacy’s deep historical roots. It demonstrates how far-right propagandists leverage historical narratives and symbols to influence modern-day recruitment, bridging fringe and mainstream ideas across diverse time periods, countries and contexts, amid technological and social changes. Topics include racism and xenophobia in Greek and Roman antiquity, antisemitism in the Middle Ages, anti-Black racism rooted in the Antebellum South, the weaponisation of the Reconquista in Spain, the ‘memeification’ of the Rurik Dynasty in Russia, Crusader iconography in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, eco-fascist propaganda in the Balkans, neo-Nazi mythology in India, and Völkisch ideology in Germany and Austria. The book emphasises the importance of interdisciplinary, socio-technical and multi-stakeholder approaches to truly comprehend and address the contemporary manifestations and threats posed by the global interconnectedness of the far right online.

Bio: Dr Ashton Kingdon is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Southampton. She is also an Advisory Board Member at the Accelerationism Research Consortium, a research fellow at VOX-Pol, a core member of the Extremism and Gaming Research Network (EGRN), a member of the steering committee for the British Society of Criminology's Hate Crime Network and former head of Technology and Research Ethics at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right. Ashton Kingdon’s research is interdisciplinary, combining criminology, history, and computer science to explore the ways in which extremists utilise technology and imagery for recruitment and radicalisation. She has advised the UK, US, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian governments and law enforcement, military, United Nations, and social media companies as to the risks posed by extremists operating online. In addition to extremists’ use of technology to recruit and radicalise, her expertise also lies in analysing the relationship existing between terrorism and climate change.

Thanks to Akil Awan at the Conflict, Violence and Terrorism Research Centre (CVTRC) for organising this.

Trolls Vs. Elves. Explore the disinformation world made by Aleks Rydzkowska

Our amazing PhD filmmaker-student Aleks Rydzkowska has published her new interactive documentary (idoc) Trolls Vs. Elves. Her aim is help audiences better understand disinformation - though you can play it as a troll if you want! Watch the trailer and dive in here: https://docubase.mit.edu/project/trolls-vs-elves/

New report: Academic Access to Social Media Data for the Study of Political Online Safety

We have published a new report, Academic Access to Social Media Data for the Study of Political Online Safety. This in response to Ofcom’s call for evidence on this topic. As new threats reach the social media environment, platforms continue to obstruct independent research. It’s time to act.

Elon Musk is a key actor in the Trump administration, Meta stopped using factcheckers right when GenAI makes mis/disinformation more sophisticated, and TikTok is accused of threatening the national security of Western countries. What does this mean for society and democracy? 

The ability of independent researchers to answer these and other questions is under threat as platforms limit data access to academics. The EU is already pushing them to revert this trend, yet other governments such as the UK are lagging behind. Ofcom/Parliament must act.

The goal of the report is four-fold. First, we discuss the threats that social media pose to society and democracy, particularly in light of recent development in Generative AI and platform ownership.

Second, we detail what data researchers need for conducting independent research on online safety. Third, we discuss the challenges they currently face. Finally, we advocate for the creation of a new independent body to foster, manage and oversee academic platform research.

The report builds on, and aims to contribute to, parallel efforts in other countries. Take a quick look at our Executive Summary for a brief overview of the report.

New PhD Dr. Domenico Galimi! Evolutionary Narratives of Terrorism

Congratulations to Dr. Domenico Galimi who passed his PhD viva yesterday. Domenico’s thesis is entitled, Evolutionary Narratives of Terrorism: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Red Brigades. What explains this evolution? Domenico’s development of the idea of a vector of change. He was supervised by Dr. Elizabeth Pearson, Prof. Ben O’Loughlin and Prof. Tom Dyson. His examiners were scholars of terrorism and counter-terrorism Dr. Elisa Orofino (Anglia Ruskin University) and Prof. Andrew Silke (Royal Holloway). We are also grateful to Dr. David La Rooy who was there at the crucial start of Domenico’s journey.

Abstract:

This research reconceptualizes terrorist groups as metaphorical organisms for the purposes of research, necessitating an evolutionary lens for comprehensive understanding. Drawing upon the foundational tenets of Critical Terrorism Studies and Narrative Criminology, the research innovatively expands upon Nikolas Tinbergen’s evolutionary framework. While Tinbergen's original model posed four behavioural questions, this research introduces a tailored framework of six, specifically crafted for the study of terrorist organizations. This metaphorical approach addresses a significant gap in the literature, offering a method uniquely suited to analysing the evolution and behaviour of terrorist groups. Through the case study of the Red Brigades, the research underscores the significance of not only evolutionary strategies, but the whys underlying them, in the persistence or decline of terrorist groups, providing a framework for further research applicable to both upcoming and retrospective terrorist groups. This thesis finds, first, that transdisciplinary evolutionary models can be successfully applied to terrorist organisations and at meso-level analysis; second, that, in contrast with the majority of accepted literature, the Red Brigades evolutionary capability was significantly more constrained beyond strong initial movements; third, that specific events, called Vectors of Evolutionary Change, were especially pivotal in changing said evolutionary trajectory, but were not recognised or emphasised as such by majority literature.

PhD for Andrew Lo! Strategic Narratives of China’s Foreign Policy

Congratulations are due to Andrew Lo who passed his PhD entitled, Strategic Narratives of China’s Foreign Policy: Host Diplomacy and National Image Branding. His PhD was supervised by professors Ben O’Loughlin and Jinghan Zeng. His thesis was examined by Professor Michelle Bentley, Dr. Yan Wu and Dr. Carolijn van Noort. We have put the abstract of this thesis below.

Well done to Andrew!

This thesis studies how China has used host diplomacy for national image branding. Mega diplomatic events in China deserve more research attention given their growing concerns and implications. Existing research has focused on summit diplomacy but has failed to explore the host’s perspective. Research on China’s host diplomacy has relied primarily on internal factors, resulting in overstating its effectiveness. Previous studies have disregarded the domestic audiences in host diplomacy. This project analyses three China’s host diplomacy events: (1) Belt and Road Forum, (2) World Internet Conference, and (3) China International Import Expo. The three case studies allow investigation of China’s rationale to use host diplomacy to (re)shape its global brand equity and address domestic social, economic and political challenges in the steps of strategic narratives and nation branding. The thesis combines both theoretical and empirical contributions to the subject via narrative analysis. The data for this project was collected through participant observation and semi-structured interviews on-site in 2019. The thesis finds that China adopts system, identity and policy narratives to foreign and Chinese audiences differently, with intended and unintended overlaps. The thesis examines the China brand, showing that it is effective domestically due to its socio-political setting. Its effectiveness varies internationally from producing positive engagement to shaping global public policy. The findings reveal internal and external factors underlying the formation and projection of narratives to maximise the host advantages of favourable timing, location and people, and control of agenda-setting. The project improves identification and conceptual definitions of host diplomacy and its application in strategic narratives and nation branding, building up theoretical linkages with their accompanying rationale in China. Ultimately, these findings address longstanding questions in IR about identity, communication and power, enables a direct contribution to strategic narratives in constructivist IR and assists practitioners in understanding diplomatic events in the framework of host diplomacy. This study demonstrates how China leverages host diplomacy as a strategic tool to construct an alternative world order while positioning itself as a provider of global public goods.