Dr Massimo Ragnedda
Senior Lecturer

Research interests: Digital Divide, Digital Culture, Social Media, Critical Theory 
Website: mragnedda.wordpress.com
Twitter: @massimoragnedda
Academia.edu: Profile
About

I joined Media Department at Northumbria University, Newcastle in September 2012 as Lecturer in Mass Communications. Prior to joining the University of Northumbria, I worked at the University of Sassari from 2006 to 2012. During this time, I’ve worked as a lecturer and supervisor of research, published widely and delivered presentations in several countries.
Research InterestsI have a strong interest in developments in new media and theories of media, communication and culture.
In particular my research is divided in three main areas: First, I am interested in the mass media as a tool of social control in a democracy and the role of surveillance in a digital era, moving from author as Foucault and Deleuze and looking for the connection with new technologies of Communication and in particular internet and web 2.0.
I am also interested in the so-called digital divide and the stratification in the access and use of the internet. In particular I am interested in the new digital exclusion in a society of information, where having or not having information may create new forms of digital inequalities with clear consequences to a democracy.
A third major focus of my research is the propaganda, as well as how propagandists, both in democracy and totalitarian regime, deploy the mass media in the formation of public opinion. In particular I focus my research on the critical analysis of the economic and cultural context in which we live, stressing the role of the cultural industry and the role of PR agency, the Advertising Agency, as a tool of propaganda in open societies.
Qualifications
PhD in Theory and Practice of Communication and Intercultural Studies, University of Sassari (Italy).
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Professional Affiliations
  • ​European Communication Research and Education Association
  • Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association
  • International Association for Media and Communication Research
  • International Communication Association
  • American Sociological Association
  • ​Internet and Politics - European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)
Employment

  • April 2014 – Present: Senior Lecturer in Mass Communication, Northumbria University, Newcastle.
  • September 2012-April 2014: Lecturer in Mass Communication, Northumbria University, Newcastle.
  • 2011-2012: Lecturer Sociology of Media, University of Sassari, Undergraduate course
  • 2009-2012: Lecturer Social Communication, University of Sassari, Postgraduate course.
  • 2006- 2012: Lecturer Sociology of Culture and Communication, University of Sassari, Undergraduate course
  • 2003-2006: Teaching assistant of Sociology of Media, University of Sassari.
PhD Supervision 

Massimo is currently supervising a PhD on how does artificially limited Internet access affect digital inequality in terms of outcomes of Internet use and the third digital divide. Massimo has examined PhDs on digital media and role of media in international context.
Massimo welcomes PhD applications in the areas of digital inequalities, digital divide, digital culture, blockchain and ICTs.  ​
Research and teaching abroad​
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  • October 2017, Visiting Lecturer, Kaplan University, Singapore.
  • May 2017, Visiting Lecturer, Department of Media and Communication, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano.
  • March 2017 Visiting Lecturer, Kaplan University, Singapore.
  • November 2016 Visiting Lecturer, Department of Media and Communication, Oslo University, Norway.
  • June 2016 Visiting researcher, Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA), Universidade de São Paulo.
  • December 2014: Visiting Lecturer, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Mexico
  • February 2014: Visiting Lecturer, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Mexico
  • February 2013: Visiting Lecturer, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Mexico
  • April-May 2012: Visiting Fellow at the Radicalism and the New Media Research Group, University of Northampton.
  • December 2011: Visiting at the School of Social Sciences, University of Northampton.
  • May-June 2011: Visiting at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Háskóli Íslands, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland.
  • Jan – Feb 2011: Short-Term Scientific Missions (Early stage research) for COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford.
  • Sept 2010: Visiting at the Department of Journalism & Mass Communication, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece).
  • Jun 2010: Visiting Lecturer, Universidad de Vallodolid, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Jurídicas y de la Comunicación, Segovia (Spain).
  • Jul 2007 – Aug 2007: Oslo Summer School in Comparative Social Science Studies, University of Oslo.
  • Sept 2006 – Jul 2007: Affiliated Visitor, Department of Sociology, CambridgeUniversity (supervisor: Prof. John B. Thompson), Visiting Scholar, WolfsonCollege, Cambridge.
  • June 2005: Diploma in Activism and Media at the Z Media Institute, Boston (MA).
  • 2003-2004: Visiting Research, Institute of Communication Studies, University of Leeds, UK (Supervisor: Prof. Philip M. Taylor).
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Modules Taught

Level 4:                                 
  • Media History
 
Level 5:         
  • Media Culture
  • Audiences and Mass Communication,
  • Media Culture and Modernity
  • Mass Communication Industries,
 
Level 6:        
  • Postmodern Media Culture
  • Mass Communication Case Studies
  • Mass Communication
 
Level 7:                                  
  • ​Postmodern Media Culture 














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Selected Conferences & Talks (2014-2018)
  • Does the digital capital affect the digital divide? Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies, Sunderland University, 6th November 2017.
  • The rise of the Digital capital and its relation with the third level of Digital Divide, IAMCR 16-20 July 2017, Cartagena, Colombia.
  • Theorizing the Digital Divide, preconference, IAMCR 15 July 2017, Cartagena, Colombia.
  • The three levels of Digital Divide, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, 12 May 2017.
  • A weberian analysis of digital inequalities, Kaplan, Singapore, 6 March 2017
  • Narrative from the Net. Demonstrating why Digital Divide is a Dilemma for Digital Activists in Africa, Uppsala University, Sweeden, 9 December 2016.
  • The six capitals (6Cs): the rise of the digital capital. ECREA conference, Prague, November 2016
  • From Social to Digital Inequalities, paper presented at Intercom Comunicação, San Paulo, Brazil (18 June 2016).
  • Empowering Local Communities through collective grassroots actions: the case of “No al Progetto Eleonora” in the Arborea district (OR, Sardinia). Paper presented at the “Protest participation in Variable Communication Ecologies” Conference, University of Sassari (IT), 25 June 2015.
  • Chair panel “Global Protest Landscapes” at the “Protest participation in Variable Communication Ecologies” Conference, University of Sassari (IT), 25 June 2015.
  • Keynote presentation: Rethinking digital divide, University of Exeter 03/06/2015
  • Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, 2 June 2015, Digital Inequalities.
  • I have proposed and coordinated a special track (with 4 panels and 17 papers) about Digital Divide at the MECCSA conference 2015, Northumbria University.
  • ICA Conference, Seattle, May 22 2014, Chair of the ICA pre-conference session:  Communication and “The Good Life” Around the World After Two Decades of the Digital Divide.
  • ICA Conference, Seattle, May 22 2014, Social Stratification and digital divide: a weberian approach.​










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Peer Review
Massimo has acted as a peer reviewer for journals such as New Media and Society, International Journal of Communication, Convergence, Telematics and Informatics.
Massimo has also peer reviewed monographs, proposals, text-books and chapters for numerous publishers, including Palgrave-Macmillan, Routledge, Rowman and Littlefield, SAGE, and Taylor & Francis, MIT Press.​
Massimo has also peer reviewed international research project for Croatian Science Foundation, and for he Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
Selected Publications​  (2013-2018)

Books:
​Articles and chapters