Team EDIT

Sarah Ganter (Lead PI team EDIT)

Sarah Anne Ganter is an Associate Professor of Communication and Cultural Policies at the SFU School of Communication. She is the Director of EDIT and team lead of the Canadian division. She also runs the cultural industries in times of acute crises project group at the School of Communication. Sarah works at the intersection of digital journalism, platform studies, digital policies and governance, and cultural industries. Having lived, worked and studied in Germany, the UK, Argentina, Austria and Canada, her work is based on cosmopolitanism as an approach to academia. Therefore, she aims to integrate scholarly perspectives from different cultural, linguistic and geographical academic settings. She is an editorial board member of the International Journal of Press/Politics, Global Media Journal (the German edition) and the Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business book series. Sarah’s work has been widely published in international academic journals, book formats, and national and international news media. She is the co-author of “The Power of Platforms: Shaping Media and Society” (OUP) and the lead editor of “Media Governance: A Cosmopolitan Critique” (Palgrave Macmillan).

Bruce Mutsvairo

Bruce Mutsvairo is a Professor and Chair of Media, Politics, and the Global South at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, where he doubles as a UNESCO Chair on Data, Disinformation and Democracy. He studies the influence of technology on global journalism practices.

Silvio Waisbord

Silvio Waisbord is Professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. He is President and Fellow of the International Communication Association. He is Editor of the International Journal of Communication. He is the author and editor of nineteen books, as well as articles on journalism and politics, communication studies, media policy, and communication for social change. He is the author of the forthcoming Introduction to Journalism (Polity) and co-editor (with TJ Billard) of Public Scholarship in Communication Studies (U of Illinois Press, 2024). He served as Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University (2020-2023). Also, he is the former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Communication and the International Journal of Press/Politics. Waisbord received a Licenciatura in Sociology from the Universidad de Buenos Aires and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, San Diego.

Musawenkosi Ndlovu (Co-PI team EDIT)

Musawenkosi W. Ndlovu, the author of the book “Fees Must Fall and Youth Mobilisation in South Africa: reform or revolution?” (Routledge, 2017), is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Film and Media Studies, University of Cape Town, a Mandela Mellon Fellow in the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University, and C-rated researcher by the National Research Foundation. He is part of an international team of researchers comparing how global news media is covering the Russia-Ukraine War and the team lead of the South African Division at EDIT.

Sisanda Nkoala

Sisanda Nkoala is a former award-winning journalist turned NRF-rated Associate Professor in the University of the Western Cape’s Linguistics Department. She is a joint Chair of the UWC Media Inclusion and Diversity Chair. She holds a PhD in Rhetoric Studies.Her research on media, rhetoric and multilingualism has been published in the top journals in her field, including Journalism, Acta Juridica, and the International Journal of Multilingual Research. She has received research-related honours and grants from the National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, the International Communication Association, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. She has a track record of leadership in international academic associations and national professional organisations, including serving as a member of the International Council of the International Association of Media and Communication Research, Secretary General of the African Journalism Educators Network, and the board of Brand South Africa. She is also a public intellectual whose commentary has been featured by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, Reuters, University World News and several South African news media entities. She holds a PhD in rhetoric studies from the University of Cape Town.

Mel Bunce (Co-PI team EDIT)

Mel Bunce is Professor of International Journalism and Politics at City, University of London. Her research examines international news, media freedom, and the relationship between journalism and democracy. She is currently the Deputy Dean of the School of Communication & Creativity at City, University of London, and she was previously the Head of City's renowned Department of Journalism. Her books include 'Capturing News, Capturing Democracy' (Oxford University Press, 2024), 'Humanitarian Journalists' (Routledge, 2022), 'The Broken Estate' (Bridget Williams, 2019) and 'Africa's Media Image in the 21st Century' (Routledge, 2016). Her research seeks to improve and support sustainable and ethical journalism and she has partnered with a wide range of news outlets, media development NGOs, multilateral organisations and governments on this work, including: UNESCO, UN-OCHA, the UK government, Médecins Sans Frontières, The New Humanitarian and Voice of America. She is regularly featured in the media, including on the BBC, Al Jazeera, NPR, The Financial Times, and The Guardian. Mel holds a Doctorate in Politics from the University of Oxford, and is a Senior Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Association. She is the director of the UK division in team EDIT.

Richard Fletcher

Richard Fletcher is Director of Research at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. He is primarily interested in global trends in digital news consumption, comparative media research, the use of social media by journalists and news organizations, and more broadly, the relationship between technology and journalism. Richard primarily works on the Digital News Project and is lead researcher and co-author of the Digital News Report – the world's largest annual survey of global news consumption. Richard also uses this survey data to underpin comparative cross-national research into patterns of news consumption, audience fragmentation and polarisation, the effects of search engines and social media on news use, trust in the news, and paying for digital news.

Fernando Oliveira Paulino (lead team Brazil)

E-mail: paulino@unb.br

Fernando Oliveira Paulino is professor at the University of Brasilia (UnB), CNPq Researcher, president of the Latin American Communication Researchers Association (ALAIC), member of the Communication and Democracy in Brazil and Germany Project (CAPES/DAAD) and coordination of the Communication Policies Lab (LaPCom) and Community Communication Project. He was visiting professor at the TU Dortmund (2020-2021), visiting researcher at the George Washington University (2022) and one of the founders of the Brazilian National Network of the Media Watchers (RENOI) Orcid: 0000-0002-4946-0513.

Carlo Jose Napolitano

E-mail: carlo.napolitano@unesp.br

Professor of law in the Department of Human Sciences and Postgraduate Program in Communication, at São Paulo State University (UNESP), School of Architecture, Arts, Communication and Design, Bauru. Bachelor in Law, Master in Law, PhD in Sociology. Postdoctorate by Department of State Law, Faculty of Law, University of São Paulo – USP. Research Area: Right to Communication. Freedom of speech. Press freedom. Public Policies of Communication of the Constitutional Courts. Curriculum: http://lattes.cnpq.br/4413410311464411

Elizabeth Saad

Elizabeth Saad (Beth Saad) is a senior professor at the School of Communications and Arts (ECA-USP), Sao Paulo/Brazil. She is the coordinator of the research group COM+ - Digital Communication, Media and Journalism. She graduated from the University of São Paulo, with a PhD in Communication Sciences, and a Master's and Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, focusing on transdisciplinary research in the fields of digital technologies and communication. She works at USP as a professor in the Graduate Program in Communication Sciences, supervising master's and doctoral students, in addition to supervising postdoctoral students. She has written books, book chapters and articles in national and international journals, and is currently participating in the international project Journalism: Safety Matters. She is a consultant in the field of digital media and communication strategies, serving companies involved in digital transformation. She also develops training for professionals and companies involved in the digital world.

Team EDIT

Team Canada