About our research
The Global Media Studies Working Group, led by Associate Professor Jamil Marques, brings together faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers from across the social sciences and humanities to engage with enduring and emerging questions in Communication, Media, and Journalism research.
Through critical reading and discussion of scholarly texts, collaborative research initiatives, and constructive feedback on members’ projects, the group fosters an intellectually vibrant and supportive environment. The Global Media Studies Working Group is supported by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies.
Our key areas of inquiry include:
- The dynamics of information flows between the Global North and South
- Comparative analyses of media systems
- Policy development and emerging trends in global media governance
- Structural inequities in knowledge production across global intellectual circuits.
“We aim to create a dynamic environment that fosters interdisciplinary collaboration to examine media systems within diverse global contexts.”
Global media studies revival
Jamil Marques, an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa, has officially revived the Global Media Studies Working Group.
Selected publications and conference presentations
Ashfaquzzaman, M., & Sosale, S. (2025). ‘Familiar but foreign at the same time’: hegemonic pull and push in first Indian Netflix original series Sacred Games. Contemporary South Asia, 33(3), 370-383. https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2025.2494617
Asuman, M., Ibrahim, A., Cohen, M. S., & Ekdale, B. (2025). Geographic tokenism on editorial boards: a content analysis of highly ranked communication journals. Online Media and Global Communication, 4(1), 35-59. https://doi.org/10.1515/omgc-2024-0036
Dimitrova, D., & Ekdale, B. (2025). Broadening the conversation: Inclusivity and internationalization in academic journals. In H. Badr and K. G. Wilkins (Eds.), Critical Communication Research with Global Inclusivity, (pp. 181–193). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003583073-17
Diop, L., Madrid-Morales, D., Matanji, F., Mudavadi, K. C., & Tully, M. (2025). What is media literacy and why does it matter? Perspectives of Senegalese media professionals. Journal of African media studies, 17(1), 55-72. https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00131_1
Gondwe, G., Madrid-Morales, D., Tully, M., & Wasserman, H. (2026). Misinformation and digital inequalities: Comparing how different demographic groups get exposed to and engage with false information. Mass Communication and Society, 29(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2025.2474139
Hossain, S. & Ekdale, B. (2026). ChatGPT as journalistic gatekeeper: GenAI news summaries, sourcing practices, and geographic bias. Online Media and Global Communication. https://doi.org/10.1515/omgc-2026-0009
Ibrahim, A. A., & Ekdale, B. (2025). Political Campaign Responses to Information Disorder: A Case Study of the 2023 Nigerian Presidential Elections. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 19401612251324985. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612251324985
Kim, S. J., Foley, J., Yang, Y., & Lee, K. (2026). Networked Counterpublics and Contentious Publicity: A Cross-Platform Analysis of QAnon on Parler and Twitter. Political Communication, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2026.2708132
Kim, S. J., Lu, Y., & Peng, Y. (2025). Unmasking Deception: How computer vision could empower journalists in unveiling visual misinformation. In The Routledge Companion to Visual Journalism (pp. 471-482). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003391340-45
Kim, S. J., Sun, Y., Bucy, E. P., & Shah, D. V. (2025). Digital Dilemmas: Crises in the Fourth Age of Political Communication. In Public Communication in Freefall: Revisiting the work of Jay Blumler (pp. 59-88). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-83364-9_4
Kim, S. J., Villanueva, I. I., & Chen, K. (2024). Going beyond affective polarization: How emotions and identities are used in anti-vaccination TikTok videos. Political Communication, 41(4), 588-607. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2023.2243852
Marques, F. P. J., Asuman, M., Cohen, M.S., Ekdale, B., & Ibrahim, A.A. (2026). Communication research inequalities and the prestige dilemma: Negotiating international recognition and local representation in Global South journals. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990261439160
Marques, F. P. J., Kniess, A. B., Goyanes, M., & Oliveira, T. (2025). De-Westernizing communication studies through domesticating the Global South: A critical examination of the mechanisms shaping scholarly participation in the field. International Journal of Communication, 19, 27-27. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/25266
Marques, F.P.J.; Sosale, S.; Ekdale, B.; Zhang, B. (2026). Journal Editors’ Perceptions, Responses, and Attitudes Toward De-Westernizing Communication and Media Studies. International Journal of Communication, v. 20, p. 2365-2386. https://doi.org/10.65476/jvavaj13
Marques, F. P. J. (2024). Populism and critical incidents in journalism: Has Bolsonaro disrupted the mainstream press in Brazil?. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 29(4), 825-846. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612231153110
Marques, F. P. J., & Vos, T. P. (2024). Advancing comparative studies in political communication research: What factors explain the transformation of media systems?. International Communication Gazette, 86(7), 521-540. https://doi.org/10.1177/17480485231177887
Mudavadi, K. C., Matanji, F., Diop, L., Tully, M., & Madrid-Morales, D. (2025). Stakeholder perceptions of regulatory responses to misinformation in Kenya and Senegal. Journalism, 26(7), 1488-1507. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849241255935
Paul, S. & Sosale, S. (2023). Cultures of restraint and towards an appraisal of non-western news values. Journalism Studies, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2023.2183063
Sosale, S. & Rosas-Moreno, T. (2024). Emerging economies in business news: Re-positioning leaders in the Global South. Global Media and Communication, (20)1, 23-42. https://doi.org/10.1177/17427665241235593
Tang, R., Tully, M., Bode, L., & Vraga, E. K. (2025). Effects of a news literacy video on news literacy perceptions and misinformation evaluation. Media and Communication, 13. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.8983
Xiao, Q., Fan, X., Simon, F. M., Zhang, B., & Eslami, M. (2025). "It Might be Technically Impressive, But It's Practically Useless to us": Motivations, Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities for Cross-Functional Collaboration around AI within the News Industry. In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-19). https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3714090
Zhang, B., & Schmierbach, M. (2025). Comparing the efficacy of narrative and didactic inoculation in combating climate change misinformation: impact on misbeliefs and intention to share misinformation. Journal of Science Communication, 24(4), A02. https://doi.org/10.22323/JCOM.1502
Zhang, B., Mudavadi, K., & Zhou, C. (2026). Transparency is a Double-Edged Sword: Stakeholders’ Perception of GenAI Usage Disclosure in Kenyan Newsrooms. Media & Communication. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.12466
Zhang, B., Mudavadi, K.C., Ekdale, B., Johnson, B., Tully, M. Hossain, N., Nyabor, J., & Khamadi, S., (2026). What is ethical AI use in journalism? Stakeholders’ perceptions of the ethical generative AI usage in Kenyan newsrooms. The International Journal of Press/Politics. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612261453657
Zhang, B., Xiao, A., Luke, C., Chen, Y., & Fritz, C. (2025). For whom does CSA matter? A transnational study profiling citizen CSA expectation in Australia, Belgium, China, and the U.S. Journal of Promotion Management, 31(5). 743-770. https://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2025.2513325
Papers Discussed in Global Media Studies Working Group Meetings
Fall 2026
Meeting #1
Dismantling the colonial politics of knowledge production in the Global South (by Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed)
https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2025.2597218
Meeting #2
The relationship between humanitarian NGO communication and user engagement on Twitter (by Daniela Dimitrova, Tobias Heidenreich, and Teodor Antonio Georgiev)
https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221088970
Meeting #3
Accountability Sabotage and Journalism: Digital Authoritarian Practices and Chilling Effect in Latin America (by Luiz Peres-Neto, Santiago Giraldo Luque and Juan Pablo Soriano Gatica)
https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2026.2638928
Meeting #4
Rethinking the problem of misinformation and its solutions (by Sacha Altay)
https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448261428635
Spring 2026
Meeting #1
How and why governments are regulating AI: a comparison of legislative frameworks (by Matthew Dylag)
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2556745
Meeting #2
The Messenger (not the Medium) Is the Message? Uncovering Journalists’ Perceptions of Digital
Disinformation in Conflict Countries (by Bruce Mutsvairo et al.)
https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2025.2575499
Meeting #3
The cosmopolitan imagination: a call for global communication studies (by Silvio Waisbord)
https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf043
Meeting #4
AI-Driven Disinformation and Political Influence on WhatsApp in South Africa’s 2024 Elections (by Gregory Gondwe)
https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612251395434
Fall 2025
Meeting #1
Bringing History back into Media Systems Theory: Multiple Modernities and Institutional Legacies in Latin America (by Martin Echeverria et al.)
https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612221141315
Meeting #2
Money, Politics, or Ethics? Perceptions of the Factors Influencing Journalists’ Work (by Efrat Nechushtai and Yossi David)
https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612251329983
Meeting #3
Corrective Democracy? The Relationship Between Correction of Misinformation on Social Media and Connective Democratic Norms (by Rita Tang et al.)
https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251335086
Meeting #4
More Platforms, Less Attention to News? A Multi-Platform Analysis of News Exposure (by Tian Yang and Sandra González-Bailón)
https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251341496