dr. J.A.C. (Joëlle) Swart

Academic work experience

2021-now          Assistant Professor at the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen

2018-2021         Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen

2013-2017         PhD Candidate at the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen

For my non-academic work experience, see LinkedIn.

Education

2013-2017         PhD, Centre of Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen

2009-2011         MA in Journalism, University of Groningen (cum laude)

2006-2009         BA in International Relations, University of Groningen. Minor: Journalism

Publications

See the tab Research in the menu on the left

Teaching

See the tab Education in the menu on the left                 

Conference presentations

2024                 Overcoming news inequalities? How access to paid journalism affects low-income citizens’ news habits, informed citizenship and social involvement. ECREA Journalism Studies, Sheffield, UK.

2023                  What feels like news? Young people’s perceptions of news(-ness) on Instagram. Future of Journalism, Cardiff, UK.

2023                  A non-news-centric audience turn in journalism: a critical reflection on approaches, challenges, and implications. ICA, Toronto, Canada.

2023                  Playing with the digital. How children build digital literacy via offline engagement with online media. ICA, Toronto, Canada.

2022                  Making space for news. How young people organize their homescreens to form and sustain news habits on the smartphone. ECREA, Aarhus, Denmark.

2022                  A plea for a haptic turn in journalism studies. ECREA Journalism Studies, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

2022                  No sense of time. Towards a theory of news and in-betweenness.
ICA, Paris, France.

2022                  What feels like news to you? Young people’s perceptions of news(ness) on Instagram. ICA preconference Young People and News in a Digital World: Local and Global Perspectives, Paris, France

2021                  Composing social media repertoires. The proliferation of social media platforms and young people’s patterns of news use. Future of Journalism, online.

2021                   The paradox of play. How children develop digital literacy through practices of offline play. ECREA, online.

2021                   Do novel routines stick after the pandemic? The formation of news habits during COVID-19. ICA, online.

2020                   Tactics of algorithmic literacy. How young people understand and negotiate algorithmic news selection. AoIR, online.

2019                   Practising news literacy. How young people develop and express knowledge, skills and competences around news on social media. Future of Journalism, Cardiff, United Kingdom.

2019                   The news gap. Young people’s tactics for determining the reliability of political news. ICA, Washington D.C., USA.

2018                   The relevance of news within different communities. Conversations on current affairs in location, work and leisure-based social media groups. ICA, Prague, Czech Republic (first author of conference paper, paper presented by co-author prof.dr. Chris Peters).

2017                   News conversations in the everyday. The connective role of current affairs in location-based, work-oriented and leisure-based social media communities. Future of Journalism, Cardiff, United Kingdom.

2017                    Cross-mediaal nieuwsgebruik in het Nederlands taalgebied. [Cross-medial news use in the Dutch language area.] NeFCA: Wanted. Dead or alive. Journalists, journalism and their audiences in a changing media landscape. Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

2016                    What feels like news to you? News use of millennials on social media platforms. ECREA, Prague, Czech Republic.

2016                    New rituals for public connection. Audiences’ everyday experiences of digital journalism, civic engagement and social life. ECREA, Prague, Czech Republic.

2015                   The changing faces of public connection. The impact of cross-media news use on civic engagement. U4, Groningen, The Netherlands.

2015                   Frequently used, highly appreciated?: The value of news in people’s everyday lives. Future of Journalism, Cardiff, United Kingdom.

Invited lectures

2024                  Becoming news fluent: cross-contextual, cross-temporal and between-group approaches to  young people’s development of news literacy -ECREA Preconference Young People and News in Ljubljana
2024                  Overcoming news inequalities? Towards accessible, relevant and inclusive journalism for young, low-literate and immigrant news users - University of Bergen
2023                  What trusting the news means. News fluency in the age of disinformation - University of Coimbra
2023                  Making sense of algorithms. The epistemological and methodological challenges of studying users' algorithmic literacy - University of Milan
2022                  Leren door te doen - Ervaringen van nieuwsgebruik en de ontwikkeling van mediawijsheid bij jongeren [Learning by doing: experiences of news use and the development of media literacy in young people] - Leiden University
2019                   What's it in for me? Thinking from the perspective of the news user - Noordelijke Dagblad Combinatie
2019                   Digital literacy: Growing up with media – Research School for Media Studies
2019                   Wat verwacht het publiek van de regionale omroep? [What does the public expert of the regional broadcaster?] – Omrôp Fryslân

Grants

2025              NRO Samenwerken aan onderwijskwaliteit in de regio (PI, with prof.dr. Yael de Haan, €580.000)
2024                   M20 grant, Ubbo Emmius Foundation (co-applicant, with prof.dr. Marcel Broersma & prof.dr. Bart Verheij)
2020                   NWO Digital Society: The Informed Citizen grant (co-author, with prof.dr. Marcel Broersma and dr. Anna van Cauwenberge, €590.000)
2020                   Team Science grant (co-applicant, with prof.dr. Marcel Broersma, prof.dr. Liesbet van Zoonen, dr. Jiska Engelbert, dr. Aodhán Kelly and Martine Schophuizen, MSc, €45.000)

Awards

2025                   Impact Awards, Faculteit Letteren (€500)
2021                   Science Prize RUG/Campus Fryslân, second place (€3.000)

Extracurricular activities

2023-now         Theme coordinator Digital Inclusion Jantina Tammes School

2021-now         Editorial board member Digital Journalism

2019-now         Vice-Chair and Secretary of the dr. Catharine van Tussenbroek Fund, supporting female research talent in Dutch academia by awarding travel grants for research abroad

2019-2020         Member Postdoc Council Social Sciences and Humanities
2015-2017         Member PhD Council of the Graduate School for the Humanities

Other academic activities:

I regular review articles ad hoc for the following journals:

New Media & Society
Information, Communication & Society
Digital Journalism
Journalism Studies
Media & Communication
Political Communication
Public Opinion Quarterly
International Journal of Communication
The International Journal of Press/Politics

In the media

Dagblad van het Noorden
Leeuwarder Courant
Nu.nl 1 & 2
de Volkskrant
NRC Handelsblad 1 & 2
BNR Nieuwsradio
Het Parool
Brabants Dagblad
Villamedia
De Nieuwe Reporter
European Journalism Observatory
NiemanLab & 2
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