Dr Sophia Kaitatzi-Whitlock is professor of Politics and Political Communication at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a Dr in Communication from the University of Westminster, London. She has researched and published extensively on European audiovisual policy-making, political communication, reporting crises and conflicts, EU cultural policies and on the political economy of the media, nationally and globally. Her research interests comprise: [a] the political economy of public communication, [b] the nexus of democracy and public communication, [c] the challenges of interactive new media for cultural diversity and for social and political (re-)organization and the potential threats and benefits they bring, [d] public policies, national or transnational, addressing issues of novel communication risks, frameworks and new media phenomena such as violations of privacy, unaccountable ‘Powers of Search Engines’ or the ‘Phenomenon of Infoflation’, entailing massive superfluous and superficial information exchanges, over internet platforms, including SM. ‘Infoflation’ impacts both on journalism and on essential human communication development. She has developed teaching modules concerning the centrality of a ‘new investigative journalism’ and how it could contribute to indispensable public awareness and policy shifts towards peaceful civil coexistence. Her currently developing book project concerns the challenges of the “Digital Human Condition’.

Selected publications by Dr S. K.-W.

Monograph freely accessible:  2005, Εurope’s Political Communication Deficit, 333 pages, Bury St Edmunds, Arima Abramis Academic Publishing. https://www.academia.edu/71838024/Europes_Political_Communication_Deficit

Recent Journal Publications:

2021, ‘Towards a Digital Civil Society: Digital Ethics through Communication Education’, JICES (Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society), Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 187-206.

2015, ‘Greece, The Eurozone Crisis and the Media: The Solution is the Problem’, Javnost – the public, Vol 21, No 4, pages 5-25.

Recent Chapters in Collective Books:

Kaitatzi-Whitlock, Sophia, (2013), ‘Changing Media Ontology and the Polity’,  first chapter in New Screens and New Regulations, (Nouveaux écrans, nouvelles régulations), Muriel Hanot & Pierre-Francois Docquir, (eds), Brussels, MEDIADEM – Conseil Superieur de L’ Audiovisuel (CSA Belge).

Kaitatzi-Whitlock, Sophia, (2011), ‘The Political Economy of Political Ignorance’, in The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications, Janet Wasko, Graham Murdock & Helena Sousa, (eds), Chichester, Wiley- Blackwell.

Kaitatzi-Whitlock, Sophia, (2008), ‘The Political Economy of the Media at the Root of Europe’s Democracy  Deficit’, (2008), first chapter in Media, Democracy and European Culture, Ib Bondebjerg  & Peter Madsen (eds), Intellect.