[Air-L] PhD studentship @ Sheffield: Trust and inequalities in the context of data-driven media

[Helen Kennedy]

Dear list members

Excellent MA students may be interested in this opportunity.

Best wishes

Helen


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PhD studentship: Trust and inequalities in the context of data-driven media
(part of the Designing For All
<https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2022-03-phd-research-fund-public-service-digital-equality-designing-for-all>
cohort)

Deadline: 11 May 2022

Applications should be submitted to the University of Sheffield
Postgraduate Online Application system
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate/phd/apply.



The University of Sheffield and BBC R&D are offering a 4-year full-time
EPSRC/BBC-funded PhD studentship, to start in October 2022. The successful
applicant will research the challenge of delivering equitable provision of
future media in the context of growing digital inequalities.



Data-centric technologies, including AI, are at the centre of the BBC
technology and innovation plan and will transform audiences’ experiences in
the future. However, not everyone has equal access, or the same capability
to engage and to benefit, and people who are excluded are often already
experiencing social, cultural and economic marginalisation. As part of the
BBC’s commitment to universality, this PhD will contribute to understanding
digital inclusion in a data-driven society, through empirical research into
underserved audiences’ experiences of and trust in data-driven media and
what good data uses look like for them.



The student will be supervised by Professor Helen Kennedy (
h.kennedy at sheffield.ac.uk) at the University of Sheffield and Dr Rhianne
Jones (Rhia.Jones at bbc.co.uk) from BBC R&D (with bases in Salford’s Media
City and Central London).



The studentship is part of a wider multidisciplinary cohort of four
industrial PhD projects: *Designing for All*. The student will have the
opportunity to conduct research at the BBC, and to collaborate with the
other students in the cohort. Information about the *Designing For All*
programme can be found in this BBC R&D blogpost
<https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2022-03-phd-research-fund-public-service-digital-equality-designing-for-all>.




*The Person*

This is a multidisciplinary research challenge, and we are keen to receive
applications from people from Sociology, Media & Communications, HCI,
Information Studies, Politics or related disciplines or with relevant
professional experience, and with interests in one or more of the following:

●      digital media; social and digital inequalities; digital inclusion;
data-driven technologies; value-sensitive design; responsive innovation;
public service media

●      qualitative methods; co-production; participatory design;
deliberative inquiry; speculative design; prototyping.



The successful applicant should have a first class or high upper second
class honours degree and preferably a Masters qualification or comparable
professional experience.



A key aim of this cohort-based studentship is to develop future research
leaders, with experience of working in multidisciplinary teams and across
academic and industry contexts. Candidates should expect to learn new,
cross-disciplinary skills, including those related to empirical research
design, data science/analysis and cutting-edge technology.



*How to Apply*

Applications should be submitted to the University of Sheffield
Postgraduate Online Application system
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate/phd/apply.



Applications should be accompanied by

   1. A CV, certified copies of degree certificates and transcripts,
   details of two referees and proof of eligibility (e.g. a copy of your
   passport/ residence permit)
   2. A personal statement of no more than two pages describing: a) your
   research interests, a central question for this project and an indicative
   methodology; b) your experience to date that makes you suitable for this
   studentship, and what you would learn through this opportunity; and c) the
   impact you hope to make through working with us on this project.



Applicants applying for more than one of the ‘*Designing for All’ *studentships
should indicate this in their personal statement. For queries about the
application process, please contact  scs-pgr at sheffield.ac.uk. Interviews
will take place in May 2022.



-- 
Helen Kennedy, she/her, Professor of Digital Society, @hmtk, Living With
Data <https://livingwithdata.org/>

*RECENT PUBLICATIONS: *
Context and prior awareness matter in public concern about data uses
<https://livingwithdata.org/resources/living-with-data-survey-results/>
(2021, w/Mark Taylor, Susan Oman, Jo Bates, Itzelle Medina-Perea, Hannah
Ditchfield, Lulu Pinney)
Public perceptions of good data management: findings from a UK-based survey
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053951720935616>, *Big Data
and Society* (2020, w/Todd Hartman, Robin Steedman & Rhia Jones)

*Data Visualization in Society
<https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463722902/data-visualization-in-society>*
(2020,
ed w/ Martin Engebretesen, Open Access with Amsterdam University Press)