Our Team
Professor Stephen Cushion
Stephen is PI on the project and Professor at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University. His research focuses on political communication and journalism studies, particularly topics related to political reporting, impartiality, misinformation and alternative media. He has written and published widely on issues related to news, politics and journalism, supported by projects funded by UKRI council grants or commissioned by media organisations, such as Ofcom.
You can read more about his projects here, and find him on LinkedIn, X @Stephen_Cushion and Bluesky.
Dr Matt Walsh
Matt Walsh is the Head of Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture. An advocate for press freedom and ethical journalism, he was a longstanding advisor to the press regulator Impress and sits on the executive boards of The Conversation UK and the Broadcast Journalism Training Council. He also advises the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on journalism and public service broadcasting. His academic career followed 20 years as a practising journalist in broadcast and digital news. Dr Walsh continues to collaborate closely with industry and regularly contributes as a commentator on matters related to journalism and political communication.
Dr Maxwell Modell
Maxwell is a research associate on the project. His research focuses on the interplay between journalism and politics, with a specific focus on the way news media is reimagining itself in response to digital technologies and narratives of declining trust in journalism.
His PhD, undertaken at Cardiff University, examined the rise of news podcasts in the UK. The project was motivated by a desire to understand how legacy and digital-native news producers are using podcasts as a medium to repackage broadcast practices for a rapidly changing digital media landscape and as a way to better engage audiences.
His research has been published in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, the edited collection Pandering to Populism, and The Conversation.
You can follow him on Bluesky.
Dr Keighley Perkins
Keighley is a Research Associate at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture. Her research sits at the intersection of political communication, online harms and audience engagement. Her PhD, completed at Swansea University, examined how radical right groups constructed in-group identities on social media through linguistic and visual analysis. Her forthcoming book with Bloomsbury Academic, co-written with Professor Nuria Lorenzo-Dus, develops this work, exploring the political identities of the radical right. She has worked on projects funded by the Safe Online Initiative at End Violence, the Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund, and the UK’s Research and Innovation Fund.
