María Luengo

I am an Associate Professor in Journalism working at the Department of Communication of Carlos III University of Madrid, in Spain. I am currently serving as Faculty Vice Chair of the Dual Degree in Journalism and Humanities. In this role, I am working on adapting journalism studies to the new professional and digital environment.

I have been the Main Proposer, and I am now chairing the COST Action CA22165 – Redressing Radical Polarisation: Strengthening European Civil Spheres facing Illiberal Digital Media (DepolarisingEU). This Action aims to create an interdisciplinary network that will advance common understanding of radical polarisation and identify successful communicative interventions to de-escalate uncivil and undemocratic partisanship.

As a researcher, my main area of interest is the relationship between citizenship and journalism – and how it is affected by rapid technological, social and cultural changes.

I have co-edited two books: The Crisis of Journalism Reconsidered: Democratic Culture, Professional Codes, Digital Future (with Jeffrey C. Alexander and Elizabeth B. Breese, Cambridge University Press, 2016) and News Media Innovation Reconsidered (with Susana Herrera Damas, Wiley, 2021). I have also authored numerous book chapters in collaborative manuscripts edited by other leading publishers in the fields of communication and sociology.

My research has appeared in Journalism, Journalism Studies, European Journal of Communication, American Journal of Cultural Sociology and Media, Culture & Society, among others.

Trained as a journalist, I turned this expertise to my decided advantage – as I has used the media to study key meaning-making processes in contemporary times, especially as they relate to power.

Over the last years, I has worked closely with cultural sociologist Jeffrey C. Alexander on a series of international projects related to the sociological study of democracy and the civil sphere. One of my contributions was awarded with the 2019 European Journal of Communication prize for the best article of the journal’s issues published in 2019.

In 2014, I was invited to join the Yale Center For Cultural Sociology as a Faculty Fellow and since 2021 I have been serving as a Member of the Coordinating Committee of The Civil Sphere Theory Working Group. In 2022, I was Visiting Professor of the School of Journalism, Media and Communication at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom.