Are you interested in the role of media and framing in fostering or undermining the legitimacy of public organizations? Do you want to know more about why some public organizations are typically scrutinized more in news media or on social media than  others?

We are looking for an ambitious PhD Researcher for the three-year and two-months project “Contesting Media Legitimacy of Public Organizations: Construction, Change and Impact of Legitimacy Framing”. The PhD Candidate is embedded in the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) and is part of the Corporate Communication Program Group.  

What are you going to do

Media play a crucial role in shaping legitimacy perceptions of public organizations among societal stakeholders. This is particularly the case when the legitimacy of these types of organizations and their policies is challenged through news media coverage or social media. Due to an increasingly polarized and mediatized socio-political environment, public organizations struggle with public support and societal acceptance. In this project, you will investigate the role of media in the communicative construction of legitimacy framing of public organizations. Taken together, this project will provide more insights into the importance, communicative construction, communicative use, and impact of legitimacy framing of public organizations.

Methods used in the project range from quantitative (content analysis, experiment) to qualitative (semi-structured interviews). The PhD Candidate will write a paper-based dissertation and strive to publish the results of individual sub-studies in important journals in the field of communication science.

Tasks include:

• completing an English-language PhD dissertation consisting of research articles within the appointment period;
• conducting qualitative interviews with communication professionals from public organizations;
• conducting a quantitative content analysis of media legitimacy framing of public organizations within Dutch media;
• conducting an experiment on effects of different types of media legitimacy framing;
• conducting data analysis;
• presenting the work at national and international conferences;
• spending 10% of your time on teaching-related tasks.

What do we require of you

You have:

• a research Master’s degree in Communication Science or in another discipline relevant to the project such as Organization Science, Management, Political Science, Societal Resilience, Public Administration, or Journalism Studies.  Candidates with another (research) Master’s degree may apply, but should motivate why their experience suffices for this project;
• experience with quantitative and/or qualitative research methods (interview, content analysis, experiment);
• an excellent spoken and written command of Dutch (as this project will comprise conducting Dutch-language interviews and textual analyses of Dutch-language materials);
• an excellent spoken and written command of English (as you will write an English-language dissertation and present at international conferences);
• programming skills in R and/or Python, or the willingness to acquire these skills;
• the motivation to work in an interdisciplinary team.

You are:

• passionate about research, particularly related to corporate communication;
• interested in working in a multidisciplinary team;
• open to feedback;
• able to work independently;
• eager to learn and to develop new skills;
• organized, flexible and have attention to detail.

The planned start date is 1 April 2022. The position concerns temporary employment of 1.0 fte (38 hours per week) for a maximum term of three years and two months. The initial employment is for one year. Following a positive assessment and barring altered circumstances, this term will be extended by a maximum of 26 months, which should result in the conferral of a doctorate. We will put together a curriculum which will also include the opportunity to attend training courses and both national and international events. You will also be tasked with teaching Bachelor's students.

Your salary will be €2,434 gross per month in the first year and will increase to €3,111 in the final year, based on full-time employment and in keeping with the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities. We additionally offer an extensive package of secondary benefits, including 8% holiday allowance and a year-end bonus of 8.3%.

The UvA offers excellent possibilities for further professional development and education.

What else do we offer?

• a position in which initiative and input are highly valued;
• an enthusiastic and warm team that is open to new colleagues;
• an inspiring academic and international working environment in the heart of Amsterdam.

University of Amsterdam

With over 6,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences – Communication Science

The Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) is the research institute for the Communication Science Department in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam.

A challenging work environment with a variety of duties and ample scope for individual initiative and development within an inspiring organization. The social and behavioral sciences play a leading role in addressing the major societal challenges faced by the world, the Netherlands and Amsterdam, now and in the future.