Are you interested in political communication and quantitative empirical research? We are seeking a highly motivated PhD student for the research project ‘
See it; say it; sorted. Affective polarization among social groups in the Netherlands.’ This project focusses on how non-political identities (such as level of education or the place of residence) get politicized, how this adds to affective polarization between political and non-political groups, and the role of the information environment in these processes. If you have the ambition to pursue an academic career and to contribute to knowledge about the role of media in affective polarization, then this PhD vacancy might just be for you.
The PhD project will be embedded within the Political Communication & Journalism programme group. In our group, we explore the contributions of media and communication to citizens' perception, knowledge, and understanding of political issues and political and social groups, as well as citizens' participation in the political arena and their electoral behaviour. The PhD project will be supervised by Dr. Rachid Azrout, Dr. Knut De Swert, and Dr. Alessandro Nai.
What are you going to do? While considerable research exists on affective polarization as an “outgrowth of partisan identity”, much less attention has been paid to how initially non-political social identities become politicized and lead to an affective polarization between societal groups and the informational drivers of such shifts. In this project we aim to deepen our understanding of these processes, and in particular we focus on the role of the information people are exposed to (news media, and political communication from elites during election campaigns). By combining experimental, (longitudinal) survey and content analysis data you will aim to answer these overarching research questions: [RQ1] To what extent are non-political identities linked to political identities in people’s perceptions? [RQ2] To what extent does this linkage add to affective polarization between both political and non-political groups? [RQ3] To what extent is this all driven by the nature and content of the information environment?
You will/tasks:
- review and synthesize the literature on affective polarization, (social) sorting and the role of media in these processes;
- collect data by means of a quantitative content analysis and experiments;
- analyse ([longitudinal] survey, content analysis, experimental) data;
- write up findings for publication in scientific journals and present them at (inter)national conferences;
- complete and defend a PhD dissertation on the topic of affective polarization between political and societal groups.