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Staff Profile

Dr Shola Olabode

Research Associate Media Culture Heritage

  • Address: Department of Media, Culture and Heritage
    School of Arts and Cultures
    Armstrong Building
    NE17RU
Background

Dr Shola Olabode is a Research Associate in Media Culture and Heritage in the School of Arts and Cultures at Newcastle University. He works on an interdisciplinary project 'AGENCY: Assuring Citizen Agency in a World with Complex Online Harms' (https://agencyresearch.net/) Funded by EPSRC through REPHRAIN, the National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence (https://www.rephrain.ac.uk/). His work underscores the societal impacts of information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly digital security, privacy risks, and the sociotechnical contexts of harms within the digital platform ecosystem.


Previously, He served as a Research Fellow on the H2020 DigiGen project for the European Commission on .The Impact of Technological Transformations on the Digital Generation' contributing to case studies on ICT and Civic Participation at the University of Leicester (2021-2022 https://www.digigen.eu).


His specialism extends to researching the nexus of digital media cultures, conflict, and politics, particularly focusing on civic engagement, political participation, online activism, and social movements, including radical conflict. He has published on political movements using the internet and communication technologies in developing non-western contexts. His doctoral research explored cyberconflict and radical politics, blending social movement, conflict, and media theories to study mobilization among ethnoreligious and socio-political movements in Nigeria with a monograph published by Emerald Publishing.


Dr Olabode has has taught Media Movements and Radical Politics at the University of Hull, Crime and the Media at Bangor University. He has served as an instructor and supervised dissertations for postgraduate students at the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) London.


His scholarly interests are particularly piqued by the challenges posed by online harms, online safety, relating to fake news, AI and deep fakes, disinformation, and misinformation during digital political participation, especially in developing and non-Western contexts like Africa.


Qualifications


PhD in Media Studies

Postgraduate Certificate in Research Training

Master of Research in Media

Master of International Law

BSc (Hons) in Mass Communication

Diploma in Mass Communication


Membership


Member of Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA).



Selected Conference/ Invited Talks


·    Olabode, S and Chambers, D (2024) Tech abuse: Smart home facilitated coercive control. 2nd CyberMi2 Research Day, 2024.' Cybersecurity and Privacy for Minority and Minoritized People, 24 May 2024, The Exchange, University of Birmingham, UK.


·    Karatzogianni, A., Morgner, C., Olabode, S. and Ambusaidi, K. (2022) COVID19 Disinformation and Response in India, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand: A Comparative Analysis Study on Twitter PLUS expert Interviews. 4th International Conference on Futures of Media: Media Power. Xiamen University Malaysia.


·    Olabode, S. A. (2021) 'Opportunities and Challenges for ICT Movements in Nigeria: From #Occupy Nigeria, and #Bringbackourgirls, to #Endsars Protests.' A paper presented at the Leicester Institute of Advanced Studies on 'Geopolitics and Cross-cultural Comparisons of ICT Use by Governments, Corporations and Civil Society Actors in the Global South.


·    Olabode, S. A. (2017) A Cyberconflict perspective of ICT use among Sociopolitical and Ethnoreligious conflict Movements in Nigeria. A paper presented at the ESRC seminar series: 'Exploring civil society strategies for democratic renewal: Contentious politics and democracy in the digital arena' City, University of London. 20th January 2017.


·    Olabode, S.A (2017) 'A Cyberconflict analysis of the Boko Haram Conflict in Nigeria.' A paper presented at the 'Migration and Transition- Roots and Routes' International Conference for the Yorkshire African Studies Network (YASN) at the University of Hull, 18-19 May 2017.


·    Olabode, S.A. (2014) 'A Preliminary evaluation of the impact of ICTs on Gender Activism in Nigeria.' A paper presented at the international conference on 'Material Matters in Times of Crisis Capitalism: Transnational Feminist and Decolonial Approaches' at the Institute of Sociology. Justus-Liebig University. Giessen. 13th – 15th November.


·    International Media Development: New Frontiers for Research, Training, and knowledge. A two-day workshop organized by the Centre for International Media Assistance and CAMRI, University of Westminster. October 16-17, 2017 (Washington, DC, and London).




Research

Research Associate - Newcastle University ‘AGENCY: Assuring Citizen Agency in a World with Complex Online Harms’ (2022-2025), an EPSRC funded project which interrogates complex online harms and citizen autonomy and agency.


Research Assistant - University of Leicester UKRI project 'Self-learning AI-based Digital Twins for Accelerating Clinical Care in Respiratory Emergency Admissions' (SLAIDER). (2023).


Research Fellow - University of Leicester H2020 project for the European Commission DigiGen THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATIONS ON THE DIGITAL GENERATION, contributing to several work packages on ICT and Civic Participation (2019-2022) https://www.digigen.eu. 


Research Associate - University of Leicester: IRDF ODA: COVID-19 Urgency Call: COVID19 Disinformation and Response in India, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand: A Comparative Social Network Analysis Study on Twitter (2020-2021).


Research Assistant - Bangor University: ‘Achieving Net Zero: A Feasibility Study into the Technical and Communicative Challenges to using Waste Heat from Nuclear Power to Heat Greenhouses. NERC Interdisciplinary Research Project’ (2022).


Research Assistant – University of Leicester: ‘Re-imagining the ‘Homogenocene’ as a safe and resilient place for life on Earth.’ Leicester Institute of Advanced Studies (LIAS) (2020/2021).


Research Assistant - University of Leicester: ‘Digital geographies of Discourses and changing spatial practices in the era of covid19 contact-tracing apps.’ Leicester Institute of Advance Studies (LIAS) (2020).


Publications