Lecturer in Digital Media and Communications
Dr Taner Doğan is a Lecturer in Digital Media and Communications at ɬ (ɬ). He is also the Programme Leader of BA (Hons) Media and Communications and BA (Hons) Digital Marketing and Public Relations.
- Overview
- Research Overview
- Research Publications
- Teaching & Learning
Dr Taner Doğan is a Lecturer in Digital Media and Communications, Programme Leader of BA (Hons) Media and Communications and BA (Hons) Digital Marketing and Public Relations at ɬ (ɬ). Dr Doğan is also Visiting Fellow at the European Institute, LSE. He is the author of "Communication Strategies in Turkey" (I.B.Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2021).
Dr Doğan earned his PhD degree in Journalism at City, University of London. His thesis examines the political communication strategies of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). He pursued his postgraduate education at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London, where he received his MA in Global Media and Postnational Communication. For his dissertation, entitled “The Mobilisation of Tahrir Square as an Arab Street and Al Jazeera’s role”, he researched in Doha and Cairo, and conducted in-depth interviews with journalists, activists and politicians. During his time in Egypt, he was Research Fellow at the American University in Cairo.
Dr Doğan taught at King’s College London’s Digital Humanities department. He worked in broadcast and digital journalism in the UK, Germany and Turkey. Dr Doğan has been interviewed about his research expertise including by Index on Censorship, L’Express, RTVE and Middle East Eye. He can be found on Twitter at @tnrdogan.
Dr Doğan has expertise in the following areas: Political communication, Religion, Digital culture, Technology and Society.
Dr Taner Doğan's research centres on the nexus of communication, politics, and religion, with a particular emphasis on the Middle East and North Africa. He is interested in the rise of digital media in the contemporary world and its interconnection with thinking, creating a digital culture that influences the (trans)formation of identity. The role of technology and the impact of neoliberalism are important areas of focus in Dr Doğan's research.
Dr Doğan’s doctorate examines the political communication strategies of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). Drawing on approaches to political communication and social movement theories, it analyses the transformations that have taken place within the AKP. The research, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, identify two distinct policy periods.
The first, from 2002 to 2009, was characterized by a liberal political ideology, where AKP embraced human rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law. Then, the post-2010 era, where a shift towards a populist discourse emerged, which, in retrospect, has problematized the objectives of Turkey’s democratization process. It also highlights the implications of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's authoritarian one-man rule and the consequent deinstitutionalization of the state.
Active Research Interests:
- Digital culture
- Religion
- Political communication
- Cultural Studies
- Populism
- Technology and Society
- Visual art
- Middle East and North Africa
- Turkey
- Egypt
Research Methods:
- Elite interviews
- Ethnography
- Focus groups
- Content Analysis
Research Centres:
- Full member of The Centre for Communication, Cultural and Media Studies
Dr Taner Doğan teaches Media Production: Online Journalism, Media Freelancing Project, Media and Communication Industries, Persuasive Communication, Political Communication, and Media, Politics and Culture. He also supervises doctoral and postgraduate research on a broad variety of topics related to communications, digital media, politics, and journalism.
Dr Doğan welcomes applications from prospective doctoral researchers relating to his areas of research. He is currently interested in supervising PhD topics ranging from digital culture, communications, religion, populism, visual art, technology and society, and media, politics and culture.
