I research:

• Disinformation, misinformation, propaganda, persuasion, influence
• Emotional AI, empathic media, profiling, digital governance
• Trust, accuracy and credibility in journalism and digital media;
• Security state and public accountability.

Keywords

digital political communication, digital journalism, risk communication, disinformation, misinformation, persuasion, agenda-building, trust, emotional AI, empathic media, sur/sous/veillance, security state, citizen’s juries, qualitative social science research, surveys, textual analysis, design fiction, focus groups, interviews, political-economy

Books:

Briant E. & Bakir, V. (eds.) 2025. Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry. New York: Routledge

Bakir, V. and A. McStay, 2022. Optimising Emotions, Incubating Falsehoods. Palgrave-Macmillan/Springer. [open access]

Bakir, V. 2018.Intelligence Elites and Public Accountability: Relationships of Influence with Civil Society. London: Routledge.

Bakir, V. 2013. Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror: Agenda–Building Struggles. Routledge.

Bakir, V. 2010. Sousveillance, Media and Strategic Political Communication: Iraq, USA, UK. New York: Continuum.

Bakir, V. & D.Barlow, (eds.) 2007. Communication in the Age of Suspicion: Trust and the Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.

Research awards:

As an interdisciplinary scholar, I have won awards from diverse funding bodies e.g. AHRC, ESRC, EPSRC, NERC, Innovate UK, Arts Councils. A list of my funded projects are at: 0000-0002-6828-8384

Current grants comprise:

2026: £35,000, International Science Partnerships Fund (Medr) Institutional Support Grant. Resolving the Future of Empathic AI-based Scams through Nigeria-UK collaboration.

2023-2025: £364,000 FEC. Automated Empathy – Globalising International Standards (AEGIS): Japan and Ethically Aligned Regions. UKRI Technologies Mission Fund - Impact Accelerator. 

Teaching and Supervision

Undergraduate modules taught:

• Issues in Media,Journalism & Politics
• Journalism and Risk Society
• Media, Politics & Society
• Digital Journalism & Society
• Dissertation in Journalism & Media Studies
• MSc Dissertation in International Media Management

PhD and MRes students:

I am interested in supervising students in a wide range of areas including contemporary political communication, journalism, disinformation, deception, digital media, discourse, accountability and power, and digital surveillance.

Current (1st/2nd supervisor)

• UK/China risk communication on social medias (Wu),
• Chinese dating websites and emotional governance (Chen);
• social media & cultural change in Zanzibar (Mohamed);
• gender and television drama in Kuwait (al-Rushaid);
• AI, deepfake scams and social media in Nigeria (Ugochukwu);
• gender and online hate speech (Edwards)
• misinformation and media literacy in Pakistan (Khan),
• political opposition discourse in the Nigerian press (Aluko)
• emotional AI in newsrooms (Ebhodaghe)

Position: Professor of Journalism & Political Communication

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +44 (0) 1248 382751

Location: Main Arts

Personal websites: Academia.edu   ResearchGate

Project Websites: Emotional AI Lab   DATA-PSST!    Intelligence Elites 

BlueSky: @VianBakir.bsky.social