Two PhD positions on Morality in Political Communication
Are you exceptionally interested in science, and specifically in the field of Political Communication research? Is it your ambition to become a top-tier researcher?
We are seeking two PhD candidates for the “Morality in Political Communication” project, which is partially funded by NWO. The PhD track is part of the Political Communication & Journalism (PC&J) programme group.
The PC&J Programme Group is part of the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), the research institute for the Communication Science department at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. The group focuses on the (digital) communication challenges to democracy by studying the predictors, content and consequences of information creation and consumption. It has a large and vibrant PhD cohort of more than 15 PhD candidates.
What are you going to do
The project “Morality in Political Communication” is inspired by the idea that political elites use language strategically to shift the public debate and to persuade and motivate voters. Moral language – appeals to moral notions of right and wrong – is particularly powerful, as voters respond especially strongly to moral language from elites. For instance, politicians argue it is immoral to be disloyal to the Dutch people, or alternatively, to not care for refugees in need. Notably, once citizens connect an issue to their moral values, they are more likely to act to be sure their side prevails, be it by persuasion, voting, protesting, or—in extreme cases—violence. The current project focuses on the use of different types of political moral language and studies its spread in the public sphere as well as its consequences for moral judgment and political decision making. We argue that the Dutch context with its multiparty political landscape and democratic corporatist media system is particularly interesting to study these dynamics. In this larger project we are looking for two PhD candidates who will focus on two related, but distinct PhD projects.
The project team additionally consists of Linda Bos, Associate Professor and promotor (daily supervisor of project 1), Frederic Hopp, Assistant Professor and co-promotor (daily supervisor of project 2) and Michael Hameleers, Assistant Professor and co-promotor (all members of the programme group of Political Communication & Journalism).
You can find more information on the vacancies here.
Application deadline: 31st of October