Ben O'Loughlin
Prof. of IR. Director, New Political Communication Unit, Royal Holloway | Co-Editor Media, War and Conflict journal | Co-author: Strategic Narratives | AI and political agency
- Very happy to be visiting @willyou.bsky.social in September at @nuqatar.bsky.social in Doha, and talking about Morality, Ontology, Strategy. Builds on my paper with @adamblerner.bsky.social and our ongoing Q of "what matters": academic.oup.com/isq/article/...
- Useful analysis of how Trump handles things when empirical realities refute what he says, by James Phelan. Must #performativity relate to evidence to have effects on audiences? No... Donald J. Trump's Storytelling, May 12–June 7, 2020; or, Can His Saying Make Things So? #narrative #genre #autocracy
- New by @lizhallgren.bsky.social - The symbiotic relationship between Volodymyr Zelensky and Western news: Authenticity and performance in Ukraine’s fight against Russia journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
- Strategic narratives between global influence and local appropriation: China’s COVID-19 vaccine diplomacy in Serbia New study by Ana Stojiljković & @sabinamihelj.bsky.social here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
- Useful explanation of how disordered discourse is produced in today's politics to further regression of democracy, but some steps @bellingcat.com and others take to try to create alternative discourse that would be needed to move politics towards democratic ideals. Education = key:
- I've just come back from the Cambridge Disinformation Summit where I gave the opening keynote, titled "Demanufacturing Consent - How Disordered Discourse is Destroying Democracy", featuring everything from Fake Hooves to Jackson Hinkle being the worst. www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-FV...
- Reposted by Ben O'Loughlin#AI fellowships across all disciplines at King’s College London. Deadline 19 May 2025 @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social. www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/111205-...
- Reposted by Ben O'LoughlinUS news media: "Do you think he has a chance? Is there a way he can swing it so that he bypasses all of the Cardinals and takes the papacy for himself?"
- New by Steven Livingston and @babak9.bsky.social on why narrative and rituals matter more than truth in US politics. Propaganda feedback loops as communication rituals: Hate speech on talk radio journals.sagepub.com/eprint/P6FHA...
- Where does international criminal law come from? A new intellectual history tracing how agents act politically to make it happen, by Jessie Barton Hronešová and @adamblerner.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
- Discussing national security now, a question just emerged: Should we seek to undermine and even destroy the #softpower held by our enemies and adversaries? If far right networks spend decades trying to destroy the BBC World Service, what should the UK try to destroy, and should it?
- Examining the Dirt Under Your Fingernails: Exploring the Role of Ethnographic Research in Political Communication Join this online seminar by @jameswilldennis.bsky.social 20th May at 2pm on Zoom. Register here: bournemouth-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi... #methods
- Reposted by Ben O'LoughlinSenior Research Fellow @benoloughlin.bsky.social will be speaking at the University of Edinburgh tomorrow, in a provicatively-titled talk that examines Trump, the ‘narrative turn’ of International Relations, and the relevance of truth in world politics. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/i-mean-let...
- Reposted by Ben O'LoughlinFeeling this more than ever today! Thanks for posting!
- Amid recognition social media is long over and digital is being used for terrible things, how can we ourselves rebuild our media ecologies to our own values? @moyazb.bsky.social offers an example and some future goals: just-tech.ssrc.org/articles/an-... h/t @sjjphd.bsky.social
- Amid recognition social media is long over and digital is being used for terrible things, how can we ourselves rebuild our media ecologies to our own values? @moyazb.bsky.social offers an example and some future goals: just-tech.ssrc.org/articles/an-... h/t @sjjphd.bsky.social
- Invitation to potential authors - AI Politics: new book series by @intellectbooks.bsky.social / @uchicagopress.bsky.social edited by @andrewhoskins.bsky.social & I. View the full call here>> www.intellectbooks.com/asset/2536/a...
- I found a book of my handwritten notes on digital politics from 2016 under a table. Notes on talks by @andrewchadwick.com, @profvaccari.bsky.social, @paologerbaudo.bsky.social and, er, Angelina Jolie. Thank you for a lovely notebook @billuraslanozgul.bsky.social! Happy memories of Istanbul!
- Spending an afternoon analysing Donald Trump transcripts is a test. Beneath the flamboyance and swashbuckling there is his own logic running through what he says.
- Very happy to get notification I can present at @europeanisa.bsky.social this summer in lovely Bologna, with @profmiskimmon.bsky.social. Lots of storytelling to talk about.
- New in Media, War and Conflict by @apavliuc.bsky.social: Gender and narrative in digital political communication during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine - read here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
- Reposted by Ben O'Loughlin🚨JOB ALERT 🚨 12-month Lectureship in Human Geography (esp. urban and political geography) @rhulgeography.bsky.social. Salary: £49,325 p.a. Application deadline: 2 May 2025. Starting date: c. 1 September 2025. Details: jobs.royalholloway.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...
- Notes, July 2019.
- Is truth relevant for shaping outcomes in world politics today? Where to even begin? I'll discuss this at University of Edinburgh on 29 April. Register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/i-mean-let...
- Noticing my dissertation students are writing about #deepfakes, #mistrust, #illiberalism, I'm telling them to read at least the first chapters of Sharded Media by @andrewhoskins.bsky.social & @williammerrin.bsky.social, as the book is about more than just Trump: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
- Reposted by Ben O'LoughlinFollowed by a piece by @paulinesophieh.bsky.social and @benoloughlin.bsky.social, who examine how climate-vulnerable states charge major carbon emitters with bad faith behaviours and how emitters respond to these charges cjir.iir.cz/index.php/cj...
- We ran an AI crisis simulation workshop with security, commerce and communication professionals. Our short write up of how they think about and use AI: (Thanks to @petergeoghegan.bsky.social for making this happen) journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
- Reposted by Ben O'LoughlinCan the US and UK remain allies? Who speaks for the West now? In a busy week for @benoloughlin.bsky.social he also presented about AI, Public Diplomacy and Strategic Narrative in a webinar at George Washington University, video now available: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJYQ...
- Happy that @profmiskimmon.bsky.social and I are cited in the UK-Ukraine 100 Year Partnership Agreement. Trust, solidarity, and a quiet role for #softpower: publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5901/ld...
- What is going on with #AI, #publicdiplomacy and #strategicnarrative? @profmiskimmon.bsky.social and I were quizzed by Sean Aday @gwu1821.bsky.social - watch here and comments welcome: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJYQ...
- I'm delighted to be talking on Ouroboros: The Infinite Loop of Media, Democracy, and Diplomacy, Vienna 8-10 April. Should be quite a lot to discuss. ➰ www.newpolcom.rhul.ac.uk/npcu-blog/20...
- #projection! Survey shows people project their own identity onto those they think might be reasonable people. And they think superheroes align with their views, and supervillains don't. Where to begin with this? @turnbulldugarte.com sums it up: theconversation.com/who-does-spi...
- We're hosting the Society for Terrorism research annual conference on 7-8 July. Abstract deadline 11 April. Do submit! Any questions: STR2025@rhul.ac.uk. Further information here: societyforterrorismresearch.org/conferences/... Thanks to @lizzypearson.bsky.social for organising it!
- Reposted by Ben O'Loughlin(3/8) In “Theorising bad faith” @paulinesophieh.bsky.social and @benoloughlin.bsky.social draw on Sartre to analyse climate change negotiations and how major emitters navigate bad faith charges by climate vulnerable states. cjir.iir.cz/index.php/cj...
- Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents Or, life in 2025.
- Arte.tv did a short film about Trump's handshakes based on one of my book chapters. I am in the second half, quiet and disheveled. www.arte.tv/fr/videos/12...
- What: Me & @profmiskimmon.bsky.social talk #AI, #publicdiplomacy + #strategicnarrative with @adaystew.bsky.social When: 25 March 12 PM EST Link to register and join: form.jotform.com/250565460458...
- Reposted by Ben O'LoughlinVery excited to be at #LSEEvents book launch for Wronged: the Weaponization of Victimhood by my brilliant colleague Lilie Chouliaraki. Lilie actually wrote an op ed for the Guardian today on exactly this topic, applying her arguments to US-Ukraine relations. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
- Good discussion with my MSc students about what kind of movie #Oppenheimer would have been if Germany lost in 1941 and nuclear weapons use didn't become an urgent choice. Then about how technology and war drive each other today. #counterfactuals @rhulpir.bsky.social
- Reposted by Ben O'LoughlinJoin us next Tuesday 11th March 5-7pm in the Moore Annex Lecture Theatre for the return of Dr Marco Guglielmo to launch his new book "The Left and Digital Politics: Imagining progressive alternatives in the age of digital monsters" 📚🖥️ Marco will be joined by @benoloughlin.bsky.social
- The Left and Digital Politics, Marco Guglielmo Tuesday 11 March, 17.00-19.00 Moore Annex Lecture Theatre @rhulpir.bsky.social - come along! www.newpolcom.rhul.ac.uk/npcu-blog/2025/3/3/the-left-and-digital-politics-marco-guglielmo-tuesday-11-march-1700-1900-moore-annex-lecture-theatre-come-along
- Is it just the US population that lives in 'sharded', splintered realities, or is it a general trend in other places? New book by William Merrin and @andrewhoskins.bsky.social gets at the stakes: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
- Do #platforms have a lock on our future? I reviewed four books looking at how they can be challenged, just out in the International Journal of Press/Politics. Read here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Comments welcome, as this could not be a more live issue!
- How are Israel's strategic narratives received and reported in German media? New study in Media, War & Conflict by Tereza Plíštilová and Zuzana Lizcová: scholar.google.co.uk/scholar_url?...
- Teaching the old classics this morning.
- A new issue of our journal Media, War and Conflict is out. Read here: journals.sagepub.com/toc/mwca/18/1
- Reposted by Ben O'LoughlinApply to our MSc program "Media, Power, and Public Affairs", at @rhulpir.bsky.social: strategic pol comm, media and intl affairs, elections, campaigns, public opinion, amazing quant and qual methods training etc! W. great faculty @benoloughlin.bsky.social @joostvanspanje.bsky.social @caprosser.com
- How is AI shaping how states tell their stories? @profmiskimmon.bsky.social & I explore this in our chapter of this great new handbook, edited by Sean Aday. DM if you can't access it. www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/han...
- Reposted by Ben O'Loughlin📅 📢 Save the Date! The Society for Terrorism Research 17th Annual International Conference is coming to Royal Holloway University on July 7-8, 2025. Co-organised by CVTRC and the School of Law & Social Sciences. Call for proposals to follow shortly. societyforterrorismresearch.org/conferences/...
- Some people experience life as a #narrative, some try to find a narrative, and some people don't. They experience "bits and pieces ... in life's "great shambles"": aeon.co/essays/let-s...
- Long morning chat on my corridor with colleagues. Some have no childhood memories, no association to their child-selves, and have no life #narrative. "Things just happen". Others the opposite. All try to explain their position. Teaching on this today, will find out students' life (non?)stories.
- JP Singh et al with a provocation to the narratives in IR field. This ISQ paper is worth reading: academic.oup.com/isq/article/...
- V.useful breakdown of the frames AI firms use in a #strategy to control public understanding and use of #AI, by Fenwick McKelvey, @lukestark.bsky.social, @jredden.bsky.social , and Jonathan Roberg. Its more than just a #strategicnarrative: publicera.kb.se/jdsr/article...
- Three stages of a liberal public sphere being replaced by an #illiberal one. Very useful framework from @vstetka.bsky.social & @sabinamihelj.bsky.social - all we see happening in the US fits. Q = how to win the struggle against it? Needs creativity and will: www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstr...
- My colleague Ibrahim Halawi is new editor of the Routledge Studies in Global and Transnational Politics. If you have a book idea you'd like to pitch them, message me. www.routledge.com/Routledge-St...
- My #narratives class today, students seemed in consensus that war will continue as long as humanity exists. Other animals got mentioned too. Very 2025 @rhulpir.bsky.social.
