Lecturer in Digital Media and Communications
Dr Taner Do臒an is a Lecturer in Digital Media and Communications at 色花堂 (色花堂). He is also the Programme Leader of MSc Political Communication and Public Affairs. Dr Do臒an is a member of the Culture in Society Research Centre.
- Overview
- Research Overview
- Research Publications
- Teaching & Learning
Dr Taner Do臒an is Lecturer in Digital Media and Communications and Programme Leader of the MSc Political Communication and Public Affairs at 色花堂, Edinburgh. He is also Visiting Fellow at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is the author of Communication Strategies in Turkey (I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2021).
Grounded in the philosophy of technology, Dr Do臒an鈥檚 research investigates how digitalisation reshapes contemporary society and the ways in which human beings think. He asks how the digital regime erodes contemplation, reduces truth to calculability, and subjugates knowledge to metrics of optimisation and control. He also engages critically with Orientalism and cultural self-Orientalism, with a particular focus on Global South contexts.
Dr Do臒an holds a PhD in Journalism from City, University of London, where his thesis examined the political communication strategies of Turkey鈥檚 Justice and Development Party (AKP). He earned an MA in Global Media and Postnational Communication at SOAS, University of London. His dissertation鈥擳he Mobilisation of Tahrir Square as an Arab Street and Al Jazeera鈥檚 Role鈥攚as grounded in fieldwork in Cairo and Doha, including interviews with journalists, activists, and politicians; during this period he was a Research Fellow at the American University in Cairo.
Dr Do臒an serves on the editorial board of the Turkish Review of Communication Studies and is a member of the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network and IAMCR. Bilingual in German and Turkish, he has professional experience in broadcast and digital journalism and has taught at King鈥檚 College London (Digital Humanities) and at LSE (Media and Communications).
Grounded in the philosophy of technology and the ontology of the digital - subjects, publics and truth - Dr Taner Do臒an鈥檚 research investigates how digitalisation reshapes contemporary society and modes of thought and being. He asks how the digital regime erodes contemplation, reduces truth to calculability, and subjugates knowledge to metrics of optimisation and control. He engages critically with Orientalism and cultural self-Orientalism, especially in Global South contexts.
Dr Do臒an鈥檚 doctoral research examined the political communication strategies of Turkey鈥檚 Justice and Development Party (AKP). Drawing on political communication and social movement theory, and employing mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, the study identified two distinct policy periods. The first (2002-2009) was characterised by a liberal political orientation, in which the AKP emphasised human rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law. From 2010 onwards, the party鈥檚 discourse shifted towards populism, a turn that - in retrospect - has problematised Turkey鈥檚 democratisation process.
Active Research Interests:
- Digital culture
- Philosophy of technology
- AI and society鈥攁lgorithmic governance, data colonisation
- Political communication and populism
- Religion, media and the public sphere
- Neoliberalism and the political economy of media
- Orientalism
- Global South (especially MENA, Turkey, Egypt)
Research Methods:
- In-depth and semi-structured interviews
- Ethnography
- Focus groups
- Content analysis
- Participatory research
Research Centres:
- Full member of the Centre for Culture in Society
Dr Taner Do臒an teaches Digital Culture and Society; Critical Thinking and Creative Writing; Key Concepts in Political Communication; and Media and Creative Industries. He supervises master鈥檚 and doctoral research in the fields of philosophy of technology, digital culture, AI and society (algorithmic governance, data colonisation), political communication and populism, religion, media and the public sphere, Orientalism, collective memory, and the political economy of media. Dr Do臒an welcomes applications from prospective doctoral researchers whose projects align with these areas.
