Dr Dani Madrid-Morales (he/him)

BA, MA (Aut貌noma Barcelona); MA (FU Berlin); PhD (CityU Hong Kong)

School of Information, Journalism and Communication

Lecturer in Journalism and Global Communication

MA Global Journalism Programme Lead

Portrait of Dani Madrid-Morales
Profile picture of Portrait of Dani Madrid-Morales
d.madrid-morales@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 2508
C638, The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Dani Madrid-Morales
School of Information, Journalism and Communication
C638
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
Profile

Dani joined the school in April 2022 as Lecturer in Journalism & Global Communication. Prior to joining 爆料TV, he was an Assistant Professor in Journalism at the Valenti School of Communication, University of Houston (2018-2022), and a Hong Kong PhD Fellow in the Department of Media and Communication at City University of Hong Kong (2013-2018). 

Before starting his academic career, Dani worked as a journalist for 15 years in his hometown, Barcelona. He first reported on sports for local radio stations and news websites, and then joined the newsroom of Televisi贸 de Catalunya (TV3), where he worked as producer and news editor, covering foreign affairs. 

Dani is an active member of the International Communication Association鈥檚 Global Communication and Social Change Division, where he currently serves as Vice-Chair. He is also a member of the editorial boards of the academic journals, African Journalism Studies and the Annals of the International Communication Association. 

Within the School of Information, Journalism and Communication, Dani is the Programme Lead for MA Global Journalism, and is Co-Lead of the Disinformation, Information Integrity and Literacies (DIIL) Research Cluster.

Research interests

Dani studies global political communication and international media flows, with a focus on the Global South. He has published extensively on the impact of global Chinese media on local journalistic cultures in English and French speaking Africa and studied the multiple ways audiences in East and Southern Africa engage with news and entertainment on Chinese media. His work on this area has been discussed in some of the world鈥檚 leading news organisations including BBC World Service, CNN International, The Economist, Yomiuri Shimbun, and Los Angeles Times. 

More recently, Dani has been interested in studying the geopolitics of disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly from an audience perspective. His latest book on this topic, co-edited with Herman Wasserman, is (Wiley). As part of his work in this area, Dani has worked with both the public sector and civil society organisations to counter the threats posed by political disinformation. 

In his research, Dani employs a wide range of methodological approaches. He is actively involved in exploring how the use of computational methods can help researchers gain insights from media texts, particularly in the Global South. As part of these efforts, Dani is working on the development of a live corpus of digital news that includes hundreds of media organizations in three dozen African countries. Researchers interested in using content from the database can explore and contact Dani for more details.

Dani is interested in supervising doctoral students in the following areas: 

  • Political Communication and Large Language Models (LLMs) 
  • China-Africa media relations 
  • Disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa 
  • Audiences and global media flows 
  • Computational approaches to the study of news 

Currently, Dani is supervising the following doctoral students: 

  • Anran Ju, China's Digital Public Diplomacy towards UK and Turkey 
  • Qiang Zhang, Chinese Media's News Coverage of "Islamic State" 
  • Xiao Cheng, Data Journalism and Journalistic Autonomy in China 
  • Wisnu P. Utomo, Digital Transformations and Hybridisation in Indonesian Journalism
Publications

Books

  • Madrid-Morales D, Mart铆nez G, Oll茅 M & Mej铆a J (2017) Comunicaci贸n y poder en Asia oriental. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.

Edited books

  • Wasserman H & Madrid鈥怣orales D (Ed.) (2022) . Wiley.

Journal articles

  • Davies-Laubscher N, Madrid-Morales D & Wasserman H (2025) . The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs and Policy Studies.
  • Kobayashi T & Madrid-Morales D (2025) . Japanese Psychological Research.
  • Madrid-Morales D, Tully M, Mudavadi KC, Matanji F & Diop L (2025) Exploring audience agency in countering misinformation. International Journal of Communication, 19, 2382-2406.
  • Diop L, Madrid-Morales D, Matanji F, Mudavadi KC & Tully M (2025) . Journal of African Media Studies, 17(1), 55-72.
  • Wright K, Madrid-Morales D & Barrie C (2025) . Digital Journalism.
  • Mudavadi KC, Matanji F, Diop L, Tully M & Madrid-Morales D (2025) . Journalism, 26(7), 1488-1507.
  • Madrid-Morales D & Wasserman H (2024) . African Journalism Studies, 45(4), 327-345.
  • Matanji F, Tully M, Mudavadi KC, Diop L & Madrid-Morales D (2024) . African Journalism Studies.
  • Madrid-Morales D, Wasserman H & Ahmed S (2024) . International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 36(3).
  • Madrid-Morales D, Rodriguez鈥怉mat JR & Lindner P (2023) . Media and Communication, 11(3).
  • Marsh V, Madrid-Morales D & Paterson C (2023) . International Communication Gazette, 85(1), 3-14.
  • Kobayashi T & Madrid-Morales D (2022) . Revista Internacional de Sociolog铆a, 80(4).
  • Madrid-Morales D & Wasserman H (2022) . Online Media and Global Communication, 0(0).
  • Ahmed S, Madrid-Morales D & Tully M (2022) . Online Information Review.
  • Ahmed S, Madrid-Morales D & Tully M (2022) . Journal of Information Technology & Politics.
  • Tully M, Madrid-Morales D, Wasserman H, Gondwe G & Ireri K (2022) . Digital Journalism, 10(5), 679-697.
  • Madrid-Morales D (2021) . Global Media and China, 6(2), 129-151.
  • Kobayashi T, Miura A, Madrid-Morales D & Shimizu H (2021) . Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 52(4), 388-405.
  • Madrid-Morales D & Ireri K (2021) . Journal of African Media Studies, 13(1), 3-16.
  • Madrid-Morales D, Wasserman H, Gondwe G, Ndlovu K, Sikanku E, Tully M, Umejei E & Uzuegbunam C (2021) Motivations for sharing misinformation: a comparative study in six Sub-Saharan African countries. International Journal of Communication, 15(2021), 1200-1219.
  • Ahmed S & Madrid-Morales D (2021) . Information, Communication & Society, 24(3), 381-399.
  • Madrid-Morales D (2020) . African Journalism Studies, 41(4), 68-82.
  • Hern谩ndez M & Madrid-Morales D (2020) . Journalism Studies, 21(8), 1076-1092.
  • Kobayashi T, Madrid鈥怣orales D, Asaba Y & Tago A (2020) . Social Science Quarterly, 101(1), 309-324.
  • Wasserman H & Madrid-Morales D (2019) . African Journalism Studies, 40(1), 107-123.
  • Madrid-Morales D & Gorfinkel L (2018) . Journal of Asian and African Studies, 53(6), 917-931.
  • Wasserman H & Madrid-Morales D (2018) How Influential Are Chinese Media in Africa? An Audience Analysis in Kenya and South Africa. International Journal of Communication, 12, 2212-2231.
  • Madrid-Morales D & Wasserman H (2018) . Journalism Studies, 19(8), 1218-1235.
  • Madrid-Morales D (2017) . Communication Papers, 6(11), 51-69.
  • Madrid-Morales D (2016) . Asian Journal of Communication, 26(2), 197-199.
  • Madrid-Morales D & Lovric B (2015) . Journal of Fandom Studies, The, 3(1), 23-41.
  • Madrid-Morales D, Wasserman H, Davies-Laubscher N & Sow F () . Information, Communication & Society, 1-18.
  • Madrid-Morales D () . AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research.
  • Gondwe G, Madrid-Morales D, Tully M & Wasserman H () . Mass Communication and Society, 1-15.

Book chapters

  • Wasserman H & Madrid-Morales D (2025) Engaging and disengaging with political disinformation on WhatsApp: A study of young adults in South Africa In Udupa S & Wasserman H (Ed.), WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech (pp. 126-140). New York: NYU Press.
  • Mudavadi KC & Madrid-Morales D (2024) In Eldridge II SA, Cheruiyot D, Banjac S & Swart J (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies (pp. 450-459). Routledge
  • Wasserman H & Madrid-Morales D (2024) In Yang G, Meng B & Yuan EJ (Ed.), Pandemic Crossings: Digital Technology, Everyday Experience, and Governance in the COVID-19 Crisis (pp. 189-212). East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
  • Madrid-Morales D & Wasserman H (2023) The 鈥渞ise of the rest鈥 in global media and competition over news narratives in Africa In Carbone G & Ragazzi L (Ed.), Is Africa Turning Against the West? (pp. 93-112). Milan: Ledizioni.
  • Wasserman H & Madrid-Morales D (2022) In Maarek PJ (Ed.), Manufacturing Government Communication on Covid-19: A Comparative Perspective (pp. 319-333). Springer
  • Madrid鈥怣orales and D & Wasserman H (2022) (pp. 41-57). Wiley
  • Wasserman and H & Madrid鈥怣orales D (2022) (pp. 210-220). Wiley
  • Madrid-Morales D (2017) , Screening China's Soft Power (pp. 38-55). Routledge
  • Madrid-Morales D (2017) , China Africa Relations Building Images Through Cultural Cooperation Media Representation and Communication (pp. 129-146).
  • Madrid-Morales D (2016) , China鈥檚 Media and Soft Power in Africa (pp. 79-92). Palgrave Macmillan US
Teaching interests

Dani鈥檚 teaching focuses on global journalism, digital media and the role of technology in contemporary news production. He is particularly interested in working with students to understand how journalism operates across different political, cultural and technological contexts. His teaching integrates digital tools and computational approaches, equipping students with practical skills to analyse media content, work with data and engage with emerging technologies shaping journalism today. 

As part of his teaching practice at the 爆料TV, Dani has developed , a live newsroom simulation platform that allows students to experience real-time editorial decision-making, work with wire content, and develop professional journalistic skills in a dynamic, practice-based environment. Those interested in using the platform for their own teaching can contact Dani directly.

Teaching activities

Dani teaches modules in global journalism and global communication, research methods and data journalism. He is a member of the teaching team in the following modules: 

  • Data Driven Storytelling
  • Dealing with Data for Journalists
  • Research Methods
  • Understanding Global News

 

PhD Supervision

Dani is interested in supervising doctoral students in the following areas:

  • China-Africa media relations
  • Disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Global public opinion
  • Audiences and global media flows
  • Computational approaches to the study news

Currently, Dani is supervising the following students:

  • Anran Ju, China's Digital Public Diplomacy towards UK and Turkey
  • Hongqin Cheng, Populism in Online Electoral Campaigning in Taiwan
  • Xiao Cheng, Audiences and Data Journalism in China
  • Wisnu P. Utomo, Digital Transformations and Hybridisation in Indonesian Journalism

PhD Study in journalism, media and communication 

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