Ranjana Das

Professor Ranjana Das

Professor
PhD, MSc, MA, BSc, FHEA
+441483683766
38 AD 03

Academic and research departments

Sociology.

Â鶹ÊÓƵ

Areas of specialism

User cultures/user studies; User-centric algorithm studies; Parenthood, parenting and datafication; emerging technologies; Families and relationships, youth, parents; Media audiences, media literacies

University roles and responsibilities

  • Academic Member of Senate
  • Member of University Research and Innovation Committee

    My qualifications

    2011
    PhD in Media and Communications
    London School of Economics (LSE)
    2008
    MSc in Media and Communications (Research)
    London School of Economics (LSE)
    2007
    MA in Mass Communication
    AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, New Delhi
    2005
    BSc in Geography
    University of Calcutta, India

    Affiliations and memberships

    Research

    Research interests

    Supervision

    Postgraduate research supervision

    Teaching

    Publications

    Highlights

    Books

    New book! 

    Das, R. (2024). . Parents engage with algorithms daily in contemporary digital societies. These algorithms are entwined with the most routine of everyday parenting tasks. Algorithms interface with parents’ interactions with search engines, their sharing and sharenting practices on social media, their children's entertainment, their engagement with the news, and more. This book explores parents’ awareness of the pervasive role of algorithms in shaping parenting practices and everyday life. It critically examines how parents navigate algorithmic environments and how they prepare for their children's futures in a world increasingly dominated by data, algorithms, automation, and artificial intelligence. Drawing on an in-depth study of 30 English parents, this work illuminates the hopes and fears parents speak of, in relation to algorithms and datafication. The book delves into their agency, their experiences of and interactions with algorithms in various contexts, including searching for information, sharing content, consuming news, and more. It looks into parents’ algorithmic literacies, whilst remembering the critical importance of holding powerful institutions accountable for their actions. This book should be of interest to social scientists, policymakers, and general readers interested in the intersection of families, platforms, parenting and digital technologies. It offers a nuanced understanding of parents’ agency, struggles, hopes and fears around algorithms shaping contemporary parenting in datafied societies.

    Hodkinson, P. & Das, R. (2021). . London: Palgrave

    This book analyses in-depth, qualitative material on new fathers’ experiences of mental health difficulties after having a baby and, in particular, their use of online communications as part of their coping practices. Arising out of a project funded by the Faculty of Arts and Social Science at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ that centred on in depth interviews with 15 fathers, at the heart of the book are the ways discourses of masculinity and fatherhood can exacerbate fathers’ difficulties and prevent them from communicating with others, and the extent to which social media may provide opportunities to negotiate, escape from or contest such discourses through engaging with information and others, disclosing struggles and seeking support. We examine the digital mediation of emotions around paternal mental health, the emergence of new, networked paternal intimacies, and new forms of connection and disconnection which shape, resource, and potentially empower fathers communicating about mental health.

    Das, R. (2019). . London: Routledge

    Early Motherhood in Digital Societies offers a nuanced understanding of what the digital turn has meant for new mothers in an intense and critical period before and after they have a baby, often called the ‘perinatal’ period. The book looks at an array of digital communication and content by drawing on an extensive research project involving in-depth interviews with new mothers in the United Kingdom and online case studies. The book asks: what does the use of technology mean in the perinatal context and what implications might it have for maternal wellbeing? The book argues for a balanced and context-sensitive approach to the digital in the context of perinatality and maternal wellbeing in the critical perinatal period.

    Das, R. & Ytre-Arne, B. (2018). . London: Palgrave Macmillan

    This book brings together contributions from scholars across Europe to present findings from a foresight analysis exercise on audiences and audience analysis, looking towards an increasingly datafied world. The book uses knowledge emerging out of three foresight exercises, produced in cooperation with more than 50 stake-holding organisations and building on systematic reviews of audience research, to arrive at a renewed agenda for audience studies.

    Das, R. & Graefer, A. (2017). Palgrave Macmillan (Pivot)

    This book offers a nuanced understanding of ‘offensive’ television content by drawing on an extensive research project, involving in-depth interviews and focus groups with audiences in Britain and Germany. Provocative Screens asks: what makes something really offensive and to whom in what context? Why it offence felt so differently? And how does offensive content matter in public life, regulation, and institutional understandings?

    JOURNAL ARTICLES

    1. Trueltzsch-Wijnen, C; Das, R.; Chimirri, N; Jorge, A. (2024). Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research
    2. Setty, E; Boursinou, N; Das, R; Roberts, T. (Under Review): Raising children in a ‘risky’ world: How parents’ news use shapes trust, anxiety, and family decisions.
    3. Das, R; Boursinou, M; Roberts, T; Setty; E. (Under Review) What does local news use have to do with raising children? Four dimensions of local news in English parent's news use.
    4. Das, R. (2024). . Convergence. Online First.
    5. Das, R.; Chimirri, N; Jorge, A; Trueltzsch-Wijnen, C. (2024). Families Relationships and Societies
    6. Das, R; Wong, Y; Jones, R; Jackson, P. (2024): 
    7. Das, R. (2023): : Misunderstandings, parked understandings, transactional understandings and proactive understandings. Journal of Children and Media
    8. Das, R.  (2023):. The Communication Review
    9. Wong, Y; Das, R; Jones, R; Jackson, P. (2023):  Big Data and Society
    10. Das, R. (2022). . New Media & Society 
    11. Das, R. & Beszlag, D. (2021). . Journal of Health Visiting Online First.
    12. Das, R. (2021). . Journal of Health Visiting.
    13. Ytre-Arne, B.; & Das, R. (2020). . Communication Theory 
    14. Das, R. & Hodkinson, P. (2020). . New Media and Society
    15. Das, R., & Hodkinson, P. (2019). T. Social Media+ Society, 5(2), 2056305119846488.
    16. Das, R. (2018). . Communication, Culture and Critique 
    17. Das, R. (2018). . Television and New Media
    18. Ytre-Arne, B. &; Das, R. (2018). . Television and New Media
    19. Das, R. (2018). : The case of the Charlie Gard support campaign on Facebook. Discourse Context and Media
    20. Das, R. (2018). . Communication Review.
    21. Zsubori, A. & Das, R. (2018). . Journal of Children and Media 12 (4). 
    22. Das, R. & Graefer, A. (2017). R. Communication, Culture and Critique. Online First.
    23. Das, R. (2017). . Social Media + Society.
    24. Das, R & Ytre-Arne, B. (2017). . European Journal of Communication.*Gold Open Access*
    25. Das, R. (2017). . European Journal of Cultural Studies, Online First
    26. Das, R. (2017).  Reflections from the CEDAR network on emerging directions in audience analysis. Media, culture and society. Online First.
    27. Das, R. (2017). . Critical Studies in Television 12(3).
    28. Graefer, A. & Das, R. (2017). .
    29. Das, R. (2016). “(3)
    30. Das, R. & Ytre-Arne. B. (2016). . Participations 13(1). pp 280-288
    31. Das, R. and Pavlickova, T (2014).  in interactive media. New Media and Society 16 (3)
    32. Das, R. (2014) . International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 10 (2)
    33. Das, R. (2013). Introduction. In - . A special issue of The Communication Review 16 (1)
    34. Das, R (2013). “ in reading Harry Potter.European Journal of Communication 28 (5)
    35. Das, R. (2012). . Popular Communication 10 (4)
    36. Das, R (2012). The task of interpretation. Participations: The international journal of audience and reception studies. 9 (1)
    37. Das, R (2011). . European Journal of Communication, 26: 4, 343-360
    38. Das, R (2010). ? Communication Review13 (2), 140-159
    39. Das, R (2010). . Journal of Media Practice 11: 3

    BOOK CHAPTERS

    1. Ong. J. & Das, R. ( 2019). The contributions of television audience studies in the networked age: Looking back to look forward. In Shimpach, S. Eds (2019). The Routledge Companion to Global Television
    2. Das, R. (2018) . In Mascheroni, G, Ponte, C. & Jorge, A. (Eds). Digital parenting: the challenges for families in the digital age. Gothenburg: Nordicom.
    3. Das, R. & Ytre-Arne, B. (2018). A new crossroads for audiences and audience analysis. In Das, R. & Ytre-Arne, B. (Eds). The Future of Audiences: A foresight analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Das, R. (2018). From implications to responsibilities. In Das, R. & Ytre-Arne, B. (Eds). The Future of Audiences: A foresight analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Das, R., Ytre-Arne, B. Mathieu, D., & Stehling, M. (2018) Our methodological approach: The intuitive-analytical balance. In Das, R. & Ytre-Arne, B. (Eds). The Future of Audiences: A foresight analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Vesnic-Alejevic, L., Seddighi, G., Mathieu, D., & Das, R. (2018). Drivers and scenarios for 2030. In Das, R. & Ytre-Arne, B. (Eds). The Future of Audiences: A foresight analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Ytre-Arne, B. & Das, R.( 2018). Where next for audiences in communication? An emergent research agenda. In Das, R. & Ytre-Arne, B. (Eds). The Future of Audiences: A foresight analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    8. Das, R., Kleut, J., & Bolin, G. (2014). New Genres-New Roles for the Audience?. Audience Transformations Shifting Audience Positions in Late Modernity, 30-46.
    9. Livingstone, S & Das, R. (2012). The End of Audiences? Theoretical echoes of reception amidst the uncertainties of use. Chapter for the Blackwell Companion to New Media Dynamics, edited by John Hartley, Jean Burgess and Axel Bruns
    10. Das, R (2010). The task of interpretation: converging perspectives in audience research and digital literacies? In Nico Carpentier, et. Al. (Eds.)Media and Communication Studies Intersections and Interventions. Tartu: University of Tartu Press

    GUEST-EDITED SPECIAL ISSUES

    1. Das, R. Eds. (2018). . Special issue of Television and New Media
    2. Das, R. & Ytre-Arne, B. Eds. (2016). in Audience Research. Special Issue of Participations, 13(1).
    3. Das, R. Eds (2013). . A special issue of The Communication Review 16 (1)