University of Southampton
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PhD in Computational Analysis of Political Communication and Democracy University of Southampton in United Kingdom
Degree Level
PhD
Field of study
Computer Science
Funding
Competition funded PhD project. Funding details are not specified in the post, but the project is presented as a funded postgraduate research opportunity.
Deadline
Jul 1, 2027
Country
United Kingdom
University
University of Southampton
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About this position
University of Southampton is advertising a PhD project in Computational Analysis of Political Communication and Democracy.
This research sits at the intersection of computer science, political science, communication studies, and computational social science. The project explores political discourse, public opinion, democratic participation, deliberation, and the role of digital platforms in shaping communication and collective decision-making.
Students may work with text-as-data, surveys, experiments, social media, audio, multimodal political communication, consultation data, or other digital datasets. Possible methods include natural language processing, large language models, audio-as-data, network analysis, computational experiments, crowdsourced annotation, and mixed-method evaluation.
The project is flexible and allows candidates to shape the research question, data, and methodological contribution around their own substantive interests. Example directions include analysing arguments and evidence in public debate, measuring polarisation or deliberation, studying how digital platforms structure participation, evaluating LLMs in political contexts, or designing AI systems that support democratic participation.
The opportunity is based in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton and connects with interdisciplinary communities such as the Web Science Institute, the Centre for Democratic Futures, and Politics and International Relations. The page also mentions links to Rebooting Democracy, the Alan Turing Institute, and Responsible AI UK.
Funding: The project is listed as competition funded.
Entry requirements: A 2:1 UK honours degree or equivalent is required. Helpful preparation may include Python or R, NLP, machine learning, survey and experimental methods, audio or multimodal analysis, and mixed-method evaluation.
Deadline: 1 July 2027.
Interested applicants should review the project page, check the full entry requirements and funding information, and apply through the University of Southampton postgraduate research application process.
Funding details
Competition funded PhD project. Funding details are not specified in the post, but the project is presented as a funded postgraduate research opportunity.
What's required
Applicants should have a 2:1 UK honours degree or equivalent. The project is suited to candidates interested in computational social science, political communication, democracy, and interdisciplinary research. Depending on the project direction, useful skills may include Python or R, natural language processing, machine learning, survey and experimental methods, audio or multimodal analysis, and mixed-method evaluation.
How to apply
Review the project details and full entry requirements on the University of Southampton page, then apply through the postgraduate research application process linked from the project page. Check the funding and fees section before submitting your application.
More information can be found here
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