Vian Bakir is a professor of

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

Bangor University , former_names = University College of North Wales (1884–1996) University of Wales, Bangor (1996–2007) , image = File:Arms_of_Bangor_University.svg , image_size = 250px , caption = Arms ...

in Wales in the United Kingdom who researches

political communication Political communication is a subfield of communication and political science that is concerned with how information spreads and influences politics, policy makers, the news media, and citizens. Since the advent of the World Wide Web, the amount ...

, propaganda and national security. Among her contributions on the relationship between political communication and contemporary agenda-building, Vian Bakir defined Strategic Political Communication (SPC) as comprising 'political communication that is manipulative in intent, utilizes

social scientific Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

techniques and heuristic devices to understand human

motivation Motivation is the reason for which humans and other animals initiate, continue, or terminate a behavior at a given time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-dire ...

human behavior Human behavior is the potential and expressed capacity ( mentally, physically, and socially) of human individuals or groups to respond to internal and external stimuli throughout their life. Kagan, Jerome, Marc H. Bornstein, and Richard M. L ...

and the media environment in order to inform effectively what should be communicated – encompassing its detail and overall direction – and what should be withheld, with the aim of taking into account and influencing

public opinion Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. Etymology The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...

, and creating

strategic alliance A strategic alliance (also see strategic partnership) is an agreement between two or more parties to pursue a set of agreed upon objectives needed while remaining independent organizations. The alliance is a cooperation or collaboration which ai ...

s and an enabling environment for government policies – both at home and abroad'. Bakir (2010) argues that the era of web-based participatory media and convergence cultures, non-governmental and non-state actors, with their own virtual communities and networks that cut across national borders, use what she calls a 'sousveillant assemblage' to wield

discursive power Discursive dominance or discursive power is the ultimate emergence of one discourse as dominant among competing ones in their struggle for dominance. Ultimately, one of the discourses emerges as dominant. The word ‘discursive’ is related to the ...

. Bakir has also written on the subject of how to hold

Intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...

elites publicly accountable, detailing many barriers and failures in how civil society does this, but issuing guidelines and retaining some practical optimism that this can be improved.

Research

Bakir has written across four main areas of research: # Fake news,

disinformation Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate. The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the L ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

and issues of trust in journalism; # Dataveillance, surveillance,

sousveillance Sousveillance ( ) is the recording of an activity by a member of the public, rather than a person or organisation in authority, typically by way of small wearable or portable personal technologies. The term, coined by Steve Mann, stems from th ...

, emotional AI. # National and international agenda-building struggles conducted via the media; # The security state and public accountability.Vian Bakir
/ref> Her research in these areas has influenced the discourse and understanding of political audiences across governments and legislatures (European, national); professional public/political communicators (global, UK, Wales); India’s Supreme Court; journalists; NGOs; artists and the public. In 2020 with Andrew McStay, Bakir submitted evidence to the UK Parliament on Electoral Campaigning Transparency.

Major works

Bakir's books include: *Bakir, V. 2018. Intelligence Elites and Public Accountability: Relationships of Influence with Civil Society. London: Routledge. *Bakir, V. 2013. Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror: Agenda–Building Struggles. *Bakir, V. 2010. Sousveillance, Media and Strategic Political Communication: Iraq, USA, UK. New York: Continuum. *Bakir, V. & D.Barlow, (eds.) 2007. Communication in the Age of Suspicion: Trust and the Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakir, Vian Living people Propaganda theorists Internet theorists Media critics Works about security and surveillance Works about intelligence agencies Year of birth missing (living people)