Prof. Dr. Veronica Barassi leads the Chair of Media and Culture (=mcm3), she is an anthropologist and also the Chair of Media and Communication Studies in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at HSG. Our research, teaching and consultancy strategy is interdisciplinary, critical, and cross-cultural in nature and focuses on the following areas of investigation:
AI Cultures and Data Futures
From governments to businesses, from the health sector to education AI cultures and data systems are transforming everyday life. We develop research, teaching and consultancy projects, which engage with the following themes: algorithmic profiling and human rights; data in everyday life; human and machine communication; social impacts of algorithmic bias and error; AI ethics; children and AI interaction.
Data Privacy and Data Rights
In our AI and data driven societies we need to critically consider the relationship between data privacy, data justice and inequality. We focus on projects that engage the following themes: social understandings of data privacy; data rights and data justice; importance of privacy by design/ privacy by default models; marginal communities and data inequality.
Media Cultures and Social Change
Media technologies and platforms play a fundamental role in shaping our public debate and democratic processes. We develop research, teaching and consultancy projects, which engage with the following themes: journalism and democracy, civil society and NGO communication; local and community media; media representation and ethics.
Social Media and Democracy
From fake news to self-representation, from organizational communication to political campaigns, social media have radically transformed our society and our democracies. We develop research, teaching and consultancy projects which engage with the following themes: social media algorithms; fake news and filter bubbles; challenges and opportunities of social media communication.
Our Research
We believe in publicly engaged research and we strive to make our research findings as available and accessible as possible. Many of our projects are aimed at informing policy makers and we work closely with different organisations to tackle context-specific problems. Our approach combines ethnographic methodologies with critical discourse analysis, organizational studies, platform analysis, quantitative methodologies, and participatory action research.
Our Teaching
We are committed to excellence and research-led teaching. Our pedagogic mission is to enable students to develop a critically engaged and empirically grounded understanding of media technologies and processes. Our lectures and seminars are offered under the “Media” concentration area of the Contextual Studies programme which makes for 25% of the workload of all students attending the University of St.Gallen. We also lead the Business Journalism Certificate Programme for MA students, and courses in executive education.
Our Consultancy
We welcome collaborations and consultancies in any of our areas of expertise: data privacy and data rights, children and AI, tech-design and ethnography, AI and human rights, digital ethnography, online communities and human-centered communication strategies.