Professor Mirca Madianou

Staff details

Position

Professor

Department

Media, Communications and Cultural Studies

Email

m.madianou (@gold.ac.uk)

Links

Website
redid.net

Website
gold.ac.uk/research/centres-units/migrant-futures-institute

LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/mirca-madianou-9004a5123

Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups

Mirca studies the social consequences of communication technologies, infrastructures and AI in a global south context.

Mirca Madianou is Professor in the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her current research focuses on the social consequences of communication technologies, infrastructures and artificial intelligence (AI) in a global south context especially in relation to migration and humanitarian emergencies. She is currently Principal Investigator on a British Academy grant on digital identity programmes in refugee camps in Thailand (https://www.redid.net/). Her latest book is 'Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful'. Earlier books include: Mediating the Nation: news, audiences and the politics of identity, and Migration and New Media: transnational families and polymedia. At Goldsmiths, Mirca is academic co-director of the newly established Migrant Futures Institute and co-convenor of the Digital Culture Unit.

Academic qualifications

PhD Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science 2002

Featured publications

2025: Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful
Book

2021: Nonhuman humanitarianism: when 'AI for good' can be harmful
Journal Article

2019: The Biometric Assemblage: Surveillance, Experimentation, Profit, and the Measuring of Refugee Bodies
Journal Article

2019: Technocolonialism: Digital Innovation and Data Practices in the Humanitarian Response to Refugee Crises
Journal Article

2012: Migration and New Media: Transnational Families and Polymedia
Book

Grants and awards

2024: Reimagining digital identity: towards responsible digital identity practices among Karen refugees in Thailand
This is a British Academy funded project under its ODA Challenge-Oriented Research Grants 2024 Programme. The project is a collaboration with Chiang Mai University.

Publications and research outputs

Book

Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2024. Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful. Cambridge: Polity Press. ISBN 9781509559022
Migration and New Media: Transnational Families and Polymedia Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo ; and Miller, Daniel. 2011. Migration and New Media: Transnational Families and Polymedia. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-67928-2
Mediating the Nation: News, audiences and the politics of identity Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2005. Mediating the Nation: News, audiences and the politics of identity. London: UCL Press / Routledge. ISBN 978-1844720286

Edited Book

Ethics of Media Couldry, Nick; Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo ; and Pinchevski, Amit, eds. 2013. Ethics of Media. London: Palgrave. ISBN 9780230347632

Book Section

Technological Futures as Colonial Debris: ‘Tech-for-Good’ as Technocolonialism Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2022. Technological Futures as Colonial Debris: ‘Tech-for-Good’ as Technocolonialism. In: Joanna Zylinska, ed. The Future of Media. London: Goldsmiths Press, pp. 281-294. ISBN 9781913380144
Technocolonialism Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2021. Technocolonialism. In: Lilie Chouliaraki and Anne Vestergaard, eds. Routledge Handbook of Humanitarian Communication. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 185-202. ISBN 9781138230576
Polymedia and Mobile Communication Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2020. Polymedia and Mobile Communication. In: Richard Ling; Leopoldina Fortunati; Gerard Goggin; Lim Sun Sun and Li Yuling, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Communication and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 68-81. ISBN 9780190864385

Migration, Transnational Families, and New Communication Technologies Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2019. Migration, Transnational Families, and New Communication Technologies. In: Jessica Retis and Roza Tsagarousianou, eds. The Handbook of Diasporas, Media, and Culture. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 577-590. ISBN 9781119236702
Family Life in Polymedia Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2018. Family Life in Polymedia. In: Zizi Papacharissi, ed. A Networked Self and Birth, Life, Death. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 89-103. ISBN 9781351784115
Doing Family at a Distance: Transnational Family Practices in Polymedia Environments Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2017. Doing Family at a Distance: Transnational Family Practices in Polymedia Environments. In: L Hjorth; H Horst; G Bell and A Galloway, eds. Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography. London: Routledge, pp. 102-112. ISBN 9781138940918
Polymedia Communication Among Transnational Families: What Are the Long-Term Consequences for Migration? Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2016. Polymedia Communication Among Transnational Families: What Are the Long-Term Consequences for Migration? In: M Kilkey and E Palenga-Möllenbeck, eds. Family Life in an Age of Migration and Mobility. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 71-93. ISBN 978-1-137-52097-5
Polymedia communication and mediatized migration: an ethnographic approach Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2014. Polymedia communication and mediatized migration: an ethnographic approach. In: Knut Lundby, ed. Mediatization of Communication. Berlin: DE GRUYTER, pp. 323-348.
Ethics of Mediation and the Voice of the Injured Subject Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2013. Ethics of Mediation and the Voice of the Injured Subject. In: UNSPECIFIED, ed. Ethics of Media. London: Palgrave, pp. 178-197. ISBN 9780230347632
Living with News: Ethnography and news consumption Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2013. Living with News: Ethnography and news consumption. In: Stuart Allan, ed. The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism Studies. London: Routledge, pp. 428-438. ISBN 978-0415669535
Beyond the presumption of identity? Ethnicities, Cultures and Transnational Audiences Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2013. Beyond the presumption of identity? Ethnicities, Cultures and Transnational Audiences. In: Virginia Nightingale, ed. The Handbook of Media Audiences. Malden MA: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 444-458. ISBN 978-1118721391
Ethics of Media: an introduction Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo ; Couldry, Nick ; and Pinchevski, Amit. 2013. Ethics of Media: an introduction. In: Nick Couldry; Mirca Madianou and Amit Pinchevski, eds. Ethics of Media. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-20. ISBN 978-0230347830
Audience reception and news in everyday life Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2008. Audience reception and news in everyday life. In: Karin Wahl-Jorgensenn and Thomas Hanitzsch, eds. The Handbook of Journalism Studies. New York: Routledge, pp. 325-357. ISBN 978-0805863437
Shifting identities: banal nationalism and cultural intimacy in Greek television news and everyday life Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2007. Shifting identities: banal nationalism and cultural intimacy in Greek television news and everyday life. In: Richard Mole, ed. Discursive Constructions of Identity in European Politics. London: Palgrave Schol, pp. 95-118. ISBN 978-0230517066
ICTs transnational networks and everyday life Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2006. ICTs transnational networks and everyday life. In: M. R. Cifarelli S Bodo, ed. Quando la cultura fa la differenza. Patrimonio, arti e media nella società multiculturale. Rome: Meltemi, pp. 189-199. ISBN 978-8883534867
The elusive public of television news Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2005. The elusive public of television news. In: Sonia Livingstone, ed. Audiences and Publics: v.2: Changing Media: Vol 2. Bristol: Intellect, pp. 99-114. ISBN 978-1841501291

Article

Polymedia Life Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2021. Polymedia Life. Pragmatics and Society, 12(5), pp. 859-866. ISSN 1878-9714
Nonhuman humanitarianism: when ‘AI for good’ can be harmful Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2021. Nonhuman humanitarianism: when ‘AI for good’ can be harmful. Information, Communication and Society, 24(6), pp. 850-868. ISSN 1369-118X
A second-order disaster? Digital technologies during the Covid-19 pandemic Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2020. A second-order disaster? Digital technologies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Social Media + Society, 6(3), ISSN 2056-3051

Report

Reproducing colonial legacies: technocolonialism in humanitarian biometric practices Madianou, Mirca ORCID logo . 2020. Reproducing colonial legacies: technocolonialism in humanitarian biometric practices. Technical Report. Goldsmiths, University of London.

Media engagements

2025: Technocolonialism
New Books Network podcast

2024: Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful
LSE public lecture podcast

Conferences and talks

2024: Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful
Public Lecture at the LSE to launch my new book, Technocolonialism. December 5 2024

2024: Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful
Book talk at New York University's Institute of Public Knowledge, September 18 2024

2024: Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful
Lecture at Thammasat University, Bangkok, 11 December 2024

2025: Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful
Lecture at the University of Bielefeld on my new book, Technocolonialism. January 21 2025

2025: Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful
Lecture at King's College London, Department of Digital Humanities, March 5 2025

2025: Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful
Part of the 'Towards a Decolonized Artificial Intelligence' seminar series, University of Milan, 28 March 2025

2025: Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful
Talk at the University of Cambridge, Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, 13 May 2025

2025: Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful
Talk at Södertörn University, Stockholm, 27 May 2025

2025: Resisting Technocolonialism: Reimagining ‘Technologies for Social Justice’ through Participatory Research
Keynote at ECREA conference 'Beyond Borders: Creative Methods and Reflexive Approaches to Migration, Media, and Intercultural Dialogue', Talinn University, 16-18 September 2025

Reimagining Digital ID Exhibition

Reimagining Digital ID among Karen refugees. The exhibition, which is part of the REDID British Academy funded project https://www.redid.net/, showcases the artwork of Karen refugees who live in camps along the Thailand-Myanmar Border. Through the drawings the artists visualise their experiences with biometric systems and imagine alternative futures.
November 1 - 27 2025, Kingsway Corridor, Richard Hoggart Building, Goldsmiths. https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=15599

Articles related to Professor Mirca Madianou

Reimagining Digital ID

3 Nov 2025

From feedback fetish to a culture of listening – what role should digital media take in disaster recovery?

11 Nov 2015