Personal Statement
I am a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow based at the Department of Communication and Media. My research investigates the role of journalism in processes of de-democratisation, with a focus on hybrid political systems and journalistic cultures. I am interested in how media capture and political instrumentalisation shape journalistic practices, influence public deliberation and strengthen illiberal norms. I analyse how and under what conditions journalists and news organisations either facilitate or resist democratic decline and the formation of illiberal public spheres. Both my research and teaching are informed by 18 years of professional experience as a journalist, including time as a reporter and editor in Brazil and as an international correspondent in Europe. I hold a PhD in Politics from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) and an MA in Journalism and Communication from the University of Coimbra (Portugal). I am also an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA) in the UK. Please cite my work as 'Ferreira, R.R.' for consistency.

Research Overview
My main current research project is "Journalistic Resistance to De-democratisation: Towards a Theoretical Model". Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, I will examine journalistic resistance to the erosion of democratic norms and institutions. Several studies show that journalists and news organisations often become tools for political and business elites, failing to hold these elites accountable and support public deliberation. However, few have explored journalists’ strategies to resist such ‘capture’ and political instrumentalisation that enable democratic decline. Literature remains fragmented, with South America particularly understudied. Using news ethnography, netnography and semi-structured interviews, I will analyse how and under what conditions journalists choose to resist in countries with similar democratic decline but different media systems (Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador) to develop a more cohesive framework.
Since 2020, I have focused on journalistic practices, media capture (i.e., the control of the media by business and political elites to promote their interests), political instrumentalisation, hybrid regimes, and de-democratisation processes. In previous research projects, I analysed how and why professional journalists and legacy news organisations facilitate and shape the decline in the quality of democracy, using Brazil as a case study. Through 40 qualitative interviews with journalists, I developed the concepts of ‘de-democratising journalistic practices’ and ‘instrumentalised political agency’. This work has been published in journals such as The International Journal of Press/Politics, Journalism Studies, and Public Opinion Quarterly. I have also collaborated with colleagues on comparative analyses involving other Global South countries and Southeast Europe, including India, South Africa, Turkey, and Serbia.
In my earlier work, I analysed disinformation campaigns and far-right movements in Brazil during the 2018 presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic. This research has been published in the International Journal of Communication and Journalism Practice, as well as in the book "Hijacked Democracy: How Disinformation Helped Bolsonaro Become President of Brazil".