Researcher Details |

Saumava Mitra

Dr.

Contact Details

GLA: CA1110
T:Ext. 5448

E:Saumava.Mitra@dcu.ie

Assistant Professor
GLA C1110
T:Ext. 5448

E:Saumava.Mitra@dcu.ie

Assistant Professor

C1110
Henry Grattan Building
DCU Glasnevin Campus

T:+353 1 7005448

E:saumava.mitra@dcu.ie
W:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8622-7091

Saumava Mitra is interested in how media production processes situated in conflict-affected contexts, and media narratives of conflict and crises, influence each other. His current Research Ireland-funded research project focuses on the digital insecurities that journalists from authoritarian regimes around the world who are forced to work from exile, face in their day-to-day work.

His previous research have focused on empirical, ethical and theoretical explorations of the media work and working conditions of marginalised media workers and media narrative producers from conflict-affected contexts in the Global South.

His research has appeared in international journals such as Journalism, Journalism Studies, International Journal of Press/Politics, among others as well as in edited volumes and research handbooks such as Insights on Peace and Conflict Reporting, Social Media Images and Conflicts and The Routledge Companion to Journalism in the Global South.

Mitra currently serves as the Co-Editor of the international journal Media, War & Conflict. He served as the Vice-Chair and Chair of the Visual Communications Studies division, and board member, of the International Communication Association between 2021-2025.

Prior to joining DCU, Saumava lived, and worked in academia, journalism and in communications, in South Asia, East Africa, North and Central Americas and Europe.

Book Chapter

	Year	Publication
	2020	Saumava Mitra (2020) 'Real-ising rape' In: Hold your Story: Reflections on News of Sexual Violence in India. United Kingdom : Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion & Social Justice, Bournemouth University.
	2021	Mitra, S.; Creta, S.; McDonald, S. (2021) 'How our rage is represented: Acts of resistance among women photographers of the Global South' In: Insights on Peace and Conflict Reporting. [Link] [DOI]
	2022	Saumava Mitra (2022) 'Relational Labour or Digital Resistance: Social Media Practices of Non-Western Women Photographers' In: Social Media Images and Conflicts. London : Routledge. [Link] https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003176923
	2023	Saumava Mitra; Brenda Witherspoon (2023) 'De-Westernizing Photojournalism: From photojournalism of the global south to photojournalism in the global south' In: The Routledge Companion to Journalism in the Global South. Oxford : Routledge. [Link] [DOI]
	2026	Rituparna Banerjee; Saumava Mitra (2026) 'Social Media, Digital Visibility and Electoral Campaigns in the Global South: The Need for a Gendered Approach' In: De Gruyter Handbook of Media and Social Change in the Global South. Berlin : De Gruyter. [Link]

Edited Book

	Year	Publication
	2021	Saumava Mitra and Chris Paterson (Ed.). (2021) Reporting Global while being Local: Local Producers of News for Distant Audiences. London: Routledge, [Link]

Peer Reviewed Journal

	Year	Publication
	2021	Mitra, S.; Høiby, M.; Garrido, M. (2021) 'Medium-Specific Threats for Journalists: Examples from Philippines, Afghanistan and Venezuela'. JOURNALISM PRACTICE, 15 . [Link] [DOI]
	2020	Saumava Mitra (2020) 'Picturing Afghan Women for Western audiences: The Afghan perspective'. Journalism, 21 (6):800-820. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884919849359
	2019	Saumava Mitra; Chris Paterson; (2019) 'Reporting Global While Being Local: Local Sources of News for Distant Audiences'. Journalism Studies, . [DOI]
	2019	Saumava Mitra; (2019) 'Safety culture changing visual representations of wars? The case of Afghanistan'. .
	2018	Mitra, S.; (2018) 'Socio-cultural contexts and peace journalism: A case for meso-level comparative sociological investigation of journalistic cultures'. Journalism, . [DOI]
	2017	Mitra, Saumava; (2017) 'Adoptability and acceptability of peace journalism among Afghan photojournalists: Lessons for peace journalism training in conflict-affected countries'. .
	2017	Mitra, Saumava; (2017) 'Local-Global Tensions: Professional Experience, Role Perceptions and Image Production of Afghan Photojournalists Working for a Global Audience'. .
	2016	Saumava Mitra; (2016) 'Display-through-foregrounding by photojournalists as self-reflexivity in photojournalism: Two case studies of Accidental Peace Photojournalism'. .
	2015	Saumava Mitra; (2015) 'Communication and peace: Understanding the nature of texts as a way to resolve conceptual differences in the emerging field'. Global Media and Communication, . [DOI]
	2014	Saumava Mitra; (2014) 'Re-thinking visuals: Understanding discursive reformulation of visuals to inform Peace Journalism'. .
	2021	Mitra, Saumava; Witherspoon, Brenda; Creta, Sara (2021) 'Invisible in This Visual World? Work and Working Conditions of Female Photographers in the Global South'. Journalism Studies, . [Link] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2021.2007163
	2023	Isaac Blacksin; Saumava Mitra (2023) 'Straddlers not Spiralists: Critical Questions for Research on Fixers, Local-Foreign News Work, and Cross-Border Journalism'. JOURNALISM: THEORY, PRACTICE & CRITICISM, Online First . [Link] [DOI]
	2024	Mitra, S.; Palmer L.; Seo, S. (2024) 'What Am I Doing Here? Self-Reflexivity in Cross-Border Journalism Research'. International Journal of Press/Politics, . [Link] https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612241279174
	2025	(2025) 'Special issue: Cross-border, collaborative and cross-boundary journalism practices: Challenges and opportunities for ensuring safety of journalists'. JOURNALISM: THEORY, PRACTICE & CRITICISM, 26 (4):759-928. [Link] https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849251329095
	2024	Rituparna Banerjee; Saumava Mitra (2024) 'Reconstituting the ‘good woman’: Gendered visual politics on social media during 2021 state election in West Bengal, India'. Convergence, (Special Issue: Negotiating Digital Visibility in Asia). [Link] https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565241287588

Conference Contribution

	Year	Publication
	2021	Saumava Mitra (2021) International Communication Association Virtual Conference 2021 Chaired session entitled 'Views of the Virus: Representing and Responding to a Global Pandemic' Virtual Conference Platform, 27/05/2021-30/05/2021.
	2021	Saumava Mitra (2021) Ireland India Institute Annual South Asia Conference Chaired session entitled British Empire and the famines in Bengal Dublin City University, 29/04/2021-29/04/2021.
	2021	Saumava Mitra (2021) Ireland India Institute Annual South Asia Conference Chaired session entitled New Media, Cyberspace: the cultural and the political Dublin City University, 28/04/2021-28/04/2021.
	2020	Saumava Mitra (2020) 6th Conference on Safety of Journalists ‘C'est un combat’: Risks and resilience among female photographers from the Global South Department of Journalism and Media, Oslo Metropolitan University, 02/11/2020-04/11/2020.
	2020	Saumava Mitra; (2020) International Communication Association Virtual Conference 2020 Chaired session entitled 'Hate Media: Global Cases of Marginalization and Resistance' for Global Communication & Social Change Division Virtual Conference Platform, .
	2020	Saumava Mitra; (2020) International Communication Association Virtual Conference 2020 Presented paper entitled ‘Visible in the visual world: Understanding NGO-led empowerment of women photographers in the Global South’ at international panel entitled ‘The growing role of philanthropy, NGO and state funding in international reporting from the global South’ Virtual Conference Platform, .
	2019	Saumava Mitra; (2019) International Association for Media and Communications Research Conference 2020 Organized panel entitled ‘Biased or Beneficial? Cross-border lessons on journalists’ safety’ Complutense University, Madrid, Spain, .
	2022	Declan Tuite; Saumava Mitra (2022) ECREA 2022 Examining Irish CVR-based humanitarian communications: Towards a trans-disciplinary analytical framework Aarhus, Denmark, 19/10/2022-22/10/2022.
	2022	Saumava Mitra (2022) 8th Conference on the Safety of Journalists. Oslo Metropolitan University It gets in the back of your head: Building Solidarity for the safety of a Global Fourth Estate 8th Conference on the safety of journalists. Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway, .
	2023	Saumava Mitra; Lindsay Palmer; Soomin Seo (2023) https://www.warandmedia.org/reimagining-the-field-of-media-war-and-conflict-deadline-31st-jan/ Decolonizing conflict journalism: Why (and how) empirical research matters Toronto, 25/05/2023-25/06/2023.
	2022	Saumava Mitra; Brenda Witherspoon (2022) Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association Annual Conference (In)Visibility and Visual resistance: Towards understanding social media practices of non-Western women photographers Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, 07/09/2022-09/09/2022.
	2024	(2024) ICA 2024 Annual Conference Questioning the researcher: Reflecting on the researcher-researched relationships in fieldwork in marginalized spaces Gold Coast, Australia, .

Book Review

	Year	Publication
	2019	Saumava Mitra; (2019) Book review: Katherine Brown, Your Country, Our War: The Press and Diplomacy in Afghanistan. BREV [DOI]

Online Article

	Year	Publication
	2019	Saumava Mitra; (2019) The many things wrong with the visual representation of rape. Bournemouth University; UNESCO New Delhi: ELEA [Link]
	2019	Saumava Mitra; (2019) Making rape ‘real’. Bournemouth University and UNESCO New Delhi: ELEA [Link]

Review Articles

	Year	Publication
	2018	(2018) Book Review: Lindsay Palmer (2018). Becoming the Story: War Correspondents since 9/11. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. REV

Conference Publication

	Year	Publication
	2023	Isaac Blacksin; Saumava Mitra (2023) ICA 2023 Annual Conference *Straddlers not Spiralists: Critical Questions for Research on Fixers, Local-Foreign News Work, and Cross-Border Journalism* 26/05/2023- 29/05/2023

Professional Associations

	Association	Function	From / To
	International Communication Association	Executive Board Member	01/07/2023 - 01/07/2025
	International Association of Media and Communication Research	Member	01/12/2020 - 01/12/2021

Committees

	Committee	Function	From / To
	Visual Communication Division, International Communication Association		01/06/2021 - 01/07/2025
	Afghanistan Photographers' Association		-
	Co-Editor, Media, War and Conflict Journal		-
	International Communication Association		-

Education

	Start date	Institution	Qualification	Subject
		Jadavpur University	Bachelor in Arts (Honours)
		Indian Institute of Mass Communications	Post Graduate Diploma in Radio and TV Journalism
		Swansea University, Aarhus University, University of Amsterdam	Erasmus Mundus MA in Journalism and Media within Globalization
		University of Western Ontario	PhD in Media Studies

Reviews

	Journal	Role
	JOURNALISM: THEORY, PRACTICE & CRITICISM	Reviewer
	Global Media and Communication	Reviewer
	Media, War and Conflict	Editor
	Journalism Studies	Reviewer
	INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY	Reviewer
	Visual Communication Quarterly	Reviewer
	Journal of War and Culture Studies	Reviewer
	Political Communication	Reviewer
	Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly	Reviewer
	Discourse and Communication	Reviewer
	Visual Communication	Reviewer

Outreach Activities

Year	Engagement Type	Organisation	Description
	Presentations/Talks to an external audience	Journalism and Media International Centre	Research seminar for working Afghan journalists
	Presentations/Talks to an external audience	The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO)	“Communicating Effectively for Peace”. Session within workshop entitled “Unpacking the Peacebuilder's Toolbox”. Leadership Training in Peace and Security 2021.
	Presentations/Talks to an external audience	University of Leeds and Imperial War Museums	Invited speaker at The Tim Hetherington collection & conflict imagery research network launch event for public talk entitled 'Revisiting Restrepo: The men and boys outside the wire'.
2020	Other	Hub for the Study of Hybrid Communication in Peacebuilding	Member of research network hosted and led by Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) at the University of Sheffield, in collaboration with the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) at the University of Manchester.
2022	Presentations/Talks to an external audience	Violence, Conflict and Gender Research Cluster, University College Cork	Invited talk entitled ‘C’est un combat’: Women photographers’ fight against professional invisibility in conflict and crises-affected contexts as hybrid research event for Violence, Conflict, Gender research cluster at University College Cork.
2022	Presentations/Talks to an external audience	Oslo Metropolitan University	Keynote speech entitled 'It gets in the back of your head': Building solidarity for the safety of a global fourth estate' at the 8th annual conference on the Safety of Journalists: Solidarity and self-learning for improved safety for journalists.
2022	Educational Outreach/Public Engagement	Global Media Studies Network	Member of worldwide academic network dedicated to de-westernising media and communication studies.

Media

	Title	Year	Type	Authors
	Female photographers across the Global South reflect on the challenges they face	2021	Newspaper article (online)	Brenda Witherspoon, Saumava Mitra
	Why we must pay attention to the death of journalists in Kabul	2018	Newspaper article (Print)	Saumava Mitra

Research Interests

Conflict Journalism and Photojournalism; Images of Wars and Crises; Foreign Correspondence; International News.

Research Projects

	Title	Role	Description	Start date	End date
	Digital Security and Sensitivity for Exile Networking and Tracking	DCU PI		13/01/2025	12/01/2026

Contract Researchers

	Researcher Name	Project	Funding Body
	Louisa Esther	Digital security and sensitivity for exile networking and tracking
	Dr. Salim Saay	Digital security and sensitivity for exile networking and tracking

Current Postgraduate Students

	Student Name	Degree	Supervision
	Banerjee,Rituparna	PhD	Supervisor

Internal Collaborators

Type	Name	Company	Role
Internal	Sara Creta	The Institute for Future Media Democracy and Society	Academic
Internal	Declan Tuite	Dublin City University	Academic
Internal	Rituparna Banerjee	Dublin City University

External Collaborators

Type	Name	Company	Role
External	Mariateresa Garrido	United Nations University for Peace	Academic
External	Chris Paterson	School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds	Academic
External	Brenda Witherspoon	Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, Iowa State University	Academic
External	Marte Høiby	Norwegian Media Authority (Mediatylsynet)	Industry
External	Roy Krøvel	Oslo Metropolitan University	Academic
External	Yennué Zárate Valderrama	Universidad Iberoamericana	Academic
External	Isaac Blacksin	Annenberg School for Journalism and Communications, USC	Academic
External	Lindsay Palmer	School of Journalism and Mass Communication. University of Wisconsin-Madison	Academic
External	Soomin Seo	School of Communication, Sogang University, South Korea	Academic
External	Dina Matar	SOAS, University of London	Academic
External	Kari Andén Papadopoulos	Stockholm University	Academic

Teaching Interests

Media and Communication Studies, Journalism Studies.

Modules Coordinated

	Term	Title	Subject
	2025		JRR1006-A
	2025		JRR1013-A
	2025		JRR1036-A
	2025		JRR1038-A
	2025		JRR1037-A
	2025		JRR1020-A
	2025		JRR1022-A