María Luengo is an associate professor of journalism at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), Faculty Fellow of Yale University’s Center for Cultural Sociology and member of the Civil Sphere Theory Working Group’s Coordinating Committee. She chairs the EU COST Action Redressing Radical Polarization: Strengthening European Civil Spheres facing Illiberal Digital Media (DepolarizingEU). Her research interests focus on the relationship of journalism and the civil sphere – and how the media play a crucial role in meaning-making processes in today’s societies. Recent books include The Crisis of Journalism Reconsidered: Democratic Culture, Professional Codes, Digital Future (co-edited with Alexander and Breese, Cambridge University Press, 2016) and News Media Innovation Reconsidered (co-edited with Susana Herrera Damas, Wiley, 2021). Her research has appeared in Journalism, Journalism Studies, European Journal of Communication, American Journal of Cultural Sociology and Media, Culture & Society, among other leading journals in the fields of communication and sociology. Her article on “Journalism, solidarity and the civil sphere” was awarded with the 2019 European Journal of Communication prize. She has been involved in several international conference/book projects on the civil sphere, the media, radicalization and populism in Europe.
