Andrea Carson

Professor of Political Communication, La Trobe University, Australia

Andrea Carson is a Professor of Political Communication in the Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy at La Trobe University. She is a political scientist and journalism scholar who brings 15 years’ experience in print journalism (The Age, Melbourne) TV and radio (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Andrea examines the news media's role in politics. She researches media trust, political communication, digital campaigning and elections, digital platform regulation and media business models. Her studies focus on information quality (both high and low) with special interests in investigative journalism (evidence-based information) and mis- and disinformation (low quality information). She does comparative work on the regulatory environments of digital platforms and mitigation measures to tackle mis- and disinformation. She uses experimental methods to study fact-checking. Her work is published in top-tier journalism and communications journals and recent books include Investigative Journalism, Democracy and the Digital Age (2020), Undercover Reporting, Deception, and Betrayal in Journalism (2023, co-edited with Denis Muller). She co-edited Australian Politics in the Twenty-First Century: Old Institutions, New Challenges (2018).

Andrea is the recipient of three competitive Australian Research Council grants researching media trust, female political participation, and the media’s role in public policy. She holds several industry grants, including with Meta to study mis and disinformation, and digital journalism. She advises governments, think tanks and other stakeholders on mis- and disinformation and is a 2023 Australian Higher Education emerging leader finalist in the AFR HE Awards. She is a research fellow with the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia Research (WLIA). In 2020, she was awarded La Trobe University’s top researcher (mid-career) and researcher engagement awards.

She holds a PhD in Political Science and an MA in International Politics from the University of Melbourne, Australia. She teaches courses on political communication, media and politics, and campaigns and elections.