Dr Tom Nicholls

Tom Nicholls is a Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. He is a political scientist whose main research interests include the dynamics of digital news and developing new methodological approaches to studying online activities using digital trace data. His work on a comparative analysis of digital news startups has been included as part of the Institute's wider Digital News Project.

He was previously a DPhil student at the Oxford Internet Institute, using large-scale quantitative methods to analyse the structure, scope and interconnectedness of government activity online, the effectiveness of electronic public service delivery and the internet's implications for public management. Before academia, he worked in local government as a project manager and for Quakers in Britain leading outreach work, and has also interned in Parliament and the US Congress as a research assistant.

He has a BA in Politics and Parliamentary Studies from the University of Leeds (2003), a Postgraduate Diploma in Local Government Management from Warwick Business School (2005) and an MSc in Social Science of the Internet from the University of Oxford (2011). He has published in various journals including Social Science Computer Review and the Journal of Information Policy. His Google Scholar profile is here.