College: Fitzwilliam College           

Email: sne23@cam.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr Bryan Cameron

Research Topic: News as Activism: Communicating Armed Resistance in Wartime (a case-study of ABC, La Vanguardia, and El Pueblo during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939)

About

Samantha received a Master’s in Communication from the University of Utah, a Master’s in Literary Translation from the University of Edinburgh, and completed her undergraduate degree in Portuguese and Comparative Literature at Smith College.

Research       

Samantha’s PhD investigates the ideological framing of news coverage by those in the midst of extreme conflict. Specifically, she keys in on case studies of prominent Spanish periodicals of Republican Spain in Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) as she examines polemics of wartime journalism, multiculturalism, Spanish national identity, strategies of resistance, and international communication considered paramount in the narration of armed conflict. When confronted by the existential threat of imminent catastrophic defeat, news rapidly deteriorated in accuracy, integrity and objectivity. Samantha’s research explores the impact of violence and political discord on a fundamental democratic institution–the free press–in a divided nation at the centre of a transformative world conflict.

Publications

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 2021

Edwards, Samantha N. “Understanding the Present through the Past: A Comparison of Spanish News Coverage of the 1918 Flu and COVID-19 Pandemics.”

Emergents, Publicacions Universitat Jaume I, 2020

Edwards, Samantha N. “In Defence of the Republic: La Vanguardia’s plea for multicultural unity in the Spanish Civil War.” Les ciències humanes i socials. Perspectives emergents per als reptes de les societats multiculturals.