Laia Castro Herrero
Photo: John Flury
I am an assistant professor in the department of Political Science at University of Barcelona. I do empirical work on political communication, comparative media research & public opinion, with a particular focus on cross-cutting exposure and communication across political lines. Previously, I was assistant professor at the Faculty of Communication at Universitat Internacional de Catalunya - Barcelona and a senior researcher at the Department of Communication & Media Research at University of Zurich. I hold a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the University of Fribourg, and studied Political Science at University Pompeu Fabra (BA) and Political Communication and Marketing at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (MA). For more than seven years I have also worked as a political advisor and assistant at several Catalan institutions.
You can see my cv in here , visit my profiles at Google Scholar and GitHub
Selected publications (in alphabetical order)
Castro, Laia. "Measuring Partisan Media Bias Cross‐Nationally." Swiss Political Science Review 27, no. 2 (2021): 412-433.
Castro, Laia; Theresa Gessler; Sílvia Majó-Vázquez. "Content analysis in mixed method approaches" in Standardisierte Inhaltsanalyse in der Kommunikationswissenschaft-Standardized Content Analysis in Communication Research. Springer. (2023) pp.37-56. ISBN 978-3-658-36178-5.
Castro, Laia, Jesper Strömbäck, Frank Esser, Peter Van Aelst, Claes de Vreese, Toril Aalberg, Ana S. Cardenal et al. "Navigating high-choice European political information environments: A comparative analysis of news user profiles and political knowledge." The International Journal of Press/Politics (2021): 19401612211012572.
Heiberger, Raphael, Silvia Majó-Vázquez, Laia Castro Herrero, Rasmus K. Nielsen, and Frank Esser. "Do Not Blame the Media! The Role of Politicians and Parties in Fragmenting Online Political Debate." The International Journal of Press/Politics (2021): 19401612211015122.
Humprecht, Edda, Laia Castro Herrero, Sina Blassnig, Michael Brüggemann, and Sven Engesser. "Media Systems in the Digital Age: An Empirical Comparison of 30 Countries." Journal of Communication (2022).
Steppat, Desiree, Laia Castro Herrero, and Frank Esser. "Selective exposure in different political information environments–How media fragmentation and polarization shape congruent news use." European Journal of Communication (2021): 02673231211012141.
Theocharis, Yannis, Ana Cardenal, Soyeon Jin, Toril Aalberg, David Nicolas Hopmann, Jesper Strömbäck, Laia Castro et al. "Does the platform matter? Social media and COVID-19 conspiracy theory beliefs in 17 countries." new media & society (2021): 14614448211045666.
Van Aelst, Peter, Fanni Toth, Laia Castro, Václav Štětka, Claes de Vreese, Toril Aalberg, Ana Sofia Cardenal et al. "Does a crisis change news habits? A comparative study of the effects of COVID-19 on news media use in 17 European countries." Digital Journalism 9, no. 9 (2021): 1208-1238.
Zoizner, A., Sheafer, T., Castro, L., Aalberg, T., Cardenal, A. S., Corbu, N., ... & van Aelst, P. (2022). The effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on selective exposure: Evidence from 17 countries. Political Communication.
Some of my coauthors are...
Tamir Sheafer
Alon Zoizner
Selected teaching
Fall semester 2021 Lecture "Anàlisi d'Audiències" (BA Degree, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya)
Fall semester 2020 Research seminar "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose? Political communication in multi-platform media environments" (BA Degree, University of Zurich)
Spring semester 2020 Seminar "Comparative Political Communication Research" (BA Degree, University of Zurich)
Fall semester 2019 Seminar "Studying Political Communication and Public Opinion in the Digital Age" (BA Degree, University of Zurich)
Fall semester 2019 Seminar "Medien, Politik und öffentliche Meinung" (BA Degree, University of Zurich)