Good programmes for political communication / internet studies in the EU?

[flyingkai]

Hi folks, as a final-year undergrad political science student, I'm deeply interested in how the internet influences politics, such as the impact of 'fake news' legislations and other media regulations on freedom of expression.

I've been trying to find graduate programmes in the field of internet studies or the study of digital political communications through interdisciplinary approaches, in Europe in particular. So far, I've found really interesting programmes in the Oxford Institute of the Internet, UCL and the University of Amsterdam, but was wondering what other faculties are known for / especially good at internet studies? Really don't want to be unable to do further studies in this area because of my inability to get into the top schools for it.

Something I'm having issue with is that while there are loads of communication studies / political communication programmes, I'm uncertain on which departments exactly have a developed niche in digital media and online communications.

[fishup]

Hey, I know it's been a while since your original post, but I'd be interested in hearing any updates about your search. I think our interests intersect in a couple of places--I'd love to hear how your plans are progressing!

[flyingkai]

I ended up applying to these programmes: Oxford's Social Science of the Internet, Cambridge's Sociology of Media & Culture, University of Amsterdam's Communication Science, LSE's Politics & Communication, UCL's Digital Technologies & Policy, ETH Zurich's Comparative and International Studies, Central European University's International Public Affairs and KU Leuven's Communication Science. Though not all of them are directly relevant to internet studies, I thought there was a sufficiently significant portion of the curriculum / enough members of the faculty specialising in this area to apply. Happy to report that most of the application results have been positive so far!