Prof. dr. Sarah Van Leuven
Director of the research group Center for Journalism Studies of the department of Communication Sciences of Ghent University.
Sarah.VanLeuven@UGent.be | +329 264 97 89 | Twitter
News sourcing practices
Journalist profiles
Innovation in newsrooms
International news
Sarah Van Leuven is associate professor at the Department of Communication Studies at Ghent University. She is the head of the research group Center for Journalism Studies (CJS), head of the Journalism Division of NeFCA (Netherlands-Flanders Communication Association), and editorial board member of the SSCI-ranked journal Digital Journalism. Since 2021 she is a member of the Flemish Council for Journalism (Raad voor de Journalistiek).
She teaches the courses Journalistic News Gathering and Production (2nd bachelor), Content and Textual Analysis (3rd bachelor), Contemporary Aspects of Journalism (Master), and Politics and Media (Master). She is also the ombudsperson for students of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences.
She has published work on a broad range of topics, including the role of news media in political communication, sourcing practices, international news, journalist profiles and innovation in newsrooms. Together with prof. dr. Karin Raeymaeckers, she coordinates the five-annual survey of Belgian professional journalists, and she is also principal investigator for Belgium in the Journalistic Role Performance Project.
Current Research Projects
- Fiction or reality? How audiences make sense of movies and series about journalism: a Flemish case study
- Media councils in the digital age
- The profile of the Belgian journalist
- Opening the black box of the newsroom
- Journalistic Role Performance Project