dr. Kristin Van Damme
Researcher at the research group Center for Journalism Studies of the department of Communication Sciences of Ghent University.
Kristin.VanDamme@ugent.be | +32 487 57 27 64 | Twitter | LinkedIn
Media repertoires
News use
Media and innovation
Disinformation
Kristin Van Damme (PhD) is senior researcher (news) media use and monitoring and lead of the research cluster Monitoring technology adoption, use and attitudes. She is affiliated with the research groups Media, Innovation and Communication Technologies (imec-mict-UGent) and Center for Journalism Studies (CJS). She is a mixed-methods evangelist and combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Together with dr. Ruben Vandenplas, Kristin is one of the coordinators of the Flemish Knowledge Centre for Media mediapunt, which captures trends in media use and formulates media policy briefs. Mediapunt is a collaboration between VUB (imec-SMIT-VUB), UGent (imec-mict-UGent) en UAntwerpen (M2P en MIOS). The knowledge centre aspires to become the reference for media use insights in Flanders. Other current projects where Kristin is involved in are COM-PRESS, Digimeter, Apestaartjaren and mobileDNA.
In 2008 Kristin graduated as a Bachelor in Journalism at Artevelde University College Ghent. In 2009 Kristin started working as a multimedia project member at KAHO Sint-Lieven (currently Odisee University College). After two years of work she decided to obtain her Masters in Communication Sciences (specialization 'New Media and Society') at Ghent University. In June 2013 Kristin started at mict as a junior researcher, working on industry-driven MiX projects from iMinds (currently imec). In April 2014 she obtained her current job as a research and teaching assistant. In 2020, she defended her PhD research entitled “Transforming journalism, transforming audiences. Audience-centred research on news use in the omnipresent news environment” under the supervision of prof. dr. Sarah Van Leuven and prof. dr. Lieven De Marez. From 2019 to 2022, she was senior researcher at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences in the research group for Media, Communication and Design. She was project lead of the News barometer and practice-oriented research in innovation in journalism.
Current Research Projects
- Knowledge Centre for Media Research Mediapunt
- COM-PRESS: Detection tool for manipulated images
- Apestaartjaren: media use of children and teenagers
- Digimeter: digital trends in Flanders