Dr. Leen d’Haenens

Nonresident Senior Research Fellow

Leen d’Haenens is Full Professor at the Institute for Media Studies (IMS) and Vice-dean International Relations of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), where she teaches ‘Analysis of Media Texts’ and ‘European Media Policy’ at BA level, and ‘Media Consumption and Identity’ at MA level. Her research interests include analysis of news media; news media diversity and pluralism; media and ethnic cultural minorities (with a focus on Muslims, both as media users and as media content); digital media and young people; extremist ideation and the role of (social) media; Western media policy and governance mechanisms

Professor d’Haenens advised the Flemish government as well as the European Commission about the role of governments in steering media literacy, on ways to foster the development of online resilience and online coping strategies targeted at children at risk. In cooperation with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (University of Oxford), and as the team leader for Belgium and the Netherlands, she gained experience in establishing a coding instrument with a focus on longitudinal news frame analysis and the use of metaphoric language revolving around “The Euro Crisis, MediaCoverage, and Perceptions of Europe within the EU”, analyzing the news coverage of the financial debt crisis in Europe in 40 European newspapers. Currently she is promoter of two research consortiums: the SBO-project DIAMOND on measuring and improving News Diversity, 2017-2020, and the Belspo-project IM2MEDIATE on refugees and media, 2017-2019.

She held a Jean Monnet Chair on European Integration in Media and Telecommunications Policy (2000-2007) and ran a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence (European Centre for the Interdisciplinary Assessment of Initiatives for Public Governance, 2002-2007), when appointed at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Between 1996 and 2017 she (co)-authored over 100 articles (peer reviewed journals, mostly in English), 40 book chapters, and 9 books. She edited 9 books and co-ordinated 20 research projects (the majority of which international), which led to publications.