Simona Bisiani
Computational Journalism Researcher | Data Architect | Author.
I am a computational journalism Doctoral Researcher at the Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI. My research combines advanced text mining, machine learning, and causal inference to map spatial variations in news coverage and measure the impact of ownership patterns on media diversity.
As data architect at the Public Interest News Foundation, I designed and maintain the UK’s most comprehensive local news outlets database while producing industry-leading research reports commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to inform policy discussions about media sustainability and democratic access to information.
I have authored multiple peer-reviewed publications and led the annual State of Data Journalism Survey for the European Journalism Centre—the field’s most comprehensive global industry analysis. My research has been featured at top-tier conferences including ICWSM, the International Journalism Festival, and Computation + Journalism.
Previously, I worked as a data journalist at Sheldon.studio and the European Journalism Centre, where I created award-worthy projects including Disabled Data (highlighting data accessibility issues in Italy) and The Sanction Tracker for the European Data Portal.
I specialise in R, Python, NLP, and computational social science methods that reveal hidden patterns in media landscapes.
news
| Jul 18, 2025 | I am presenting a paper on work carried out for the Public Interest News Foundation, financed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on how to automate the tracking of existing local media outlets in the UK at DH Conf in Lisbon, Portugal. |
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| Jun 26, 2025 | I am presenting a dataset paper at the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM) in Copenhagen. |
| May 25, 2025 | The database I created for the Public Interest News Foundation has enabled the Media Ownership 2025 local news chapter by Media Reform Coalition, shedding light on media ownership consolidation in the UK. |
| Mar 25, 2025 | I am presenting my doctoral research at the Local Journalism Researchers Workshop at UNC Chapel Hill, North Carolina. |
| May 05, 2024 | I have been hired by Professor Agnes Gulyas at the School of Creative Arts and Industries in the University of Canterbury to write an industry report of the state of local media research. |
| Apr 05, 2024 | I first-authored an industry report on the state of local news in the UK, on behalf of the Public Interest News Foundation, featuring interactive maps on news deserts and plenty of statistics on media ownership. |
| Jan 01, 2024 | I have been hired by the UK charity the Public Interest News Foundation as a Data Architect for their local media database. |
| Jan 01, 2024 | I am, for the third year now, running the State of Data Journalism Survey for the European Journalism Centre. |
| Dec 01, 2023 | I have published my first PhD linked journal article in the peer-reviewed journal MDPI’s Journalism and Media, on the Limitations and Effects on Findings of various commonly used local media databases in the UK. |
| Sep 22, 2023 | I have been hired as Teaching Assistant for the Topics in People-Centred AI module running at the University of Surrey in the fall of 2023, targeted at the MSc in Artifical Intelligence students. |
| Jun 22, 2023 | I have presented a talk at the Computation + Journalism Conference at ETH Zurich, presenting the findings from my Journalism Practice article on data journalism global practices, adding year-to-year comparisons with the latest survey edition (which I lead for the European Journalism Centre). |
| Apr 12, 2023 | I have been hired as Research Assistant at the University of Canterbury (UK) to work on a project under the lead of Prof. Agnes Gulyas on local media articles geolocations, with completion in June. |
| Mar 12, 2023 | For the second year in a row, my research on the characteristics of the data journalism industry is going to be discussed at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia in April! |
| Feb 10, 2023 | I have published my first first-author peer-reviewed journal article on Journalism Practice, on the characteristics of the global data journalism workforce. |
| Oct 16, 2022 | I am starting a PhD at the Surrey Institute for People-Centred Artificial Intelligence! |