Simona Bisiani
Computational Journalism Researcher | Data Architect | Writer.
I build data systems that transform large-scale news coverage into actionable media intelligence. I combine editorial judgement with data engineering, natural language processing, machine learning and spatial analysis to monitor media landscapes, identify emerging patterns and measure how ownership and geography shape news coverage.
I am currently a doctoral researcher in computational journalism at the Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI. My research develops computational methods for mapping variations in local news coverage and evaluating the effects of media ownership on diversity and access to information. I have first-authored a number of peer-reviewed journal articles appearing in Q1 journals and my research has appeared at top-tier conference venues including ICA, ICWSM, Computation + Journalism, CHR, and the International Journalism Festival.
I am also Data Architect and Researcher at the Public Interest News Foundation, where I designed and maintain a comprehensive database of UK local news outlets. I use this infrastructure to produce research and intelligence for industry and policy audiences on the state of the local news sector in the UK.
Previously, I worked as a data journalist at Sheldon.studio, where I worked on projects including Disabled Data and the EU Sanctions Tracker. I have also led the European Journalism Centre’s annual State of Data Journalism Survey.
Core capabilities: media monitoring, text mining, NLP, data pipelines, spatial analysis, causal inference, R and Python.
news
| Jul 31, 2026 | A major milestone: I submit my PhD thesis for examination today! Furthermore, a new journal article of mine is out after peer-review (with no corrections!): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14648849261474910 |
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| Jun 04, 2026 | I am travelling to Cape Town to present my research at the 76th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) conference. |
| May 07, 2026 | I am giving an invited talk at the Impresso Seminar 2026: Latest Developments in Press History Research. |
| Apr 15, 2026 | I am travelling to Washington DC to present my work at the 2026 Local Journalism Researcher Workshop. |
| Mar 17, 2026 | The UK Government cites my research in conjunction with the launch of a Local News Fund, as part of the new ‘Amplify: The Local Media Action Plan’. |
| Dec 14, 2025 | The ‘UK Local News Report 2025’ I have researched and produced for the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) is now out! This is the second such report I produce for PINF, and it provides a current snapshot of the UK local news ecosystem, including news deserts and statistical analysis of sociodemographic correlates of local news provision. |
| Dec 12, 2025 | Conference paper acceptance: “Mapping News Geography: A Computational Framework for Classifying Local Media Through Geographic Coverage Patterns” generates a data-driven typology of subnational news outlets in the UK, using the spatial properties of their coverage. I am presenting this work at the Computational Humanities Research Conference (Luxembourg). Slides here. |
| Nov 27, 2025 | I have been invited to attend the Data Methods Initiative’s first in-person workshop, which will take place Jönköping International Business School on November 27th and 28th. |
| Oct 01, 2025 | Research Report out: Challenges and opportunities for UK local media: Insights from academic research, written with Prof Agnes Gulyas at Canterbury Christ Church University, provides recommendations to local media stakeholders based on findings from academic literature. |
| Sep 16, 2025 | Journal article acceptance: “Towards Efficient and Accessible Geoparsing of UK Local Media” introduces new AI methods for extracting geographical data from local news, featured in Computational Humanities Research. |
| 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. |
| 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! |