About / À propos

From LinkedIn:

Research interests include: communication and social change, media use, globalization and identity formation (qualitative audience studies), media diaspora and ethnicity, tv fiction, health communication, communication for development, strategic communication. Having lived 4 years in Latin America and travelled substantially also in Africa since the early 1990ies, these two regions have my prior interest.

I have been PI of 6 large international research Projects. Recent major research projects include: ‘Critical Perspectives upon new media and social change in the Global South (2013-2017); MEDIeA (Media, Empowerment and Democracy in East Africa, 2009-2015); ‘HIV/AIDS Communication and Prevention – A Health Communication Research Project 2001-2005’. Previous research projects have dealt with media consumption and globalisation amongst young ethnic minorities in Copenhagen (1999-2001), media use and identity formation in Brazil (1996-1999) and the role of tv fiction in the lives of poor Brazilian women (1990-1995).

Editorial work: I serve on editorial boards and advisory boards of about 10 international journals within media, communication, culture and development.

Consultancy: Have served as communications consultant to many organisations, including DANIDA, USAID, SIDA, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank and The Panos Institute both in Africa, Central America and Eastern Europe. This has been both fact-finding, strategy development, programming, review and evaluation, mostly on health communication and HIV/AIDS, curricular development, media development and on communication for development and social change.

For publications see my website. My latest book is ‘Communication and Social Change – a Citizen Perspective’ (Polity Press, June 2017).

From the Website of Institute Director for the Institute for Media and Creative Industries:

Thomas is an internationally leading scholar in the field of communication for social change.

Professor Tufte’s expertise and experience lie in critically exploring the interrelations between media texts/flows/genres, communicative practices and processes of citizen engagement and social change. His long-standing research interests have evolved around two key areas: qualitative audience studies and communication for social change research, often times combining the two.

Thomas has led 7 international research projects in the field (between 1992-2017), having sat on numerous editorial boards, and worked in about 30 countries worldwide. He has collaborated with a broad range of organisations in international development cooperation, such as World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, USAID and many more.

His publications include 15 books (3 monographs, 12 edited volumes) and more than 50 journal articles. Professor Tufte works in both English, Spanish, Portuguese and Danish and his work is published widely in these languages.

(Ver. PBe 01-2022)