Anthony Kelly is an IRC Government of Ireland Fellow in the School of Information and Communication Studies at UCD. His research investigates how new and emerging practices of political communication intersect, increasingly, with the political economy of platformised cultural production. Anthony’s current project, funded by the Irish Research Council, explores the sometimes-antagonistic relationships between reactionary political influencers and their social media audiences. Using a blend of qualitative and computational methods, this research examines how the fans and followers of two reactionary influencers enable and embolden radical, extreme, and reactionary political agendas.

Anthony holds a PhD in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), awarded in 2021. His doctoral research, supported by an NUI Travelling Studentship in Media and Communications, examined the discursive dimensions of affective polarisation in the context of online commentary on the 2016 US presidential election. Prior to commencing his PhD, Anthony was an assistant lecturer in anthropology at Maynooth University, where he designed and delivered seminar-based modules in digital anthropology, political media, and globalisation. He has also held teaching positions at LSE and Queen Mary University of London. More recently, Anthony spent time in industry, working as a digital anthropologist at L’Atelier BNP Paribas.

Recent publications

Kelly, A. (2023). Recontextualising partisan outrage online: Analysing the public negotiation of Trump support among American conservatives in 2016. AI & Society, 38, 2025–2036. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-020-01109-5

Kelly, A. & Rantanen, T. (in press). Digitalization and Diversification of International News Agencies in the Age of AI. In D. V. Dimitrova (ed.), Global Journalism: Understanding World Media Systems (2nd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield.