Irene Rapado

Research

Irene Rapado’s research interests are journalism, political communication and their interplay. She is particularly interested in the discourses of the leftist populist movement parties that emerged in Southern Europe following the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. In her PhD thesis, she studied the Spanish movement party Podemos as a case of performative democracy, i.e., as an organization that enacted democracy as part of undertaking political action and of building a political identity in its (online) discourse. From a critical analytic perspective, Rapado examined Podemos’ online discourses of performative democracy in the run-up to, and aftermath of, the Spanish December 2015 general election, that eventually brought the party into the parliament. Her research contributed to broadening the understanding of left-wing populist discourse in the field of Critical Discourse Studies.

Rapado has also presented her work at international and national scientific conferences and reviewed scientific articles for the Journal of Language and Politics. In spring 2022, Rapado become an external collaborator of the Research Group on Political Communication, Journalism, and Democracy at Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona). She is also part of the European research project Mediadelcom.

Outside media and communication, she has co-authored a journal article in the field of applied informatics whose aim was to conceptualize the components of the Consumer Direction theory in the context of digital technologies and people with dementia.

Biography

Irene Rapado is assistant professor in media and communication studies at Jönköping University. She received her PhD in media and communication from Örebro University in 2019. Originally from Spain, she moved to Sweden in 2012 and graduated with MA in media and communication studies (Örebro University) two years later. Before moving to Sweden, she graduated with BA in Audiovisual Communications from the Universitat de València in 2009.

Rapado has a solid teaching career in the fields of media, communication, and information science. Since autumn 2021, Rapado has been working at the media and communication undergraduate programme and the master in sustainable communication at Jönköping University. In addition, she has carried out teaching in free-standing courses offered by the School of Education and Communication.