A former post graduate student has beaten off stiff competition to receive a prestigious Postdoctoral Fellowship that will enable her to return to the campus to continue her research into the media.

Dr Marina Popescu is one of 49 outstanding researchers to receive a Fellowship from the British Academy out of a record number of 700 applicants. The award of £250,000 will fund her study of the way that the media represent reality and affect public opinion, turnout, political knowledge and trust among citizens in over 45 countries. She will also examine issues such as political bias, different types of government influence in public broadcasting and economic influences over media content.

Marina, who gained her PhD in Political Science at Essex earlier this year explained: ‘The media are increasingly under scrutiny from many sources and I hope my research will play a role in informing the debate surrounding how mass media can operate in the interest of the citizen in highly competitive markets, as well as when and how it should be regulated.’

Dr Han Dorussen, Head of the Department of Government said Marina had done ‘extremely well’ to win the award. ‘She was a fantastic PhD student, who made and will continue to make excellent use of the experience and expertise available to her at Essex. It’s very special for us to be able to keep someone of her calibre within the department and the university – she is definitely a real success story.’

Dr Popescu is the fourth British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Government. Dr John Bartle, Dr Andrew Wroe and Dr Oliver Heath are the others.