Lead supervisor:
Dr Savyasaachi Jain 
Other supervisor(s):
- Prof Stephen Cushion
Start date: October 2025 (Full time)
Award: General
Subject Pathway:
Journalism, Digital Media and Democracy
Thematic Cluster:
Rights and Governance Cluster
Can the alternative speak? The rise of Indian alternative media and its attempt at recalibrating democratic watchdog ideals
My research examines how India’s alternative online political media (AOPM) are working to reassert and reconfigure journalism’s watchdog role within a platformised media environment shaped by state and corporate capital power, digital public sphere, and structural media capture.
Through a mixed methods design, this project investigates the political economy of Indian media, focusing on how these outlets restore gatekept voices, challenge dominant political narratives, and reimagine practices of accountability and public discourse in comparison to legacy mainstream media, and whether this can result in a democratic redressal via voice restitution and diet expansion.
Research Question:
How do Indian AOPM recalibrate journalism’s democratic watchdog ideals by restoring marginalised voices and challenging state-aligned narratives, as compared to legacy mainstream media, within a captured, platformised media system?
How do Indian AOPM recalibrate journalism’s democratic watchdog ideals by restoring marginalised voices and challenging state-aligned narratives, as compared to legacy mainstream media, within a captured, platformised media system?
Biography
I am a research student in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University, undertaking an ESRC-funded PhD. My research examines how alternative digital media in India seek to reassert and redefine journalism’s democratic watchdog ideals within a platformised and politically contested media environment. The project looks at how these outlets report, frame, and counter dominant state-aligned narratives, and what this reveals about the possibilities and limits of democratic media practice today.
My broader academic interests include alternative and independent media, platform governance, media activism, critical political communication, fact-checking and censorship, and the role of journalism in democratic life.
Before beginning my PhD, I worked as a news writer specialising in digital news, local and national politics, active-travel policy, and cycling sports for Farrelly Atkinson Publishing (road.cc, off.road.cc, and ev.tips).
I am a multimedia journalist, writing features and filming newsreels and short documentaries for voice.cymru, a Welsh radical news publication, where I cover social movements, trade union and labour issues, and politics across Wales and the rest of the UK.
I have experience as a podcast editor, having worked on two Cardiff University-funded projects: Election Beat — Indian Media and the 2024 General Election, with Dr Savyasaachi Jain and Nirupama Subramanian (2024), and Degrees of Motherhood, with Dr Jennifer Nelson, Dr Christie Margrave, and Dr Ramona Lungu (2025).
I’m also a documentary filmmaker. Through the methods of interviewing, some of my short films have explored the issue of homelessness and rough sleeping in Cardiff, the Tiananmen Massacre vigil in London, and a community-organised beach clean in Llanelli.
Alongside journalism, I have a research interest in how digital media reshape civic discourse. I previously graduated with an MA (distinction) in International Journalism from Cardiff University, where I conducted qualitative interviews into narrative, place and public engagement in active-travel storytelling. Prior to my postgraduate studies, I trained as an electronic engineer, where my capstone project involved designing a machine-learning-based smart inventory system.
My PhD builds on this interdisciplinary trajectory, bringing together critical media theory, digital politics, and close analysis of journalistic practice.
Career
-
2022 – present: Reporter (voice.cymru)
-
2023 – 2025: News writer, Farrelly Atkinson Publishing (road.cc, off.road.cc, ev.tips)
-
2021 – 2022: Multimedia journalist (InterCardiff)
Qualifications
-
PhD in Journalism, Digital Media and Democracy, Cardiff University, UK (ongoing, started October 2025)
-
MA (distinction) International Journalism, Cardiff University, UK
Thesis: Stories from the streets: How campaigners and people impacted by active travel policies in the UK fight for their desired outcomes -
BE Electronic Engineering, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, India
-
Other Certifications: Literary Theory (IIT Kanpur); Introduction to Philosophy (University of Edinburgh); What is News?, Gathering and Developing the News (Michigan State University)