Simone BENAZZO

Bio

I’ve been a PhD student and teaching assistant in Political Science at the ULB since October 2021. My research deals with journalistic resistance in autocratizing countries in Europe. Briefly, I study how independent media and critical journalists react to media capture, a key ingredient in any attempt to dismantle a democratic regime. I’m also a fellow at the Media and Journalism Research Centre (MJRC), where I run a research project on media in exile. Before moving to the academia, I worked four years as an independent journalist, covering mostly Central-Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Nowadays I still contribute to some Italian newspapers sporadically, writing about media freedom and related challenges. In my free time, I do improvised theatre, play football, hike and listen to post-rock music. 

CV

• 2024 – present: MA in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology – University of Turin (Italy)
• 2021 – present: PhD in Political Science – Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)
• 2016-2017: MA in European Interdisciplinary Studies – College of Europe (Poland)
• 2013-2016: MA in International Sciences – University of Turin (Italy)
• 2010-2013: Bachelor in Communication Studies – University of Bologna (Italy)
• Full CV

Areas of research

• Autocratization and Resistance
• Media Capture
• Media Freedom
• Journalistic innovations
• Central-Eastern Europe and the Balkans

Teaching

POLI-D108: Approches méthodiques de questions politiques / Methodical approaches of political issues

POLI-D213: Introduction à la recherche en sciences politiques / Introduction to Research in Political Science

POLI-D404: Etudes approfondies de science politique / Master Thesis Seminar

Research

Title of my research project: Journalistic Resistance to Autocratisation in Europe

Academic fields: Comparative politics and journalism studies

Research question:  How have independent media and critical journalists resisted autocratisation in Europe?

Time scope: 2020-2024

My research in a snapshot

The research project addresses the phenomenon of “journalistic resistance to autocratisation” (JRA), defined as “any activity, or combination of activities, taken by independent media or critical journalists who, regardless of the motivations, attempt at slowing down, stopping, or reverting the actions of the actors responsible for the process of autocratization.”

The project aims to develop the first comparative analysis of JRA in more than two (European) countries by comparing a total of four cases: two cases of deepened autocratisation (Hungary and Serbia) and two cases of autocratisation reversal (Poland and Slovenia). It then studies journalistic resistance in autocratising regimes only, hence countries that have undergone autocratisation - and not in democratising or fully authoritarian countries, as done in previous studies. The general focus is on the reaction to the (political) change from independent media and critical journalists: this change is the outbreak of the autocratisation process and, where it occurred, its reversal. 

By adopting a bottom-up approach, it examines JRA by combining a meso-level perspective - media outlets with a micro-level perspective - individual journalists. At both categories of interviewees it will be first asked to identify the main challenges they have faced in working in ‘informational autocracies’ where autocratisers have built an ‘illiberal media sphere.’ At a later stage, representatives of media outlets will be asked about the practices they have deployed and the interactions, both the internal and the transnational level, they have established to cope with such challenges. Critical journalists will be asked about the evolution of their values and narrated performances in autocratising regimes. The integration of the meso and the micro level is expected to bring about a comprehensive understanding of JRA. 

Publications

• Benazzo, S., Journalism Innovation Under Autocratization: Comparing Journalistic Resistance in Poland and Slovakia (forthcoming)
   
• Benazzo, S. “Not All the Past Needs To Be Used: Features of Fidesz’s Politics of Memory”, Journal of Nationalism Memory & Language Politics 11(2), 198-221, January 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/jnmlp-2017-0009.
   
• Fierens, M., Le Cam, F., Domingo, D., & Benazzo, S. (2024). SLAPPs against journalists in Europe: Exploring the role of self-regulatory bodies. European Journal of Communication, 39(2), 161-176.
   
• Panzano, G., Benazzo S., & Bochev V., Local Democratic Resistance to Autocratization: Evidence from Budapest, Banja Luka, and Zagreb (forthcoming)

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