Studying for a PhD allows you to explore an aspect of media and communication that fascinates you in great depth, and make a meaningful contribution to your chosen field. It's a necessary qualification if youre aspiring to have a career in academia. If you research full-time, you'll usually complete your PhD in three years. The Political Communication research group provides a forum for researchers to discuss and investigate the ways in which power and political ideas are represented in a diversity of communication contexts. This group aims to understand the constantly changing relationship between politics and the media across all levels of politics: from the institutional to the informal arena, from collective action to personal desires, and from public to private spheres of communication. Central to this is its recognition of the blurring boundaries of the political, as it is increasingly (a) open to popular culture, consumerism and everyday lifestyles, and (b) bound up with international information flows and global conflicts.<br><br>One focus of the Political Communication research group's impact activity is examining how power and political ideas are represented in a diversity of communication contexts. Specific focus has been on the citizen and issues of advocacy and on identity and how modes of political engagement can be fostered through new digital tools and approaches.