Elisa

Dr Elisa Serafinelli

Senior Lecturer in Digital Media and Communication

My profile

Biography

Elisa Joined the department in March 2023 as Senior Lecturer in Digital Media and Communication. Elisa started university life in Italy at the University of Siena (Italy), where she got her BA(Hon) degree in Literature and Philosophy: Arts, Music and Performing Arts, and later an MPhil in Literature and Philosophy: Cinema, TV and Multimedia Production at Roma TRE (Italy). Elisa conducted part of her studies at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London and at Macquarie University in Sydney (Australia). 

Elisa received her PhD in 2015 from the University of Hull (United Kingdom) in Media, Communication and Society with a research project titled Digital Life on Instagram: Social Communication of Photography, which was published by Emerald in 2018.   

Interests and expertise

Since her first studies, Elisa has always been interested in and passionate about i) digital media, iii) mobile media and iii) visual culture. 

Get in touch

5.12 Geoffrey Manton Building
Thursdays 2:00 - 4:00 pm (email appointment is required)

Projects

Elisa worked at the University of Sheffield for six years as a researcher, where she secured a British Academy Small Grant and and Arts and Humanities Research Council Leadership Fellowship for the study of drones in society and visual culture.

AHRC ‘Drones in Visual Culture: Developing a New Theory of Visual Mobile Communication’. Elisa Serafinelli (PI) (£177,857).

BA ‘Users’ and Developers’ Perspectives on Drone Usage’. Elisa Serafinelli (PI) (£7,811). 

More info here: https://visualsociety.net/

Teaching

Digital Media Project (UG)

The Digital Individual (UG),

Digital Society, Culture and Communication (UG),

Social Networking and Digital Media in Everyday Life (UG),

Theoretical Themes in Social Networking and Digital Media (UG),

Digital Rights Law (PG),

Digital Rights Ethics (PG).

Digital Media and Communications

The world of digital media is a rapidly changing one that rewards hard work and creativity – if you’re looking to plug yourself in, we’re here to help.
This is a degree made fo…

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Library and Information Management

Recognised and approved by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), this route prepares graduates of all disciplines for a career in the modern information society acr…

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Supervision

I welcome students with research projects concerning the relationships between new digital technologies, our society and visual culture. This includes qualitative research methods and digital research methods.

Research outputs

PUBLICATIONS

Books

  1. Serafinelli E. (eds.) [under contract]: Drones in Society: New Visual Aesthetics. London: Palgrave Pivot (book series Visual Sociology).
  1. Serafinelli E. [under contract]: Theorising Drones in Visual Culture: Views from the Blue. London: Palgrave.
  1. Serafinelli E. (2018): Digital Life on Instagram. New Social Communication of Photography. Bingley: Emerald.
  1. Karatzogianni A., Nguyen D., and Serafinelli E. (eds.) (2016): The Digital Transformation of the Public Sphere. London:Palgrave McMillan.

Book Chapters

  1. Serafinelli E. and O’Hagan L. A. (2022): Researching Instagram: Computer-Mediated Research Methods in Practice. SAGE Research Methods Cases. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781529604009
  1. Serafinelli E. (2016): ‘Italian Migrants and Photosharing Practices in the UK’, in Karatzogianni A., Nguyen D., and Serafinelli E. (eds): The Digital Transformation of the Public Sphere. London:Palgrave McMillan, pp. 341-362.

Refereed Publications

  1. O’Hagan L. and Serafinelli E. (2023): Rethinking Verticality through Top-down Views in Drone Hobbyist Photography, Visual Studies, doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2023.2201239
  1. O’Hagan L. and Serafinelli E. (2022): Transhistoricizing the Drone: A Comparative Visual Social Semiotic Analysis of Pigeon and Domestic Drone Photography, Photography and Culture. DOI: 10.1080/17514517.2022.2116899
  1. Serafinelli E. and O’Hagan L. A. (2022): Drone Views: A Multimodal Ethnographic Perspective, Visual Communication. https://doi.org/10.1177/14703572211065093
  1. Serafinelli E. (2022): Imagining the Social Future of Drones, Convergence. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565211054904
  1. Serafinelli E. (2020): Networked Remembrance in the time of Insta-Memory, Special Issue: Studying Instagram beyond Selfies, Social Media+Society, 6(3), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120940799
  1. Serafinelli E. and Cox A. (2019): “Privacy does not interest me” A comparative analysis of photosharing on Instagram and Blipfoto, Visual Studies, 34(1), 67-78.  https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2019.1621194
  1. Petersen L., Fallou L., Reilly P., and Serafinelli E. (2018): Public expectations of critical infrastructure operators in times of crisis. Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure. https://doi.org/10.1080/23789689.2018.1469358
  1. Serafinelli E. and Villi M. (2018): Mobile Mediated Visualities: An Empirical Study of Visual Practices on Instagram. Digital, Culture & Society, 3(2), 165-182. https://doi.org/10.14361/dcs-2017-0210
  1. Petersen, L., Fallou, L., Reilly, P., and Serafinelli, E. (2017). European Expectations of Disaster Information provided by Critical Infrastructure Operators: Lessons from Portugal, France, Norway and Sweden. International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (IJISCRAM), 9(4), 23-48. doi:10.4018/IJISCRAM.2017100102
  1. Serafinelli E. (2017): Analysis of Photo Sharing and Visual Social Relationships. Instagram as Case Study. Photographies, 10(1), 91-111. https://doi.org/10.1080/17540763.2016.1258657

  • Books (authored/edited/special issues)

    Serafinelli, E. (2018) DIGITAL LIFE ON INSTAGRAM: New Social Communication of Photography.

    Karatzogianni, A., Nguyen, D., Serafinelli, E. (2016) Preface and acknowledgements.

  • Chapters in books

    Petersen, L., Fallou, L., Reilly, P., Serafinelli, E. (2022) 'Expectations vs. practice in critical infrastructure operator crisis communication: Lessons learned from Portugal, France, Norway, and Sweden.' Research Anthology on Managing Crisis and Risk Communications. pp. 633-659.

    Serafinelli, E., O'Hagan, L. (2022) 'Researching Instagram: Computer-Mediated Research Methods in Practice.' Sage Publications,

    Karatzogianni, A., Nguyen, D., Serafinelli, E. (2016) 'Introduction: The digital transformation of the public sphere.' The Digital Transformation of the Public Sphere: Conflict, Migration, Crisis and Culture in Digital Networks. pp. 1-433.

    Serafinelli, E. (2016) 'Italian migrants and photo sharing in the UK.' The Digital Transformation of the Public Sphere: Conflict, Migration, Crisis and Culture in Digital Networks. pp. 341-361.

  • Journal articles

    O’Hagan, L.A., Serafinelli, E. (2023) 'Rethinking verticality through top-down views in drone hobbyist photography.' Visual Studies, pp. 1-14.

    O’Hagan, L.A., Serafinelli, E. (2022) 'Transhistoricizing the drone: a comparative visual social semiotic analysis of pigeon and domestic drone photography.' Photography and Culture, 15(4) pp. 327-351.

    Serafinelli, E., O’Hangan, L.A. (2022) 'Drone views: a multimodal ethnographic perspective.' Visual Communication,

    Serafinelli, E. (2022) 'Imagining the social future of drones.' Convergence, 28(5) pp. 1376-1391.

    Serafinelli, E. (2020) 'Networked remembrance in the time of Insta-Memories.' Social Media + Society, 6(3)

    Petersen, L., Fallou, L., Reilly, P., Serafinelli, E. (2020) 'Public expectations of critical infrastructure operators in times of crisis.' Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure, 5(1-2) pp. 62-77.

    Serafinelli, E., Cox, A. (2019) '‘Privacy does not interest me’. A comparative analysis of photo sharing on Instagram and Blipfoto.' Visual Studies, 34(1) pp. 67-78.

    Serafinelli, E., Villi, M. (2017) 'Mobile mediated visualities: an empirical study of visual practices on Instagram.' Digital Culture and Society, 3(2) pp. 165-182.

    Petersen, L., Fallou, L., Reilly, P., Serafinelli, E. (2017) 'European Expectations of Disaster Information provided by Critical Infrastructure Operators.' International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, 9(4) pp. 23-48.

    Serafinelli, E. (2017) 'Analysis of photo sharing and visual social relationships: Instagram as a case study.' Photographies, 10(1) pp. 91-111.

  • Conference papers

    Petersen, L., Fallou, L., Reilly, P., Serafinelli, E. (2019) 'Public expectations of social media use by critical infrastructure operators during crises: lessons learned from France.' 516. pp. 177-189.

    Petersen, L., Fallou, L., Havârneanu, G., Reilly, P., Serafinelli, E., Bossu, R. (2018) 'November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks and social media use: Preliminary findings from authorities, critical infrastructure operators and journalists.' 2018-May. pp. 629-638.

    Reilly, P., Serafinelli, E., Stevenson, R., Petersen, L., Fallou, L. (2018) 'Enhancing critical infrastructure resilience through information-sharing: Recommendations for European critical infrastructure operators.' 10766 LNCS. pp. 120-125.

    Petersen, L., Fallou, L., Reilly, P., Serafinelli, E. (2017) 'Should CI operators use social media to communicate with the public during crisis situations?: Lessons learned from a pilot study in Oslo Harbour.' 2018-January. pp. 1-6.

    Petersen, L., Fallou, L., Reilly, P., Serafinelli, E. (2017) 'Public Expectations of Disaster Information Provided by Critical Infrastructure Operators: Lessons Learned from Barreiro, Portugal.' 301. pp. 193-203.

    Petersen, L., Fallou, L., Reilly, P., Serafinelli, E. (2017) 'Public expectations of social media use by critical infrastructure operators in crisis communication.' 2017-May. pp. 522-531.

    Serafinelli, E., Reilly, P. (2016) 'SPEAK: Crisis communication during cascading disasters.' pp. 559-561.