Hi there! I’m Brad Limov, a lecturer in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin. In a nutshell, my work examines how social movements and emerging tech like generative AI influence media practices and industry norms. I have a particular interest in communities of practice and how they interact within online spaces and offline at events.
You can find my research on Google Scholar and Research Gate.
As a publicly engaged scholar and educator, I often reflect on how my research can be useful to the communities that I study, teach, and participate in. The work I do is primarily ethnographic, grounded in gatherings and conversations where consensus that underpins media practice forms.
I received my PhD from the School of Journalism and Media at UT-Austin. My award-winning dissertation, Media Industry Events as Platforms for Social Justice: Moving from Inspiration to Impact in Creative Production, details how events catalyze change within industries more generally known for performative gestures. You can find a recent publication on one of my case studies in Critical Studies in Media Communication. Earlier work appeared in NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies.
My other research complements this dissertation by investigating the interactions between journalistic practices and social justice movements. This work, which benefited from research appointments and fellowships at UT-Austin’s Technology and Information Policy Institute, Solidarity Journalism Initiative, and Center for Media Engagement, addresses how activist organizing receives public attention through news media. This collaborative work is ongoing and has resulted in publications in Information, Communication & Society, Media and Communication, and Newspaper Research Journal.
I lived abroad for seven years prior to my arrival in Austin, first in China and then in Japan. During that time, I worked as an English language instructor and translator and received an MA in Cinema Studies from Nagoya University. My interest in cultures foreign to me and global media flows led to my first publication in the International Journal of Communication on US audiences for film and television produced abroad. While restrictions that came with the COVID-19 pandemic led to a focus on US-based case studies for my ethnographic work, I intend to return my scholarly attention to transpacific media and geopolitics in the future. In particular, the emerging multipolar world order and what it means for human rights and social justice as understood by the media makers and technology users I study is an interest of mine.