Rodolfo Leyva

University of Birmingham · School of Social Policy

There is growing worldwide concern that the rampant spread of digital fake news (DFN) via new media technologies is detrimentally impacting Democratic elections. However, the actual influence of this recent Internet phenomenon on electoral decisions has not been directly examined. Accordingly, this study tested the effects of attention to DFN on re...

In the UK, conservative tabloids (CTs) have over the past 20 years, increasingly exposed their large readerships to highly negative and emotionalized depictions of immigrants. This survey-experiment tested the direct and indirect effects of consuming such reporting on accordant sociopolitical judgements. Findings suggest that exposure to typical Br...

The aim of this article is to provide a contemporary reminder on why media ethics matter and why industry-wide compliance with them can only be realised through the governmental drafting and imposition of enforceable regulations and penalties. To this end, the article proceeds in three parts. Part I commences with an overview of the standard and wi...

Following the 2007–2008 global financial crisis, a number of prominent academics, journalists, and activists were quick to pronounce the demise of neoliberal capitalism and governance. This rather optimistic prediction, however, underestimated the extent to which neoliberalism has shaped the 21st-century world order and become entrenched in our soc...

The Russell Group constitutes an association of twenty-four elite British public universities, and plays a leading role in influencing the values, ambitions, and practices of domestic and international higher education institutions. Correspondingly, this quantitative content analysis examines the latest education strategy statements of said group’s...

For over two decades now, neoliberalism has been at the forefront of discussions not only in the economy and finance but has infiltrated our vocabulary in a number of areas as diverse as governance studies, criminology, health care, jurisprudence, education etc. Its economistic language associated with the promotion of effectiveness and efficiency...

This experimental study draws on cultivation, dispositional materialism, and schema theories to test the effects of commercial media viewing on material values and welfare support. Data were collected from a cross-sectional British sample using a web-survey priming methodology (N = 487, ages 18–49). Findings suggest that (a) materialism and anti-we...

Disconcerting findings from nascent sociological research suggest that Western youth are developing subjectivities that reflect neoliberal discursive formations of self-interest, competitiveness, and materialism. However, propositions about: (1) the cognitive-affective mechanisms that explain how youth acquire and reproduce neoliberal ideology, or...

This study explores how UK young adults’ exposure to social networking sites (SNSs) and attention to specific SNS content relate to their political practices. Data were collected from a diverse group of undergraduates during the 2015 General Election and Labour leadership campaign via a web survey designed with novel instruments (e.g., simulated Fa...

This paper presents findings about young people’s experiences with online pornography. It draws on data from the first national survey of secondary school boys and girls regarding their attitudes and feelings about online pornography, whether viewing it deliberately or accidentally. To our knowledge, this is the most extensive survey of 11-16 year...

This paper is the final report of a quantitative and qualitative piece of research commissioned by the NSPCC and Children's Commissioner for England, regarding young people's feelings about and experiences of online pornography.

This paper reflects on the evaluation of and findings from a nationwide programme of physics engagement activities hosted by 10 science centres across the UK. We discuss our findings indicating the affordances of the programme with reference to the wider literature in order to draw out elements of the project that may be useful for other science le...

Disheartened by the rise of fascism in Western Europe and mass consumerism in the US, the 1930s group of exiled German intellectuals collectively known as the Frankfurt School, sought to investigate why significant numbers of individuals from advanced industrial societies seemed to so willingly succumb to hierarchical political-economic structures...