Professor Tao Papaioannou

Tao Papaioannou is Professor at the University of Nicosia. She has a BA degree in Communication with a double major in Public Relations/Journalism, an MA in Communication and a PhD in Communication/Information Management.

Prior to moving to Cyprus, Tao practised public relations and taught communication in the U.S. Her practical experience includes both not-for-profit and corporate public relations. She worked at the National Geographic Society of America, managing the Society’s state alliances in the Midwest region. She also undertook several campaign projects for private businesses as well as charity organizations. She then studied and taught in the Department of Communication at the University of Arizona. While at the University of Arizona, she contributed to several research projects funded by large public and private organizations/agencies including the US army. Since she moved to Cyprus, individually or in collaboration with other researchers, she has received a number of large grants from the EU/Cyprus Institute for the Promotion of Research.

Tao’s current research interests include digital media and political and civic participation, media literacy and education, social media and youth practice, digital media and learning and research methodology for studying networked communication. She is author/coauthor of many journal articles and book chapters on these subjects and a guest editor of a special issue of the academic journal “Media Studies” on critical insights in European media literacy research and policy (with Sonia Livingstone) and a special issue of “Cyprus Review” on media representation and the 2013 Cypriot financial and political crises (with Michael Hadjimichael). Her latest book is Media representations of anti-austerity protests in the EU: Grievances, identities and agency (with Suman Gupta, Routledge, 2018). Also, she has served on advisory boards and management committees of EU funded research actions and projects including, most recently, the Cypriot expert panel for FRANET (the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2014-present) and the Expert Advisory Board of the Horizon Project Europe (2013-present).