Miriam Kroman Brems defended her PhD dissertation in April at the Department of Media Studies and Journalism at Aarhus University. In her PhD, she investigated the use of so-called alternative news media in Denmark. The term refers to online news sites that position themselves as a corrective to traditional news media. Their news content is politically biased and often critical of established news media and politicians. In the project, Miriam has studied how widespread the use of alternative news media is in Denmark, why this type of news content appeals to parts of the population, and how the use of alternative news media is related to (lower) trust in traditional news media and politicians, political polarisation, populist attitudes, and choice of party.

In SHAPE, Miriam will be part of Anja Bechmann's project "YouTube as an infrastructure for influence on citizens' values, beliefs and behaviour," which focuses on Danes' use of YouTube - a social media platform that a large proportion of Danes use, but which we still have only limited knowledge about in a research context. Miriam will furthermore help investigate what characterises opinion leaders on YouTube and how social media influencers can influence their followers' political attitudes and political actions.

Miriam recently contributed to an essay series by Magtudredningen 2.0 about the use of alternative news media in Denmark.