Dr Miriam Rahali

Dr Miriam Rahali

Visiting Fellow

Department of Media and Communications

Languages
English
Key Expertise
Advertising and branding, Children and media, Consumer behaviour

About me

Dr Miriam Rahali is a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Her current research focuses on the intersection of children and media, with a specific interest in advertising, consumer behavior, digital literacy and skills development.

As a Visiting Fellow, Dr Rahali will contribute to three papers: the first paper examines cross-cultural research methodologies on ICT engagement, and calls into question the extent to which global conceptualizations reflect local realities and inhibit the decolonialisation of knowledge production in digital societies; another paper aims to understand how practices of digital engagement impact adolescents suffering from mental disorders, and asks whether these impacts are different from those without mental disorders; and the third paper uses Critical Race Theory as a framework to analyse children’s media and exposure to contemporary social ideas.

During this time, Dr Rahali also hopes to convert her doctoral thesis into a book that not only considers how the interrelated social, economic and political crises of the 21st century have fundamentally reconfigured the American social contract, but also assesses the implications for the construction of the ideal Millennial constituent.

Expertise Details

Advertising and branding; Children and media; Consumer behaviour; Crisis communication; Digital inequalities; Generations; Gender; Inclusive education; Parenting; Representation; Research methods

Research

Dr. Rahali's current research projects include:

Dr. Rahali holds an undergraduate degree in Urban Studies and Political Science from Columbia University. She has obtained two Master’s degrees: one in Special Education and the other in Media and Communications. She earned her PhD from the LSE.

She has been drawn to research topics that speak to issues of social inclusion and equality. As a Teach for America corps member (who served three years at a public high school in Harlem, NY), Dr. Rahali has made a lifelong commitment to expand educational opportunity. She has ten years of research experience in methods such as survey design, interviewing, content analysis and textual analysis. Her earliest experience of translating research initiatives into practical policy and programmatic outcomes was during her time as Education Director for a disability-focused non-profit. She took her own personal understanding of social stigma to develop a cross-cultural educational program with UNICEF that has since been implemented in various cultural contexts, from the Middle East to South America.

Dr. Rahali is a service-oriented educator and scholar committed to mentorship, development, and understanding organizational learning as well as the role of media in culture and education. Her professional experiences include leading research and growth, as well as administrative and operational teams in secondary and higher-education institutions. She has more than three years of teaching experience at the undergraduate and post-graduate level. She has lectured at Columbia, Cambridge and the LSE. Additional responsibilities include course development, provision of feedback, seminar teaching, one-on-one office hour instruction, small group supervision, and marking. Her pedagogical approach has been shaped by an intersectional orientation, as well as a broader orientation towards feminist pedagogy and praxis, striving to promote a sense of access and inclusion.   

Dr. Rahali is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

Teaching and Supervision

During her time at LSE, Dr. Rahali has taught on the following modules in the Department of Media and Communications, the Department of Methodology, the Department of Sociology, the Department of Gender Studies, and the EDEN Teaching and Learning Centre:

  •  SO221: Researching London
  • MC425: Interpersonal Mediated Communication
  • MC4M1: Methods of Research in Media and Communications
  • MY451: Introduction to Quantitative Analysis
  • MY464: Introduction to Quantitative Methods for Media and Communications
  • G1499: Independent Research Project
  • LSE GROUPS: (Research Supervisor)
  • LSE Change Makers Initiative: (Research Mentor)

Publications

  • Livingstone, S. & Rahali, M. (2022). #SponsoredAds: Monitoring influencer marketing to young audiences. Media Policy Briefs (23). London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
  • Orgad, S., Lemish, D., Rahali, M., & Floegel, D. (2021). Representations of migration in U.K. and U.S. children's picture books in the Trump and Brexit era. Journal of Children and Media, 15(4), 549-567.
  • Rahali, M. (2021). On the Genealogy of the American Millennial Ideal: A Celebrity Case Study of Neoliberal Feminism in the 21st Century  [Doctoral dissertation, The London School of Economics and Political Science]. LSE Theses Online. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/4338/

Blog Posts 

  • Livingstone, S. & Rahali, M. (2022). Legal, honest and truthful: Advertising to children in the age of influencers. Media@LSE. 10 February 2022. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/2022/02/10/legal-decent-honest-and-truthful-advertising-to-children-in-the-digital-age/ 
  • Rahali, M. (2022). Unlocked potential: Open-access tools to jump-start the literature review process. Children Online: Research and Evidence. 21 February 2022. https://core-evidence.eu/articles/open-access-tools 
  • Rahali, M. (2022). Approaches to developing a conceptual paper. Children Online: Research and Evidence. 17 February 2022. https://core-evidence.eu/articles/theory-in-practice 
  • Rahali, M. (2021). (Un)Boxing day: Kidfluencers reprise role as Santa’s Little Helpers. Parenting for a Digital Future. 8 December 2021. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2021/12/08/kidfluencers/ 
  • Rahali, M. (2019). The Change Makers are here. LSE Higher Education. 14 August 2019. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2019/08/14/the-change-makers-are-here/ 
  • Rahali, M. (2017). Tiger Mom 2.0: (Over)parenting for a digital future? Parenting for a Digital Future. 7 June 2017. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2017/06/06/tiger-mom-2-0-overprinting-for-a-digital-future/ 

Editorial Acknowledgements 

  • Couldry, N., Rodriguez, C., Bolin, G., Cohen, J., Goggin, G., Kraidy, M. M., and Wasserman, H. (2017). Media and communications. Rethinking Society for the 21st Century: Report of the International Panel on Social Progress. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Couldry, N., and Hepp, A. (2018). The Mediated Construction of Reality. John Wiley & Sons. 
  • Pineda, V.S. (2020). Building the Inclusive City: Governance, Access, and the Urban Transformation of Dubai. Springer Nature.
  • Pineda, V. S. (2010). The Capability Model of Disability: Assessing the Success of UAE Federal Law No. 29 of 2006 in the Emirate of Dubai. University of California, Los Angeles.
  • The LSE Truth, Trust and Technology Commission. (2018). Tackling the Information Crisis: A Policy Framework for Media System Resilience. The London School of Economics.

Conference Papers 

  • Rahali, M. (2022). All are Welcome: The Critical Race to Squaring the Circle of Oneness. The 72nd Annual International Communication Association Conference. Paris, France. 
  • Al-Sumait, F., Helsper, E., & Rahali, M. (2021). Cross-cultural Complexities in Digital Inequalities Research: A Case Study of Kuwait. International Association for Media and Communications Research Conference. Nairobi, Kenya.
  • Rahali, M. (2021). Rethinking the Boundary of Emergency: The Millennial Generation in Crisis. International Association for Media and Communications Research Conference. Nairobi, Kenya.
  • Rahali, M. (2021). The Crisis of Neoliberal Feminism: Care in the Time of Covid. The 71st Annual International Communication Association Conference. Denver, CO, USA.  
  • Rahali, M. (2020). Generation ‘Y’: Conditions of Imaginability of the Gendered, Raced and Classed Millennial Subject. New Directions in Feminist Thought: In Times of Urgency, Anger and Activism. London, United Kingdom.
  • Rahali, M. (2019). Let’s Get in Formation: Subjectivity and Independence in the 21st Century. International Association for Media and Communications Research Conference. Madrid, Spain. 
  • Rahali, M. (2019). The Girl Next Door. The 69th Annual International Communication Association Conference. Washington DC, USA. 
  • Rahali, M. (2018). The Eco Chamber: #GreenIsTheNewBlack. International Association for Media and Communications Research Conference. Eugene, OR, USA.