Team

Roderick Flynn,
Dr Roderick Flynn is a researcher and lecturer in the DCU School of Communications. His research interests are diverse and span the social history of communication, political economy of the media, telecommunication and broadcasting policy, and the history of media technology.
In recent years a major focus of his research has been on questions of media ownership and media concentration. Roddy was part of a vast international study, the results of which are due to be published later this year in a book called Who Owns the World’s Media. Roddy is providing the research for the European University Institute's Media Pluralism Monitor, and launched and operated the database Mediaownership.ie.

Claire English, Research Fellow
Claire joined FuJo in July 2023. She has a PhD in Communications from DCU which examined changing media consumption practices and civic engagement.
Claire is interested in the continuities and changes in audience behaviour over time and the relationship between news consumption, civic engagement and future of funding for media organisations.
She is an audience research specialist with experience working in news media organisations and market research. Before joining FuJo she was Head of Research for The Irish Times Group and also worked with BBC and REDC Research. Throughout her career she has gained extensive experience working across qualitative and quantitative research projects.

Shane Murphy, Researcher

Maya Browne, is a multi-disciplinary designer and a recent graduate from the Institute of Art Design and Technology in Dun Laoghaire (IADT). Previously, she has interned for a design agency called Plexgroup in Berlin. She has worked on many projects since and developed a keen interest in brand identity design and design for change. Her final project in IADT focused on the harmful effects of misinformation on social media.

DCU Language Services, provided the translation of the MOM Ireland website.

Lea Auffarth, Head of Operations GMR
Lea coordinates the implementation of the Media Ownership Monitor's editions, and was in charge of the project management of the MOM Ireland.
Previously, Lea has worked for the press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders, where she coordinated the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) and headed the development of its IT infrastructure. Other work on media transparency, literacy, and ethics include the ‘Media Ownership Monitor’ (MOM) and Lebanese Samir Kassir Foundation’s ‘Digital Rights Project’.
Lea is a trained journalist and has worked with the German public broadcaster WDR as well as regional press, and holds a Master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from King’s College London.


The MOM project is jointly carried out by FuJo and GMR with co-funding from the European Commission, as part of the Euromedia Ownership Monitor project.

The Dublin City University's Institute of Future Media, Democracy and Society (FuJo) is a multidisciplinary research centre focused on the digital transformation of media, democracy, and society. FuJo investigates how to counter digital pathologies including disinformation and digital hate; how to enhance public participation through democratic innovations; and how to secure the sustainability of high-quality journalism.

In 2023, FuJo and Global Media Registry (GMR) have joined forces to implement the Media Ownership Monitor (MOM) project in Ireland.

Staff at the DCU School of Communications designed and maintained the database mediaownership.ie. The project is an initiative of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) in the context of its statutory requirement to conduct research relating to the plurality of the media in Ireland and to publish such research. The BAI committed to developing this database when it published its Media Plurality Policy in 2019 and the database is framed by the definition of “media business” contained in this policy and the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 (the 2014 Act). The database has been designed to be a useful reference point for the implementation of the Media Mergers section of the 2014 Act, in particular, the BAI’s requirement to produce a report every three years that provides an analysis of the impact of relevant ownership and control changes on the plurality of media in the state.

The Global Media Registry (GMR) is a social enterprise that promotes transparency, accountability and diversity in the information space.

The Media Ownership Monitor has been conceived in 2015 and implemented until 2019 by the German section of Reporters Without Borders, with funding from the Federal German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.