Paddy Hoey is a lecturer in media and his research interests are in the areas of activist media, mediated politics, the public sphere and the internet, social media, Northern Irish politics and Irish republican activism. His wider interests lie in the analysis of the effects of citizen and activist journalism on the public sphere, the development of new political identities online and political communication. He has published articles on Irish republican and loyalist activist media for New Hibernia Review, Cambridge Scholars Press, Kritika Kultura and University of Manchester Press. Prior to joining the higher education sector, he was a journalist on local and regional newspapers, including the Liverpool Daily Post and the Liverpool Echo, and has been a presenter and contributor to the radio stations City Talk FM and BBC Radio Merseyside.