Tanya Hadzhieva

Profile

Biography

Tanya is a PhD student who started her degree in September 2026.

Her project examines how AI-driven media systems are reshaping the structures through which individuals form beliefs, interpret information, and engage with the social world, and the consequences this has for political behaviour and democratic governance. While digital platforms were initially understood as tools for communication and participation, they have evolved into complex, algorithmically mediated environments that actively structure attention, interaction, and perception (Gillespie, 2014; Bucher, 2018). Within these environments, influence is no longer limited to discrete acts of persuasion, but is embedded in the design and optimisation of systems that continuously shape behavioural responses.

The central premise of this research is that contemporary influence operates as a form of systemic power, exercised through the architecture of digital platforms and increasingly enhanced by artificial intelligence. These systems enable the scaling, personalisation, and automation of behavioural influence (Zuboff, 2019; Susser, Roessler & Nissenbaum, 2019), creating conditions in which patterns of manipulation and behavioural engineering become persistent features of everyday social interaction. As individuals navigate these environments, their perceptions, preferences, and responses are shaped in ways that have direct implications for political attitudes, participation, and the functioning of democratic institutions (Sunstein, 2017; Pariser, 2011). 

Education

MA Political Communications, Goldsmiths University, London