Ellen (EJ) Helsper

Dr Ellen Helsper is Professor of Digital Inequalities at the Department of Media and Communications at LSE, where she also serves as Programme Director for the MSc Media and Communications (Research). Her current research interests include the links between social and digital inequalities; mediated interpersonal communication; participatory immersive digital spaces (VR, ER); and quantitative and qualitative methodological developments in media and communications research.

The three main research projects she is involved in are the From Digital Skills to Tangible Outcomes; the Global Kids Online and the Connected Cities and Inclusive Growth projects.  Other studies she has been involved in include the Impact of marketing through social media, online games and mobile applications on children's behaviour; the World Internet Project, Wisekids Wales; Youth at risks and ICTs; Social Impacts of ICT; Net Addiction; Me, My Spouse and the Internet; and Online Gambling.

Ellen holds positions as a Visiting Scholar at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, and the Centro Regional de Estudos para o Desenvolvimento da Sociedade da Informação Latino America (Cetic.br). She has held similar positions at Microsoft research in Boston, NYU Steinhardt’s department of Media, Culture and Communications, the University of Twente and the University of Oxford. Ellen consults widely for governments, the third and commercial sectors on issues to do with client and citizen engagement in increasingly digital societies. In addition, she has worked in Chile, Mexico and the US in commercial market and audience research.