Mette Mortensen

Mette Mortensen is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Humanities. Her expertise centers on media and conflicts, with a particular focus on how digital media reconfigures the way conflicts are played out, represented and perceived. She has an extensive research portfolio examining the intersection of politics, popular culture, and social media platforms.

Her primary research interests include:

• Media and conflict
• Images and conflict
• Journalism studies
• Social media
• Celebrity studies
• Influencers

Mortensen's research explores how digital media transforms conflict representation and perception, with specific attention to polarization, populism, and misinformation through studies of memes, influencers, and anti-vax movements. Her work bridges theoretical frameworks with empirical analysis of contemporary media phenomena, particularly examining visual aspects of conflict reporting and eyewitness media.

Her research output includes 120 publications across various formats including journal articles, book chapters, anthologies, and books. Recent work focuses on AI in conflict documentation, social media images in conflicts, and war reporting in Ukraine, demonstrating her continued engagement with evolving media technologies and geopolitical events.

Mette Mortensen has received the Internationalization grant for female scholars at UCPH in 2009. She has been actively involved in academic service including serving on review committees at the Danish School of Media and Journalism and the University of Helsinki.

Her media engagement includes interviews on press coverage of the war in Syria, eyewitness images from Aleppo, and amateur images from conflict zones, reflecting the public relevance of her research on visual conflict reporting and digital media's role in conflict documentation.