Sophie Bishop

Profile

I completed my PhD in 2018 at the University of East London. I have previously held positions at King’s College London as a Lecturer in Digital Marketing and Communication, then as a Lecturer in Cultural and Creative Industries at the University of Sheffield. 

Research interests

I research how creative work and promotional cultures are increasingly shaped by social media platforms, and the implications for labour, representation and discrimination. I specialise in influencer ecologies, looking at how 'influencer' practices have spilled out into other creative industries. 

I have published in journals such as Social Media + Society, New Media & Society and the Sociological Review. I have also published op-eds in Paper Magazine and Real Life Magazine, and regularly gives comment to media such as the Financial Times, the BBC, The Atlantic and Vice.

I was the Specialist Advisor for the UK Department of Digital Media, Culture and Sport's parliamentary inquiry into 'influencer culture'. I am a co-author on a 2022 report 'The impact of influencers on advertising and consumer protection in the Single Market' for EU Parliament and am currently collaborating with the European Commission to create resources to help influencers understand consumer protection legislation in the EU. 

My current projects include:

• Studying how influencers experience creative work, platforms and consumer regulation.
• Looking at how artists and craftspeople use social media platforms to promote their work.
• The development of a public facing research method - Algorithmic Autobiographies and Fictions - a project that encourages participants to use their ad data as a creative prompt for fiction writing and artistic interpretation.