Andrew Rowe

Organisation

Loughborough University

Job title

Postgraduate Researcher

Biography 

Andy/Andrew is a third year PhD researcher in the School of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough University writing a thesis which looks at the use of social media within the anti-airport expansion campaign at Heathrow using three groups as a representation of scale (national, regional and local). It investigates issues around Twitter and Facebook group dynamics, interaction patterns, communication flows and structural hierarchies to determine, among other things, whether social media is ‘unstructured’ and ‘leaderless,’ as suggested in certain literature. Andy is a co-founder and co-creator of the Loughborough University PhD Support Network, alongside Jordan Dawson. The PhD Support Network is a postgraduate research led network aiming to address what often feels like a forgotten cohort in the University system; particularly where emotional and social wellbeing is concerned. The network aims to provide a space where doctoral students can come and interact with others, in an informal and friendly environment, and talk about certain issues that may be affecting them. Andy is at the forefront of the Network dealing with the growing social network following using his knowledge gleaned from his PhD research.