Ellen Helsper is a lecturer in the Media and Communications Department of the LSE with a specialisation in Methods for Media and Communications Research. Her current research interests include the links between digital and social exclusion; mediated interpersonal communication; and quantitative and qualitative methodological developments in media research. The two main research projects she is involved in at the moment are the EU Kids Online (www.eukidsonline.net) project and the World Internet Project (www.worldinternetproject.net).

She is an Academic Advisor and Associate Lecturer at the Social Psychology and Media and Communications Departments at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica (PUC) in Chile and a Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute. She collaborates with the Institute for Prospective Technology Studies, UK Online Centres, the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education, the BBC and OFCOM, evaluating the impact of digital inclusion and digital literacy interventions. She has further held the roles of Specialist Advisor on Digital Inclusion for the Welsh Affairs Committee and External Examiner for the Institute of Arts, Design and Technology in Dublin. She has been a Visiting Scholar at NYU Steinhardt’s department of Media, Culture and Communications.

Ellen Helsper obtained her MSc-degree in media psychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands in 1998. This was followed by a period of work in Chile, New York and Mexico for the PUC and OMD USA. In 2007 she obtained a PhD in Media and Communications. This was followed by a position as Survey Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII, University of Oxford).