In August 2016, I was in Rio for the 2016 Olympic Games. This was my 8th Olympic Games - 9, if you include the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games (which I do) - and each one has been very different. In Rio, I was accredited as media by the International Olympic Committee and this shaped my research. In the past, I've been focusing on the rise of new media populations, but since London 2012, I've been working much more with the media operations team to understand how social media has been utilized by accredited media within their journalism.  While in Rio, I wrote a series of articles for The Conversation, focusing on the rise of social media, how it was used, and the new Olympic Channel.

In August 2015, I attended the press launch for the Games - one year to go anniversary - and a protest which took place the same day. As with any Games, there are competing narratives around Rio 2016, and I'm keen to see how this translates into the media's coverage.