Claudia Sarmento is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Culture, Media, and Creative Industries Department at King's. Her current research focuses on environmental journalism, climate justice narratives, and the role of independent media in Brazil and Latin America. This study is funded by UKRI and was awarded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, in partnership with King’s College London (KCL) and Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). Claudia is the author of Alternative News Reporting in Brazil (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) and holds a PhD in Media and Communication from the University of Westminster. With over 25 years of experience as a journalist, she has worked for O Globo, GloboNews, and Folha de S.Paulo as a reporter, editor, and foreign correspondent. Claudia has also taught as a lecturer at King’s College London (CMCI and Digital Humanities), PUC-Rio, and the University of Westminster. Her research interests include journalism studies, digital media and communication, environmental communication, and decolonial studies.

Research interests and PhD supervision

I am interested in digital media and journalism, with a particular focus on Latin America and environmental communication. I am passionate about exploring how communication theories intersect with practice, and how digital content management can contribute to inclusive and justice-oriented narratives.

I look forward to supervising students in the following areas:

• Digital media and communication theories
• Journalism and news practices
• Environmental and climate communication
• Latin American media and communication
• Practice-based media projects

Teaching

Claudia teaches in the fields of digital media, digital content management, theories in communication, journalism, and dissertation projects, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She has designed and delivered courses in London and Rio de Janeiro, combining theoretical perspectives with hands-on training to equip students with critical and practical skills for the evolving media landscape.

Expertise and public engagement

Claudia brings extensive experience as both a journalist and an academic, drawing on a long career in major Brazilian newsrooms and on her teaching and research roles in the United Kingdom and Brazil. She is frequently invited by students to share insights from significant news coverages and to reflect on the evolving role of journalism. More recently, she led a public conversation at PUC-Rio on the challenges of COP 30 — the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be hosted in Belém, Brazil, in 2025 — and the future of socio-environmental reporting. She also participated in a panel organized by the Brazil Institute at King’s College London, where she discussed expectations for COP 30 and highlighted the importance of inclusive, justice-oriented narratives in environmental journalism.

Selected publications

Book:

• Alternative News Reporting in Brazil (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

Papers:

• Peripheries in Podcasting: A Rapper Against the Journalistic Flow. Sarmento, C., & Fraga, P. (2025). Emerging Media, 3(1), 101-124. https://doi.org/10.1177/27523543251324591
• Understanding Viral Communism: A thematic analysis of Twitter during Brazil’s 2018 elections. Levy, H., & Sarmento, C. (2019). Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture. DOI: http://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.322
• Watching the 2016 Olympics on Brazil’s alternative media: From platform hijack to discourse autonomy. Levy, H., & Sarmento, C. (2018). Journalism. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884918802525