PhD Student Position in News Media Framing with LLMs at Idiap (Switzerland)
Daniel Gatica-Perez
The Social Computing Group at Idiap Research Institute seeks qualified candidates for a PhD student position at the intersection of human-AI interaction and natural language processing. The position is supported by the DEMO-AI interdisciplinary project, as part of the Hasler-Mercator Digitalization and Democracy Program.
The DEMO-AI project brings together a team of researchers in computing, law, journalism, and media and information literacy to design AI-based media tools that align with democratic values, journalistic practices, human rights, and regulatory frameworks. The project will develop human-centered methods to analyze media framing and detect manipulation of audio-visual media, while advancing legal research on regulatory frameworks for AI and disinformation, and engaging the public and professionals through participatory activities.
The PhD student will investigate LLM-based methods to characterize framing in news media, including methods to improve interpretability of LLM inferences and to expand the range of framing insights that can be extracted from news media. The resulting tools will be designed and evaluated engaging the two target groups (public and professionals.) The PhD student will interact with other researchers and impact partners, including Swiss media companies.
Suitable candidates will hold a master’s degree in computer science, artificial intelligence, or related fields. They will have a background in natural language processing, machine learning, human-AI interaction, or social computing, and should have strong programming skills. Given the project focus on media and democracy in Switzerland, an interest in or knowledge of the Swiss political and media contexts, and interest in participatory methods, are valued.
The successful candidate will be supervised by Prof. Daniel Gatica-Perez and become a doctoral student at EPFL, Lausanne (https://www.epfl.ch), conditional on a parallel application to, and acceptance by, the EPFL Doctoral School. Appointment for a PhD position is for a maximum of four years. Starting date is expected to be March 2026. All queries related to the position can be sent to Prof. Daniel Gatica-Perez (gat...@idiap.ch).
Idiap is a research institute of national importance that engages in fundamental research, education, and technology transfer in artificial intelligence. Idiap offers competitive salaries and conditions in a dynamic, multicultural environment, and a world-class AI research community. Idiap is located in Martigny in Valais, a scenic region in the south of Switzerland, surrounded by the highest mountains of Europe, and offering exceptional quality of life.
Applications should be submitted by December 31, 2025. Please apply on the Idiap jobs site
Idiap is committed to diversity and inclusion in our recruitment process and encourages applications from all qualified individuals.