David Girling

David Girling is an Associate Professor and Director of Research Communication in the School of Global Development (DEV) at the University of East Anglia, UK.

David’s research focuses on two main areas: social media for development and humanitarian communication. He is particularly interested in ethical storytelling and led on a research study of NGO visual communication by conducting focus groups in six African countries. His latest research, Charity Representations of Distant Others analyses six months of charity adverts in UK national newspapers.

David is a Chartered Marketer with over 25 years marketing and communications experience in the public and non-profit sector. David has been actively involved on a number of committees and judging panels including The Chartered Institute of Marketing Higher Education Group, The Chartered Institute of Marketing Charity Group, HEIST Awards for Marketing Excellence and the Rusty/Golden Radiator awards for online videos promoting best practice in development communication. His interests are multidisciplinary, but he has particular expertise in strategic marketing, communications, storytelling, branding, digital and social media.

David is Director of the MSc Global Development Management course at the University of East Anglia and teaches on a variety of different modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.