Rens Vliegenthart is a full professor of Media and Society at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam. He is also the scientific director of ASCoR. Rens received his PhD in Social Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2007 (cum laude) and held visiting positions at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Southern Denmark.
His research focuses on the analyses of media content and effects, both on citizens and public opinion, as well as on politicians and political decision making. Rens specializes in (automated) content analysis and time series analysis. His research is published in a wide range of journals in communication science, political science, and sociology, and is funded by grants from the Dutch science foundation (e.g. VENI, VIDI, NWA).
Rens is also editor of Acta Politica, the journal of the Dutch Political Science foundation and one of the members of the editorial board and regular contributor to the popular-scientific blog StukRoodVlees, and member of the advisory council of the Social Sciences and Humanities section of the Dutch science foundation NWO.