Dr. Minttu Tikka is a Postdoctoral Researcher in CRAI-CIS (CRitical AI and Crisis Interrogatives) research group in the Department of Computer Science at Aalto University, a Research Manager (part-time) at The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), and a Visiting Researcher in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki.

Her background is in social sciences and media and communication studies. Working at the intersection of crises and disaster research, digital social sciences and digital methods, her research interests include media events of terrorist violence, crisis communication and management, disaster sociology, social media and datafication. She is also involved with developing and applying digital media ethnography and mixed-method approaches for the study of hybrid media environment. Her PhD thesis, at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences, examined the role and participation of ordinary people in crises through social media. Dr. Tikka has co-edited a Finnish method book for the study of internet and social media titled 'Otteita Verkosta. Verkon ja sosiaalisen median tutkimusmenetelmiä' (Vastapaino, 2013). Recently she has published articles on mediated violence, digital media ethnography and topic modelling and she is a co-author of the book 'Hybrid Media Events: The Charlie Hebdo Attacks and the Global Circulation of Terrorist Violence' (Emerald, 2018).

See list of publications on Orcid (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9887-5600).0000-0002-9887-5600).

At the Aalto University Dr. Tikka co-leads a working group on Design Research and Public Engagement in a 3-year Academy of Finland research project on Reconstructing Crisis Narratives for Trustworthy Communication and Cooperative Agency, jointly conducted with the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). The project aims to analyze crisis narratives using mixed-methods, combining qualitative research with computational data analytics of crisis discourses in news, health communications, and social media. In this project she examines the communicative practices of Finnish healthcare communication experts aiming to establish trust between citizens and authorities, use of metaphors in Finnish news media and the role of algorithms in crises. Currently she is initiating a study on the information gathering practices and computational tools designed for crisis management.

She is also affiliated with the “Liquid Forms of AI-infused Disinformation: Improving Information Resilience in the Finnish News Ecosystem” research project that was recently awarded by the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation.

Dr. Tikka has extensive experience on teaching. Since 2012 she has run e.g. annual courses on Crisis Communication and Management (Bachelor-level) and on Digital Research Methods (Master-level) at the University of Helsinki. At Aalto, she co-teaches a course on Participatory Practices and Social Change (Doctoral-level).

Dr. Tikka is member of editorial boards in Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication and Media & Viestintä (Finnish scientific journal on media and communication research). She was a vice-chair of Rajapinta Research Association 2016–2019 and a board member of the Finnish Association for Mass Communication Research 2008–2014. She is also an active member of ECREA's (European Communication Association) Crisis Communication Section.