Research Unit Political Communication

Information

In research and teaching, our team deals with a broad spectrum of current and socially relevant issues in the areas of media content, media reception, media perceptions, media effects, media literacy and public opinion. Thematically, the focus is primarily on political and health communication. The contexts examined encompass the entire spectrum of media channels in the digitalized media world, from traditional journalism to social networks. A wide range of research methods are used, including traditional qualitative and quantitative methods such as surveys, experiments and content analysis as well as automated methods of media analysis.

Among others, current projects deal with the research questions like: How do people's media repertoires differ in digitalized media environments and why is this the case? How do people perceive the state of freedom of expression and what are the causes and consequences of these perceptions? When do people react to media attempts to influence them with reactance and what role do emotions play in this? How do people behave when they encounter hate speech on the internet and when do they help those affected?

Research projects