In our research and teaching, we focus on the dynamics of society and communication. We study media content, media use, and media effects. Two overarching research questions address our main perspective:

How do people communicate and learn about various issues and aspects of social ‘reality’– through the means of individual-level as well as mass communication?
How do these depictions of ‘reality’ affect individual recipients of communication as well as the media audience as a whole?

To answer these general questions, we study various topics and settings, for example:

How are social groups (e.g. ethnic minorities, people with disabilities) represented in the mass media? How do these portrayals affect prejudice against, stereotypes about, and behavior towards these groups among the general population?
How do the mass media cover political issues during campaigns? Which impact does this coverage have on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of citizens?
How do the dynamics of issues and frames unfold in media coverage as well as in the ‘pictures in our heads’?
Which part does emotion play in media effects on recipients?
Which part does emotion play in media effects on recipients?
How does advertising affect perceptions, attitudes, and consumer behavior? What is special about the effects of program-integrated advertising, e.g. product placements?
What impact do portrayals of ideals of attractiveness have on individuals’ body image and health-related behavior?
How do presumptions about media and their effects shape the production, use, and effects of media content?

Former employees

The project idea originates from the energy transition projects in Germany that are partly meeting resistance. The federal ministry wants to promote the expansion of renewable energies as quickly as possible, but at the same time involve the population comprehensively. In this field of tension, the ENVIKO project is trying to find out in experimental studies to what extent visualization technologies with 3D representations can help to offer innovative participation. The realistic representation and experience in virtual space, for example of wind farms, is increasingly becoming a standard in planning procedures, but so far without the possibility of interaction between the users. Options for participation, feedback and queries are not exhausted.

This is where the research project comes in, using elaborate 3D platforms as a starting point for the virtual exchange of users. As part of a participatory design, citizens develop proposals for communicative formats in Living Labs in a first step. In a second step, the developed options are tested in reality through cooperation with practical partners and the interactions are explored - i.e. in real planning processes of the energy transition.

The questions for the researchers relate to three central aspects:

how the use of augmented reality and virtual reality technologies affects participation processes in the context of the energy transition,
to what extent the interests and needs of citizens and relevant stakeholders can be better captured and integrated with technology support, and
how energy transition projects can be communicated to those affected in a more comprehensible and transparent manner through the use of responsive visualization and communication technologies in participation processes, and how input can be optimally processed.

The professorship for General Communication Studies researches in particular the effects of virtualization on participants. Design elements of the visualization in virtual space are examined for their communicative effect through experimental variation, and emotional, cognitive and conative processes are also considered. The focus is on the question of how different types of visualization, in combination with different communicative influences in the visualization, affect attitudes, support and willingness to participate of the recipients.

The project is carried out under the direction of the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) in cooperation with the University of Siegen and the landscape planning office Landplan OS. The project is funded by the federal ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

More information at ENVIKO RIFS

The project examines how changes in the political information landscape influence conditions in European democracies. The political information environment includes both the supply and demand for political information. The changes in the political information environment could lead to an increase in uninformed, misinformed and selectively or distortedly informed citizens, thereby impairing the functioning of democracy. To investigate these problems, the following objectives are pursued:

How do citizens in European countries receive news today and how does this relate to political attitudes and behavior?
What content or what content quality of political information are recipients exposed to?
Where do gaps exist between politically informed and uninformed people within European societies and do these differ from country to country?
How can citizens be supported in obtaining valuable political information?

Methodologically, these goals are investigated through a series of comparative and innovatively coordinated studies, e.g. web tracking, comparative quantitative surveys, focus group interviews and experiments. These studies are conducted in 14 European countries and the USA. These countries differ in a variety of contextual factors that are relevant to the project and include, for example, "young" and established democracies with different democratic traditions, different media systems and media usage habits.

The project is funded by the NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Democratic Governance in a Turbulent Age and co-financed by national research societies and the European Commission through Horizon 2020 under grant agreement No. 822166.

More information at http://threatpie.eu/

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SoSe 2026

Facts and News: Wie sichern wir den Wahrheitsgehalt in der täglichen Informationsflut?