Mika, Melanie M., Dr. | University of Tübingen

Dr. Melanie M. Mika

Profile

Melanie Mika researches media practices on digital platforms and their significance for social inequality and participation. Her work focuses particularly on gender relations and anti-racist interventions in post-migrant society. Her other research interests include platform studies, short-form video formats, and the representation and negotiation of mental health and illness in television series and popular media cultures.

Alongside her academic work, she has extensive professional experience in radio and audio production as well as video post-production.

Current Research Project

Post-migrant Media Practices of Contradicting: Anti-racist Interventions by Migrant-Positioned Women on Digital Platforms

Melanie Mika works on this subproject, led by Prof. Dr. Tanja Thomas, within the DFG-funded research unit 6017 “Media Practices of Contradicting in Networked Publics” (MePraWi).

The project examines how women who position themselves as migrant contradict racist structures of oppression on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube and advocate for democratic coexistence in a post-migrant society. It asks under which social and technological conditions their anti-racist interventions reach publics—and with what consequences. The project combines content analyses of media practices and communication cascades with media go-alongs, interviews, and focus group interviews.

Across seven subprojects in communication and media studies at five German universities, the research unit examines the significance of contradicting for democratic societies and the mediated conditions under which it enables or jeopardizes participation.

Curriculum Vitae

Melanie Mika studied Music and Media Studies (BA) at the University of Tübingen and then completed an international master’s degree in Audiovisual and Cinema Studies (at the universities of Montréal, Amsterdam, and Goethe University Frankfurt). She is also a trained media designer (audiovisual media) and worked at SWR Stuttgart (2010–2019) in radio broadcasting and sound design (SWR4 BW) and for the online channels of SWR Aktuell.

In 2025, Melanie Mika completed a doctorate with a dissertation on the representation of mental illness in US television series, examining popular imaginaries of health, illness, and therapy. The project was funded by the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) from 2019 to April 2022. Since 2022, Melanie Mika has been a research associate at the Institute of Media Studies. Until September 2025 she was responsible, among other things, for Internationalization (Erasmus coordination, maintaining CIVIS partnerships, and supporting visiting professors and researchers).

In addition, Melanie Mika is co-spokesperson for the Commission for Good Work in academia within the Society for Media Studies (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft).

Publications

Kommission für gute Arbeit in der Wissenschaft. (2026). Was kostet es, in der Wissenschaft zu arbeiten? Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft, 34(1), 120–130. https://doi.org/10.14361/zfmw-2026-180111

Mika, M. M. (2025). Psychopath:innen in US-Serien: Narrative und ästhetische Aushandlungen von Mental Health. transcript. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839413739

Mika, M. (2023). Ein optimierter Serienmörder: Die Faszination des hochfunktionalen Psychopathen in der Populärkultur. Zeitschrift für Semiotik, 45(3–4), 191–204.

Mika, M., Ossa, V., & Patka, K. (2022). Montieren. In H. Christians, M. Bickenbach, & N. Wegmann (Hrsg.), Historisches Wörterbuch des Mediengebrauchs [Band 3]. Böhlau.
Mika, M. (2021). Paranoide Nachrichtenbilder. Inszenierungen von Verschwörungen und Verschwörungstheorien in der TV-Serie Mr. Robot. ffk Journal, 6, 326–340.
Mika, M. (2020). Kooperation und Konkurrenz. Veränderungen der Mediengestalter*innen-Ausbildung als Wettbewerb zwischen Sendeanstalten und Privatwirtschaft. Rundfunk und Geschichte, 46(3–4), 43–52.
Mika, M. (2020). Produktive Psychopathen: Inszenierungen von Selbstoptimierung in amerikanischen Fernsehserien. FFK Journal, 5, 223–236.