Research Unit Media and Public Spheres

Welcome to the Media and Public Spheres Division

The team at the Media and Public Spheres division investigates the emergence, dissemination, and impact of far-right extremist, right-wing populist, and anti-democratic communication and mobilization in digital public spheres.

Our research focuses on media infrastructures, platform functionalities, and strategies of mobilization, including disinformation, coordinated campaigns, and transnational networks. We employ internationally comparative designs, consider political and media opportunity structures, and integrate multi-method and interdisciplinary perspectives. A key emphasis is the application and development of computational social science methods for data collection and analysis.

For more details on our research projects, which explore media infrastructures, mobilization strategies, and discourse dynamics, please visit our research website.

The Media and Public Spheres division also coordinates the thematic cluster “Far-right extremist discourse, media and strategies in public spheres”. Please do not hesitate to contact us.

Team
Research

News

29.01.2026

A NEW HOPE? Local journalism as a mitigation hub for misinformation

New Publication by Phoebe Maasres in Journal of Applied Communication Research

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28.01.2026

The Transnational public sphere in the context of Global challenges – Promises and Threats of Digital Media to Democratic governance

New book chapter by Annett Heft et al. in The Routledge Companion to Digital Media and Democracy

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