Research

Diversity in ORF Children's Television

On a commission from ORF Media Research, Martina Thiele and Sascha Thürmann are investigating gender representations and diversity in ORF children's television. Of particular interest are the children's news program ZIBZackMini and the show Hallo Okidoki.

The Treuhandanstalt (Trust Agency) in the Privatization of GDR Press

As part of a Walter Benjamin position funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), Dr. Mandy Tröger is researching the "action framework of the Treuhandanstalt (Trust Agency) in the privatization of the GDR press."

The Instagram project @ichbinsophiescholl by SWR and BR as a media ethics challenge

The 2023 annual conference of the DGPuK Division for Communication and Media Ethics was dedicated to the topic "Digitalized Mass Communication and Responsibility. Politics, Economics, and Ethics of Platforms." Martina Thiele and Tanja Thomas participated and presented on the topic "Instagram to fulfill the public service mandate? What was not discussed in the debate about @ichbinsophiescholl." They identified the lack of critical engagement with the "cooperation" between fee-funded public broadcasters and data-collecting platforms of tech corporations like Meta as a "blind spot" in the media discourse about the so-called "lighthouse project" by SWR and BR. A report on the event in M – Menschen machen Medien can be found here, and a scholarly article by the speakers on the topic in the Journalistik/Journalism Research magazine here.

Media and mobility in the Digital city

The third-party funded research project (led by Helena Atteneder) examines the media and mobility practices of commuters who regularly use public transport. The focus is on "smart" or "post-digital" mobility concepts that are based on the extensive collection and algorithmic exploitation of data and promise a more sustainable, efficient organization of mobility services.

The study investigates the merging of media with urban mobility infrastructure and the reordering of various spaces/places, technological components, social aspects, and media in their different emphases.

The project is funded by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation as part of the elite program for postdoctoral researchers.

Further information (in German): Media and Mobility in the Digital City