Institute of Media Studies

Dr. Helena Atteneder

Helena Atteneder is “akademische Rätin a. Z.” and postdoctoral researcher at the chair of “Digitalisation and Social Responsibility”

Universität Tübingen
Medienwissenschaft
Wilhelmstraße 50
72074 Tübingen
Raum 130

 +49 7071 29-77312
helena.attenederspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de 

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Consultation hour

  • By appointment and online only.
  • Please send me an outline of your concerns in advance.

Profile

Helena Atteneder is a media and communication scholar working at the intersection of media, space, and society. Her research brings together perspectives from media geography, communication studies, and critical data studies, with a particular focus on the relations between (geo)media, power, and social inequalities.

Her work centres on critical engagements with space and place in mediatized societies, as well as on processes of algorithmization and datafication. A key area of interest is the pervasive collection and processing of geodata and the tensions this creates between autonomy, control, and surveillance. Questions of data protection, privacy, and “geoprivacy” are therefore central to her research.

She also works on media representations and stereotype research, with a particular emphasis on age, ageism, and generational discourses in media and public communication.

Helena Atteneder is currently working on her habilitation project, Circulated Agency: The Media Geographies of Mobility in (post)digital Urban Environments, which examines mediated mobility practices and their spatial implications in digital and post-digital cities.

Her current research brings together two core perspectives: on the one hand, she examines mediated mobility practices in urban, digitally shaped environments, focusing on how everyday movement, infrastructures, and media use are mutually constituted. On the other hand, she explores local public spheres and evolving news ecologies, with particular attention to processes of decline, transformation, and reconfiguration in local information landscapes. Across these strands, her work is driven by an interest in the spatial dimensions of communication and in how participation, visibility, and social integration are reshaped under conditions of digital infrastructures.

Helena Atteneder is a founding member and spokesperson of the GfM working group Media Geographies and co-editor of the GI_Forum Journal.

Research and teaching areas (selection):
media geographies · geomedia · news cartography · news deserts · media and mobility · digital cities · digital placemaking · critical data studies · urban media spaces · maps as media · communicative spaces · geoprivacy · age stereotypes · ageism · visiotypes

“News Deserts and Beyond” – A Multiperspective Analysis of Local News Landscapes in Baden-Württemberg

The research project News Deserts and Beyond explores local news media landscapes in Baden-Württemberg within the broader context of international debates on so-called “news deserts” – areas with limited access to diverse and independent local journalism. The project aims to investigate structural, spatial, content-related, and lifeworldly aspects of local media ecosystems and to develop a scalable data capturing tool. By combining media structure analysis, geographical and qualitative research, and international comparative studies, the project contributes to foundational research on local journalism, democratic public spheres, and social participation. Its findings will provide a robust basis for future research and (media) policy recommendations.

Project Lead: Helena Atteneder
Project Duration: 01 October 2025 – 31 March 2027
Funding Amount: €34,989.45
Funding Body: Funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal and State Governments
Collaborators: Mandy Tröger (Tübingen), Joan Ramon Rodriguez Amat (Sheffield), Rolf Frankenberger & Sven Endreß (IRex Tübingen), Vanesa Sáiz Echezarreta & Belén Galletero Campos (Castilla-La Mancha)

Excellence in Teaching Project: ‘Cartographic representations as media constructs - from theory, criticism and practice to a neopragmatist perspective’

Cartographic representations as media constructs shape our spatial appropriation possibilities and have inherently space-generating qualities. This means that maps as media influence how we perceive, use and help shape spaces. An interdisciplinary approach is crucial in order to familiarise students with the complexity and power structures of space and knowledge production.

This teaching and research project fills a gap in university education by helping to combine the perspectives of geography and media and communication studies in order to promote scientific analysis and reflection skills and to (further) develop the ability to create cartographic representations. The module offers students the opportunity to examine socially relevant topics in a critical and practice-orientated way and to implement them in a project of their own choice.

Project team: Olaf Kühne, Timo Sedelmeier and Helena Atteneder
Project duration: 24.03.2025 - 31.03.2026
Project funding organisation: Division III – Academic Affairs

Project: Media and mobility in the digital city

The third-party-funded research project (PI Helena Atteneder) investigates 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 processing of data and promise a more sustainable, efficient organisation of mobility services.

The convergence of media and urban mobility infrastructure and the reorganisation of different spaces/places, technological components, social aspects and media in their respective different accentuations will be investigated.

The project is funded by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation as part of the Elite Programme for Postdoctoral Researchers.

Further information: Media and mobility in the digital city

New Publication: Maps as Media Constructs. Exploring Theory, Practice, Critique, and Neopragmatism

This book fills a gap in the market by taking an introductory look at cartographic representations as multimedia constructs, from theory to critique to neopragmatist perspectives and in practice. It offers an interdisciplinary analysis from the fields of media and communication studies as well as geography and cartography to examine how cartographic representations as constructions of multimedia shape our options for appropriating space and possessing space-generating qualities. Examples from current social discourses such as the COVID-19 pandemic, debates on climate change, and sustainability plus the war in Ukraine show how multimedia cartographic representations are part of the communicative negotiation processes in public media spheres. The book offers insights into the theoretical foundations, historical developments, and practical applications of cartography, with a particular focus on the critical reflection of power structures and interests. It is aimed at students, researchers, and teachers, thereby inviting each to understand maps not only as technical artifacts but also as complex multimedia constructions.

English version available here

German version available here

Selected publications

  • Atteneder, Helena (forthcoming): Zwischen WLAN-Hopping und Sitzplatzroulette: Zur relationalen Agency von Berufspendler:innen zwischen medialen Praktiken und urbanen Mobilitätsregimen. In: Kühne, Olaf / Jenal, Corinna / Berr, Karsten (Eds.): Neopragmatismus und Raum. Cham: Springer, *pending*.
  • Atteneder, Helena (forthcoming): Wi-Fi Hopping and Musical Chairs: The Relational Agency of Commuters Between Media Practices and Urban Mobility Regimes. In: Kühne, Olaf / Jenal, Corinna / Berr, Karsten (Eds.): Neopragmatism and Space. Cham: Springer, *pending*.
  • Belinskaya, Yulia/Atteneder, Helena/Rodriguez-Amat, Joan Ramon (forthcoming): Geomancy Through the Continent: Location and Cartographies as Action Spaces in The Witcher Universe. In: Cowen, André (Ed.): The Witcher – A Companion. Lausanne: Peter Lang, *pending*.
  • Atteneder, Helena / Frankenberger, Rolf / Pfau, Bjarne (2026): Die Stadt im Kopf. Räumliche Muster extrem rechter Mobilisierung und deren Erklärung. In: Kemmesies, Uwe / Wetzels, Peter / Austin, Beatrix / Büscher, Christian / Grube, Friederike / Hutter, Swen / Richter, Thomas / Rieger, Diana / Sobota, Sebastian (Hrsg.): MOTRA-Monitor 2024/25. Wiesbaden: MOTRA, 462–479. DOI: https://doi.org/10.57671/isbn.978-3-911329-02-6_2026_motra
  • Rodriguez-Amat, Joan Ramon / Atteneder, Helena / Belinskaya, Yulia (2026): The Witcher’s Internet Maps: Fan Cartography, Online Communities, and Spatial Storytelling. In: Selected Papers of Internet Research (SPIR). DOI: https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2024i0.15302
  • Atteneder, Helena / Rodriguez-Amat, Joan Ramon (2026): Mapping Affective Urban Atmospheres in Shanghai’s Public Transportation: A Methodological Approach to Urban Mobilities. In: Selected Papers of Internet Research (SPIR). DOI: https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2024i0.15057
  • Atteneder, Helena / Kühne, Olaf / Sedelmeier, Timo (2025): Maps as Media Constructs: Exploring Theory, Practice, Critique, and Neopragmatism. Cham: Springer. DOI: https://link.springer.com/book/9783031807060
  • Atteneder, Helena / Kühne, Olaf / Sedelmeier, Timo (2024): Kartographische Darstellungen als mediale Konstrukte: Von Theorie, Kritik und Praxis zur neopragmatistischen Perspektive. Wiesbaden: Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-45931-4
  • Atteneder, Helena/Lohmeier, Christine (2024): Digital placemaking and its discontents: Exploring practices, power relations, and socio-spatial dynamics in Salzburg’s ‘Andräviertel’. Convergence, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565241274749
  • Thiele, Martina/Atteneder, Helena (2024): Intersektionale Verschränkungen im Klima- und Generationendiskurs. Eine Analyse der Tübinger Mediendozentur-Rede Luisa Neubauers und der medialen Resonanz. In: Medien & Altern, 24 (2). S. 8-22.
  • Atteneder, Helena/Rodriguez-Amat, Joan Ramon (2024). Ideologies in Geospatial Futurism: A Computational and Critical Discourse Inquiry Into the Arcgis and ESRI-Blogs. Media and Communication, 12, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.8193
  • Thiele, Martina/Atteneder, Helena/Thürmann, Sascha (2023): (H)ausgeträumt? Eine Kritische Diskursanalyse der Eigenheimdebatte im Superwahljahr 2021. In: Güney, Selma/Hille, Lina/Pfeiffer, Juliane/Porak, Laura/Theine, Hendrik (Hrsg.): Eigentum, Medien, Öffentlichkeit. Frankfurt am Main: Westend, 357-381.
  • Atteneder, Helena/Gryl, Inga/Jekel, Thomas: Towards Spatial Reflexivity (2022): Knowledge and Perspectives on (the Teaching of) Competences to use Geomedia Maturely. In: GI_Forum - Journal for Geographic Information Science 2022 (1). 120-134. DOI: 10.1553/giscience2022_01_s120.
  • Atteneder, Helena (2022): Geomediatisation.A dialectical approach to close social relationship dependence, normalisation and adaptation. In: Kopecka-Piech, Katarzyna/Sobiech, Mateusz (Hrsg.): Mediatisation of Emotional Life. Abingdon: Routledge, 56-71.
  • Atteneder, Helena (2022): Machtasymmetrien in geomediatisierten Welten. Geomedien als Konzept zur Neubewertung der Dialektik von Raum/Ort und Medien. Wiesbaden: Springer
  • Abend, Pablo/Atteneder, Helena (2021): Geomediatisierung. In: Bork-Hoffer, Tabea/Füller, Henning/Straube, Till (Hrsg.): Handbuch Digitale Geographien: Welt – Wissen – Werkzeuge. Stuttgart: utb, 50-63.
  • Atteneder, Helena/Collini-Nocker, Bernhard (2020): Under control: Audio/Video Conferencing Systems Feed “Surveillance Capitalism“ with Students’ Data. In: Proceedings of the 13th CMI Conference on Cybersecurity and Privacy (CMI) - Digital Transformation - Potentials and Challenges, 1-7. DOI: 10.1109/CMI51275.2020.9322736
  • Atteneder, Helena/Herdin, Thomas (2020): The role of geomedia in building intercultural competence - A qualitative case study within the context of a student exchange program between Austria, Germany and China. In: KOME − An International Journal of Pure Communication Inquiry 8 (2), 1–22. DOI: 10.17646/KOME.75672.54.
  • Atteneder, Helena/Collini-Nocker, Bernhard/Jekel, Thomas (2019): „…ich habe ja nichts zu verbergen!“ Zwischen ubiquitärer Geodatenerfassung als Geschäftsmodell und individuell-kontextuellem Geoprivacymanagement. In: GW-Unterricht 154 (2), 21–34. DOI: 10.1553/gw-unterricht154s21.
  • Thiele, Martina/Atteneder, Helena (2019): Zu jung, um alt zu sein? „Best Ager“ in Journalismus und Werbung. In: Dimitriou, Minas (Hrsg.): Der Körper in der Postmoderne – zwischen Entkörperlichung und Körperwahn. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 169–183.
  • Steinmaurer, Thomas/Atteneder, Helena (2019): Permanent Connectivity: From Modes of Restrictions to Strategies of Resistance. In: Eberwein, Tobias/Karmasin, Matthias/Krotz, Friedrich/Rath, Matthias (Hrsg.): Responsibility and Resistance: Ethics in Mediatized Worlds. Wiesbaden: Springer, S. 107–117.
  • Atteneder, Helena/Collini-Nocker, Bernhard (2018): Geomedia and privacy in context. Paradoxical behaviour or the unwitting sharing of geodata with digital platforms? In: Mediatization Studies 2, 17–48. DOI: 10.17951/ms.2018.1.2.17-48.
  • Atteneder, Helena (2018): Geomedia. Manifestations of Power as Mediatized Communication Practices – A Foucauldian Approach. In: GI_Forum - Journal for Geographic Information Science 2018 (2), 103–118. DOI: 10.1553/giscience2018_02_s103.
  • Atteneder, Helena (2017): Mediale Konstruktionen von Alter und Generation. Erkenntnisse einer transdisziplinären Stereotypenforschung. München, kopaed. http://www.kopaed.de/kopaedshop/?pid=1073
  • Atteneder, Helena/Peil, Corinna/Maier-Rabler, Ursula/Steinmaurer, Thomas (2017): Digitale Resilienz und soziale Verantwortung. Überlegungen zur Entwicklung eines Konzepts. In: Medien Journal 41 (1), 48–55. DOI: 10.24989/medienjournal.v41i1.349.

Complete list of publications as of May 2026

Curriculum Vitae

Helena Atteneder studied communication science at the University of Salzburg and completed her master's thesis on the subject of age/generation/stereotypes. The thesis was honoured with the GAM Young Talent Award and published by kopaed Verlag.

She then worked at the Interfaculty Department of Geoinformatics (Z_GIS) at the University of Salzburg from 2013 to 2015 and subsequently held a doctoral position at the Department of Communication Science (Centre for ICT&S), where she completed her PhD with the thesis: "Geomedia (re)thinking the dialectics of space/place and media. Changing power relations in geomediatised worlds.". Her work contributes to the linking of social geography and communication theory in relation to information and communication technologies and helps to establish geomedia studies in German-speaking countries. For her research projects, Helena Atteneder was a visiting researcher at Fudan University in Shanghai and Beijing Foreign Studies University in April 2017 and for a 6-week research stay in Karlstad (Sweden) at the Department of Geography, Media and Communication in April/May 2019. There she was able to network and exchange ideas with the "Geomedia Research Group" in particular.

Most recently, she worked as a lecturer at the Department of Communication Science in Salzburg and was also researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The BMBF-funded project "DiGeo - Generalisability and transferability of digital teaching concepts using the example of responsible digital geomedia use in teacher training" aims to develop and conduct application-related research into a digital teaching concept for building skills in the responsible use of digital geomedia. At the Duisburg-Essen site, Helena Atteneder was until recently responsible for the sub-project on reflection/reflexivity as part of a reflective-critical approach to geomedia.

Supervision

I supervise theses in these thematic areas:

  • Communication and media theories: critical theory, critical media and data economics, philosophy of technology, spatial theories, theories of power, geomedia / geomedia studies,
  • Media culture and media change: mediatisation theories (especially critical-dialectical approaches), media convergence, datafication, algorithmisation, social constructivist approaches (especially SCOT), actor-network theory, science-technology and society studies, non-media-centric approaches to communication and media research, digitalisation and networking paradigms, inter- and transcultural communication / inter- and transcultural competence
  • Media, politics and society: theories of action, media and social action, spatial citizenship, surveillance studies, platform and surveillance capitalism, data colonialism, discrimination and inequality in/through media (technologies), media and stereotypes, surveillance, data protection, privacy
  • Media genres: Press, mobile-networked digital devices, geomedia technologies,
  • Methods of media and communication research: qualitative methods (qualitative survey methods, digital ethnography, grounded theory, situational analysis, content analysis, discourse analysis)

If you are interested, please contact me with an exposé for a consultation session.

Information on writing exposés:

https://uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/philosophische-fakultaet/fachbereiche/philosophie-rhetorik-medien/institut-fuer-medienwissenschaft/institut/lehrstuehle/lehrstuhl-fuer-digitalisierung-und-gesellschaftliche-verantwortung/abschlussarbeiten-qualifizierungsarbeiten/#c1824573

Please also refer to the Institute's handouts:

https://uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/philosophische-fakultaet/fachbereiche/philosophie-rhetorik-medien/institut-fuer-medienwissenschaft/studium/studienunterlagen/