Chris Liebold
From 30 September to 2 October 2026, the annual conference of the Methods Section of the DGPuK took place in Cologne. Under the title ‘Computational Opportunities and Challenges in the Measurement of Media Use and Media Effects’, the conference brought together researchers to discuss current methodological developments and challenges in communication and media research. The conference was hosted by GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.
The CCS group was also represented at the conference by several members and a total of four presentations. Emese Domahidi, Jingyuan Yu, Milin Zhang, Maximilian Zehring and Max Schindler presented recent research on systematic literature reviews, web tracking, computer-assisted text analysis and digital political communication.
Four papers from the Group
Systematic literature reviews in communication studies
Max Schindler, together with Henrieke Kotthoff and Fiarra Pohling, presented the paper ‘Systematic Reviews in Communication Research: An Inventory of Methods and Reporting Practices’. The study examines how systematic literature reviews are used in communication studies and which methodological and reporting practices are employed in this context.
Self-reporting versus web tracking: How do we measure digital media use?
Milin Zhang and Emese Domahidi presented the paper ‘Self-Reports vs. WebTracking: Measuring Digital Media Use and Sensitivity to Alternative Web-Browsing Preprocessing Strategies’. The focus was on how the relationship between self-reported and digitally recorded media use changes depending on analytical decisions. Using a multiverse approach, different strategies for processing web-tracking data were examined.
Name recognition in large-scale news data
Jingyuan Yu presented the methodological paper ‘Document-Level Mini-Dictionary Approach for Name Reconciliation in Large-Scale News Data: A Methodological Proposal’. A mini-dictionary approach was introduced for the identification and reconciliation of name variants in extensive text and news data.
Newsletter communication by German political parties
Maximilian Zehring and Max Schindler presented the paper “Inbox Politics: The Newsletter Communication of German Political Parties”, which examines the use of newsletters by German political parties and their communication with their target audiences. Jingyuan Yu and Aliya Andrich also contributed to the paper.
Workshop on web tracking data
On 30 September, Milin Zhang and Max Schindler took part in the workshop ‘Working with Web Tracking Data: From Raw Traces to Research Design’. The full-day workshop focused on the processing and analysis of web tracking data – from raw data through to the development of suitable research designs. The workshop was led by Frank Mangold (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences).
The event thus provided an important opportunity to present current methodological approaches, discuss them with other researchers and gain new perspectives on the computer-assisted study of media use and media effects.