FG CCS at ECREA Pre-Conferences

The CCS group is represented at this year’s ECREA PreConferences with several papers and participants. As early as 7 September, the first day of the conference, the focus was on current research into digital communication and political communication infrastructures.

As part of the PreConference ‘Instant Messaging as Political Communication Infrastructure’, Max Schindler, together with Emilija Gagrčin (University of Bremen), presented the paper ‘Three Decades of Instant Messaging Research: An Integrative Literature Review’. This joint literature review provides a systematic overview of three decades of research on instant messaging and contextualises key developments and research perspectives within the field.

Also as part of the pre-conference, the paper ‘Transnational or Nationally Bounded? Far-Right Communication Networks on Telegram in Thirteen European Countries’ by Pablo Jost was presented. Emese Domahidi and Maximilian Zehring also contributed to the paper. The study examines the communication networks of the far right on Telegram, taking a comparative look at European countries. It focuses on the question of the extent to which these networks are interconnected across national borders or operate predominantly within national communication spaces.

In the evening, the pre-conference get-together “Data Donation for Communication Research” provided an opportunity for discussion and networking. Milin Zhang and Emese Domahidi took the opportunity to chat with other researchers – and to play a game of table tennis whilst they were at it. The get-together took place in a table tennis bar, combining academic exchange with a relaxed and convivial atmosphere.

On 8 September, the main event of the ‘Data Donation for Communication Research’ PreConference took place, in which Emese Domahidi and Milin Zhang also participated. The focus was on discussing data donation as an approach within communication studies, as well as current opportunities and challenges in the use of data made available by users for research purposes.

This demonstrates that the CCS Research Group is already making its presence felt with a wide range of research contributions and activities even before the actual ECREA conference begins. Participation in the various PreConferences not only offers the opportunity to present the latest research findings, but also to forge new contacts and deepen academic exchange on key issues in digital and political communication.