Zehring, Maximilian

Maximilian Zehring studied “Applied Media and Communication Science” at the Ilmenau University of Technology. From 2018 to 2020, he completed his Master's degree in Media and Communication Science, also at Ilmenau University of Technology. In his master's thesis, he dealt with the research of stereotypes against East Germans on Twitter and tried to design a model with the help of Supervised Machine Learning and Automated Text Analysis, which makes it possible to automatically filter stereotypical language against East Germans.

During his studies, he worked as a research assistant for Prof. Dr. Jens Wolling at the Department of Empirical Media Research and Political Communication and also for Prof. Dr. Emese Domahidi at the Department of Communication Science with a focus on Computational Communication Science. Since October 2020, Maximilian Zehring has been supporting Prof. Dr. Emese Domahidi at the latter department as a research assistant and doctoral student.

Maximilian Zehring’s research interests include digital communication, far-right and conspiracy networks, and computational methods.

Relevant links:

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8492-1389

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Y57UtaEAAAAJ&hl=de

Schulze, H., Buehling, K., & Zehring, M. (2025). The Telegram COVID-19 Protest Dataset 2020-2022. Computational Communication Research, 7(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.5117/CCR2025.1.9.SCHU

Zehring, M., & Domahidi, E.(2025). The language similarity between corona protest mobilizers on Telegram and German politicians on Twitter. Information, Communication & Society, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2536160 

Jost, P., Heft, A., Buehling, K., Zehring, M., Schulze, H., Bitzmann, H., & Domahidi, E. (2023). Mapping a Dark Space: Challenges in Sampling and Classifying Non- Institutionalized Actors on Telegram. Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft, 71(3–4), 212–229. https://doi.org/10.5771/1615-634X-2023-3-4-212

Zehring, M., & Domahidi, E. (2023). German Corona Protest Mobilizers on Telegram and Their Relations to the Far Right: A Network and Topic Analysis. Social Media + Society, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231155106

Zehring, M., &  Domahidi, E. (2022). Thirty Years After the German Reunification—Exploring Stereotypes About East Germans on Twitter. International Journal Of Communication, 16(2022), 4029-4049. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/19010/3868

Zehring, M. (2025, June 12–16). Far-Right Settlers on Telegram: Connections, Locations, and Communication [Paper presentation]. International Communication Association 75th Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, USA.

Zehring, M., Schulze, H., & Buehling, K. (2025, June 12–16). The Telegram COVID-19 Protest Dataset 2020–2022 [Paper presentation]. International Communication Association 75th Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, USA.

Zehring, M., & Domahidi, E. (2024, September 24–27). Tracing Appeasement: Language Similarity Between Corona Protest Mobilizers on Telegram and German Politicians on Twitter [Paper presentation]. 10th ECREA European Communication Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Zehring, M., & Domahidi, E. (2023, May 25-29). German Corona Protest Mobilizers on Telegram and Their Relations to the Far Right: A Network and Topic Analysis [Paper presentation]. International Communication Association 73rd Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada.

Buehling, K., Schulze, H., & Zehring, M. (2024, March 13–15). Der Querdenken Telegram Datensatz 2020-2022 [Poster session]. 69th Annual Conference of German Association of Communication Science (DGPuK), Erfurt, Germany.