Finalized research projects

Funding: DFG research project, Duration: 01.06.2021 - 31.12.2024

Project website

Brief description

Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Department of Media Studies together with the Departments of Computational Communication Science, Databases and Information Systems and Public Relations and Technology Communication at TU Ilmenau and the Institute for Risk Assessment in Berlin are analyzing how effectively governments and health institutions in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the USA have informed their citizens about Covid-19 and encouraged self-protective behavior.

The sub-projects will focus on three key questions from June 2021 to May 2024

1. What statements and messages about Covid-19 have governments and healthcare institutions communicated to the public in the respective countries?
2. How did the media report on the pandemic and the associated risk messages from governments?
3. How did the population perceive the pandemic and the risk messages?

Funding: BMBF research project, Duration: 01.11.2021 - 31.10.2024

Project website

Brief description

The research project is part of the research network "Optimization of Risk and Crisis Communication of Governments, Authorities and Health Security Organizations (MIRKKOMM)". The research network aims at the evidence-based improvement of multimodal risk and crisis communication of public authorities and organizations with security tasks. The department investigates how government risk and crisis communication in Germany is coordinated at federal, state and municipal level, what problems arise and how these can be better managed in the future.

The focus is on four core objectives:

1. Is an organizational communication approach expanded into a model of intra- and inter-agency communication.
2. Qualitative data from interviews and content analyses are analyzed to describe multimodal risk and crisis communication.
3. A two-wave panel survey of (municipal) representatives of all districts, independent cities and health authorities in Germany will be implemented.
4. Recommendations for the optimization of (multimodal) risk and crisis communication of federal and state governments, authorities and health security organizations will be developed.

Brief description

In recent years, there have been repeated tragic cases of child homicide or child abuse that have caused a nationwide stir. It is not uncommon for the media to attribute some of the blame to the responsible youth welfare offices. Dr. Liane Rothenberger, Alice Srugies and Kathrin Schleicher conducted a research project at the Department of Media Studies from September 2013 to April 2015 under the direction of Dr. Andreas Schwarz in order to support the staff of youth welfare offices in dealing with such high-profile crisis cases in a communicative manner. The project "Professional communication in the context of crises: Analysis and Improvement of Crisis Management in Youth Welfare Offices in Germany" was funded on the basis of a grant from the National Center for Early Intervention.

The research project comprises two scientific studies that provide a comprehensive picture of communication by youth welfare offices in the context of crises. A content analysis of media coverage in newspapers and magazines as well as selected regional daily newspapers from 2009 to 2013 analyzes the public perception of youth welfare offices as well as the responsible actors in the municipalities and their handling of crises. At the same time, the research team conducted more than 30 guided interviews in German youth welfare offices.

On the basis of these research results, the project team has developed a strategic guideline to guide communicative crisis management in youth welfare offices. It will be made available to German youth welfare offices as a working aid in the fall of 2015.

Funding: DFG, Duration: 01.03.2009 – 30.04.2012

Military "Media Relations". The relations of the Bundeswehr and the US armed forces with the media: Comparative analysis of military communication management since 1990

Brief description

The research project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) consists of two sub-projects that are integrated into a larger research network on the topic of "Military and Media in the 20th Century". Both sub-projects concentrate on analyzing the military side of the relationship between the military and the media. Accordingly, the objects of investigation are the Bundeswehr and the US armed forces as well as the political leadership organizations directly responsible for the respective military organizations (BMVg, Pentagon) in their relations with the media.

Designed as a comparative longitudinal analysis, the two sub-projects will answer the question of how and for what reasons the media relations of the Bundeswehr have changed in comparison to the US armed forces from 1990 to the present. The focus will be on the tasks, achievements and structures of military-media relations as well as the relationship between military and security media relations. In order to systematically explore the field of media-related organizational communication of the military, which has so far been neglected in communication science, a multi-method design consisting of document analyses and guided interviews will be used. With the help of the results, a contribution is made to the establishment of a theory of political-military-media interrelations.

The research project "Public Diplomacy" examines the structures, understanding and application of public diplomacy in Germany

Brief description

Public diplomacy subsumes all communication activities of individual and corporate actors that shape political, economic, cultural and/or scientific relations with other countries and influence the perception of one's own country abroad. While the concept has a long history in the USA, it has only recently been used in Germany to influence the attitudes and actions of foreign governments and population groups, to gain understanding of the culture, positions and policies of one's own country and to generate mutual understanding.

This research project, conducted by Claudia Auer, Sylvia Krichbaum and Alice Srugies under the direction of Prof. Martin Löffelholz, analyses public diplomacy on four levels: A theory-based analysis systematizes the findings of public diplomacy research to date and compares public diplomacy with related concepts. An international comparative analysis works out the similarities and differences between public diplomacy practice and research in different countries. A historical description examines the roots and developments of the concept in Germany and the resulting recommendations for future public diplomacy practice.

An empirical analysis based on guided interviews and a document analysis provides the first differentiated overview of the most important public diplomacy actors in Germany, their understanding of public diplomacy, their goals, target groups, instruments and methods, their resources and evaluation measures as well as the existing networks.

The results of the research project were published in 2012 in the book "Public Diplomacy".

Funding: DFG, Duration: 01.08.2001 – 30.04.2002

The transformation of current media communication. Theoretical and empirical delimitation of a changing media sector

Brief description

How can online journalism be described both theoretically and empirically? Does online journalism largely correspond to traditional journalism, or does it produce structures and patterns of action that characterize it as innovative journalism and at the same time mark a coming transformation of journalism as a whole?

These central questions of current journalism research were answered with the help of a theoretical and empirical research program funded by the DFG. Firstly, a review of the state of research in German-speaking and Anglo-American countries was undertaken, secondly the development of a differentiated theoretical model that can adequately capture the phenomena of change, and thirdly a multi-method study involving observations and surveys in selected editorial offices.

Funding: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, TransCoop Project; Duration: 2002 – 2005

Online Journalism: Transnational Comparisons between American and German Online Journalists

Brief description

The cooperation project between the Institute for Media and Communication Studies at Ilmenau University of Technology and the School of Journalism at Indiana University in Bloomington fulfilled two objectives: For the first time in Germany, an empirically saturated, representative picture of the attitudes, job profiles and specifics of journalistic activity of online journalists was drawn.

In addition, the close connection of the study in terms of time and content to a representative survey of US journalists made it possible to draw conclusions about cross-cultural developments in a central area of innovation in journalism. In Germany, around 450 CATI-supported telephone interviews were conducted with online journalists.

Alumni follow-up event: Globalization, Religion, and the Media in the Islamic World: The Impact of Cultural Transformation and the Mobilization of the Masses (4 – 5 and 8 – 9 October 2002).

Brief description

The specialist seminars "Globalization, Religion, and the Media in the Islamic World" were held in the Indonesian cities of Bandung and Yogyakarta from 4 to 5 and 8 to 9 October 2002. The alumni seminars were organized by the Department of Media Studies at the IfMK of the TU Ilmenau in cooperation with the Islamic University Bandung, the Catholic Atma Jaya University Yogyakarta and the Indonesian Association of German Alumni.

Both seminars were each attended by around 120 participants. The speakers' contributions dealt with the relationship between globalization, religion and the social role of the media.