Current Activities

Prof. Dr Helena Stehle, Dr Bernadette Uth and Assistant Prof. Dr Claudia Wilhelm travelled to the USA in February 2023 for a research stay at the University of Texas, Austin. The three researchers presented the joint project at a research colloquium at the Center for Media Engagement with a lecture on “Investigating the Journalist-Audience Relationship in the Digital Age: A Multi-Stage Research Project”. They also used their stay to continue networking with colleagues and to increase the visibility of the project.

The project achieved great success with regard to the 73rd Annual International Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in 2023 under the title theme “Reclaiming Authenticity in Communication”. A total of four submissions out of the research project were accepted for presentation in Toronto.

Under the presentation title “The Impact of Mutual Interaction Expectations on Journalist-Audience Relations in Digital Media Contexts: An Exploratory Study”, Dr. Hanne Detel will present the results of qualitative guided interviews with journalists and audience members on their mutual expectations in a case study design for the project. Dr. Bernadette Uth, representing the project team, presents a theoretical literature review of existing conceptualisations of the journalism-audience relationship in digital contexts in the lecture “The Journalism-Audience Relationship in Digital Media Environments: A Theoretical Literature Review”. PD Dr. Nicole Podschuweit’s presentation “Mutual Interaction Expectations and Consequences of Expectancy Violations in the Journalism-Audience Relationship: A Systematic Literature Review” is dedicated to the results of a systematic literature review on expectancy violations in journalism-audience interactions. Ass.-Prof. Dr. Claudia Wilhelm and Dr. Hanne Detel will present a framework for future research on expectations in journalistic contexts under the title “Towards a Framework for Studying Expectations in Journalistic Contexts: A Taxonomy for Expectancy Research”.

We look forward to an interesting exchange in Toronto!

The project team will give two presentations at a conference on “Political Journalism. Constellations – Patterns – Dynamics” at the University of Trier from September 28 to 30, 2022. While the first paper will present the results of a literature review on the journalism-audience relationship, in the second presentation the team will share the results of a qualitative interview study with journalists and audience members on their expectations of mutual interaction in digital media environments.

With a master’s thesis related to the joint project, our former student assistant Johanna Wolleschensky successfully completed her master’s degree at the Department of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Erfurt. For her thesis on “The Quality of Journalistic Information in Social Media from the Perspective of Adolescents” she received the highest grade (first examiner: PD Dr. Nicole Podschuweit, University of Erfurt; second examiner: Dr. Claudia Lampert, Hans Bredow Institute, Hamburg). Johanna Wolleschensky used stimulus-based guided interviews to investigate what young people understand by “journalism” and what general expectations they have of the quality of journalistic offerings in general and of journalistic information on Instragram in particular. We warmly congratulate Johanna Wolleschensky on her outstanding achievement and wish her all the best in her new position as a research associate at the Department of Journalism at the Bundeswehr University Munich. It was and is a pleasure for us to work with her!

In June, two lectures on the joint project will be held in Münster and Tübingen: On invitation of the Rotary Club, Assistant Professor Dr. Helena Stehle will speak in Münster on June 14, 2022, about “Journalism-Audience Relations Today – Mutual Expectations and Consequences of Their (Non)Fulfillment.” The following week, on June 22, 2022, Dr. Hanne Detel will present the collaborative project at the research colloquium of the Institute for Media Studies at the University of Tübingen. The focus will be on current research results from the exploration phase of the project.

In a talk titled “Investigating the journalist-audience relationship in the digital age. A multi-stage research project”, the project team is going to present its research program at the 72nd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), the largest international academic association for communication scholars with more than 5000 members from over 80 countries. The hybrid conference will be held in Paris from May 26 to 30, 2022, on the theme “One World, One Network?”.

We are pleased to welcome two new members to the team: Theresa Neto Romeira, bachelor student at the University of Münster, will work for the team in Münster as a student assistant. The team in Tübingen is now complete with research assistant and master’s student Maxine Schneider. We are looking forward to working together. More information about the project team can be found here.

In her lecture „Journalistinnen und Journalisten und ihr Publikum: Enttäuschte Erwartungen als Ursache schwindenden Medienvertrauens?“ (Journalists and their Audiences: Disappointed Expectations as a Cause of Dwindling Media Trust?) at Adult Education Center / Volkshochschule Chemnitz, Nicole Podschuweit, Interim Professor at Chemnitz University of Technology, will present findings from the project to a wider audience on November 30, 2021. After the lecture, the audience will have the opportunity to discuss to what extent the disappointment of mutual expectations of journalists and their audiences might be a possible cause for the breakdown of journalism-audience relationships. The lecture is part of the project “trau.schau.wem? faktenfest und mediensicher“, which is funded by the Media Authority of Saxony.

Good news from Hannover: The submission for a presentation in the conference session „Future Programmatics: Erfahrene Kommunikationswissenschaftler:innen präsentieren ihre Programme“ (Future Programmatics: Experienced Communication Scholars Present Their Programs) of the 67th Annual Conference of the German Communication Association (DGPuK) 2022 was successful. Under the title „Zwischen interpersonaler und Massenkommunikation: Neukonzeptionalisierung von Journalismus-Publikums-Beziehungen im digitalen Zeitalter“ (Between Interpersonal and Mass Communication: Reconceptualizing Journalism-Audience Relations in the Digital Age) the project partners will be presenting the collaborative project and the underlying research program together with cooperation partner Assistant Professor Dr. Claudia Wilhelm on Thursday, February 22, 2022 (time to follow). Their presentation is one out of three one-hour Zoom talks in this conference session.

During the winter semester 2021/22, Erfurt subproject leader PD Dr. Nicole Podschuweit will substitute for the Chair of Communication and Media Studies at the Institute for Media Research at Chemnitz University of Technology. She will, amongst other subjects, continue to develop ideas for the BMBF joint project with the students in Chemnitz as part of the project seminar „Kommunikations- und Interaktionsformen digitaler Medien: Journalismus-Publikums-Beziehungen im digitalen Zeitalter“ (Communication and Interaction Modes in Digital Media: Journalism-Audience Relations in the Digital Age).