Key research themes
1. How do digital platforms and new ICTs reshape political communication and citizen engagement?
This research theme examines how digital information and communication technologies (ICTs), including social media platforms, experimental online methods, and algorithmic tools, transform political communication practices, citizen political talk, and political mobilization. It explores both empirical opportunities and challenges of digitally mediated interaction, the adaptation of political actors to digital contexts, and the evolving nature of deliberation and political discussion online. Understanding these dynamics is vital as digital platforms increasingly dominate information flows and electoral campaigning, shaping political participation and public discourse.
2. How does political spectacularization and entertainment influence political communication and public engagement in digital contexts?
This research theme investigates the increasing intertwining of entertainment formats and political communication, termed 'politainment', especially in digital environments. It analyzes how spectacularization strategies—such as audiovisual content, social media performances, and infotainment—affect political engagement, shape political discourse, and challenge traditional norms of political information quality and democratic deliberation. Understanding the consequences of this shift is crucial for evaluating democracy's media ecology and citizen political attitudes.
3. How do methodological advancements enable more nuanced analysis of political communication, including elite messaging and complex socio-political phenomena like hate speech and digital colonialism?
This theme focuses on methodological innovations facilitating deeper investigation into political communication processes, such as cross-medium analyses of elite communication, computational tools for detecting online hate speech contextualized by crises, and novel discourse-analytical approaches to digital colonialism’s systemic dynamics. It underscores the importance of interdisciplinary, computational, and discourse-based methods to capture complex political communication phenomena across actors, platforms, and contexts.