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Presentation

74th Annual ICA Conference “Communication and Global Human Rights”

This year’s 74th Annual ICA Conference on “Communication and Global Human Rights” was held from June 20th to 24th in Gold Coast, Australia. This event focused on exploring the critical intersections between communication studies and human rights scholarship, showcasing current practices, research, and future directions. Topics ranged from the media’s role in advocating for marginalized […]

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Presentation

Discussions and exciting insights at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance (CDDGG), University of Canberra, Australia

The Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance (CDDGG) at the University of Canberra, Australia, is a globally recognized leader in deliberative governance research, dedicated to exploring how inclusive and reflective communication can empower people in political decision-making. The center explores the impact of public deliberation in polarized and post-crisis contexts and advances  theoretical debates […]

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NEOVEX

Podcast: Understanding Conspiracy Theories on Alternative Platforms

In the latest episode of the NEOVEX podcast, Maik Fielitz from the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society in Jena, responsible for the area of right-wing extremism and democracy research at the IDZ, sits down with Dr. Kilian Bühling, a researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, working on the researching diffusion dynamics […]

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Training

New Edition of The Research Monitor (fyi 15): Right-Wing Movements and Their Threat to Democracy

The Research Monitor (fyi 15) published on the 4th of June a new edition which compiles seven studies and an interview with Dr. Annett Heft. The publication entails the current state of research on right-wing movements, highlighting why they pose a serious threat to democracy and suggesting which efforts can be made to counteract them. […]

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Transfer

Fellow Talk with our Research Fellow Dominik Schindler

Visiting the research group in May Dominik Schindler, Ph.D. candidate in Applied Mathematics at Imperial College London, gave a talk on his latest research on May, 14. In his talk, titled “Bayesian Knowledge – Situated and Pluriversal Perspectives on Machine Learning”, he explored the fundamental mathematical structures of machine learning (ML) and challenged some of […]

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Publication

Varities of antigender politics: applying a contextual lens

Despite their shared antigenderism, populist radical-right parties’ contestation of gender and sexual equality forms a continuum rather than being homogenous across countries. Susanne Reinhardt, Annett Heft, and Elena Pavan argue that varieties of antigenderism are best understood through a party’s societal context, ideology, and voter expectations. Read more into this subject by clicking here.

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Training

The new Steering Committee of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Communication

We are happy to announce that our team member Daniel Thiele (Freie Universität Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute) was elected to the new Steering Committee of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Communication, announced on April 26th! The Standing Group on Political Communication encompasses research on the interactions among politics, media, and the public. This research network provides […]

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Workshops

CLOUD-C: Climate, social media and transnational research workshop

On April 18th and 19th, we hosted the workshop “CLOUD-C: Climate, Social Media, and Transnational Research” at the Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin, co-organized with the Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities (HSSH). The Cloud-C Project is an international collaboration developed by the HSSH, focused on analyzing the discourse on climate politics in social media. This […]

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Awards

2nd Place for the Best Paper Award by DGPuK

We extend our congratulations to Annett Heft and Kilian Buehling (both Freie Universität Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute) along with their esteemed colleagues, Pablo Jost (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), Maximilian Zehring, Hendrik Bitzmann, and Emese Domahidi  (all Technische Universität Ilmenau), and Heidi Schulze (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich), for their notable achievement of receiving the 2nd place for the Best Journal Paper […]

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NEOVEX

Unveiling the Stylistic Dynamics of Conspiracy Theory Communication in Digital Spaces

Today, the proliferation of conspiracy theories has become a prevalent issue, often fueled by the expansive reach of digital forums and social media platforms. A collaborative project led by Annett Heft, Kilian Buehling, Xixuan Zhang (all Freie University of Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute), research on the complex nuances of online communication surrounding conspiracy narratives. In their investigation, […]

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Presentation

The Querdenken Telegram Dataset 2020 – 2022

From March 13th to 15th the University of Erfurt hosted the 69. Annual Conference of the German Society for Journalism and Communication Studies (DGPuK). This year’s theme, “Visions for a Better Life,” aimed to stimulate a debate on the social relevance and future of communication science research. By exploring the roles that communication and media […]

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Publication

Which factors shape citizen-generated populism? A computational analysis of comment sections during COVID-19 in seven European countries

Citizen-generated populist content is flourishing in the comments sections of online news. The factors that shape the extent of such populist communication from below are still under-researched. The recent publication of Daniel Thiele (Freie Universität Berlin & Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin) focuses on the COVID-19 crisis to examine how contextual and media-related factors are related to […]

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Teaching

Telegram and its Affordances for Anti-Democratic Mobilization

On February 28, 2024 Dr. Olga Pasitselska at the University of Groningen hosted a guest lecture by Dr. Kilian Buehling from Freie Universität and Weizenbaum Institut, Berlin. The topic of the lecture was “Telegram and its Affordances for Anti-Democratic Mobilization” based on a paper he wrote together with Dr. Annet Heft. Dr. Kilian Buehling began […]

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Presentation

Alliances and opportunity structures of gender contestations in Germany

From the 22nd until the 23rd February 2024, Annett Heft (Free University of Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute) had the great opportunity of presenting her work in the International Conference Polarization and Beyond. What Comes Next in Political Communication Research. The event was organized by the I-POLHYS: Investigating Polarization in Hybrid Media Systems and hosted by the University […]

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Publication

Right Topic, Right Source? Source Diversity and Balance in Right-Wing Alternative News Content Across Topics

On February 11, 2024, the final version of the article titled “Right Topic, Right Source? Source Diversity and Balance in Right-Wing Alternative News Content Across Topics,” authored by Annett Heft (Freie University of Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute), Tim Ramsland, and Eva Mayerhöffer (both Roskilde University), was published by Taylor & Francis. The article investigates how right-wing alternative […]

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Events NEOVEX

NEOVEX Meeting in Munich

On February 7 and 8, the NEOVEX subprojects consortium meeting took place at the Munich School of Politics of the Technical University of Munich. The main focus was on exchanging ideas and planning future collaboration. During the one-day workshop, the subproject teams gathered to update the consortium and funding agencies on their current project work. […]

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Publication

Cross-Border Journalism Content: Status Quo and Perspectives

Journalism has been crossing borders since news media and nation-states co-emerged in the seventeenth century. Still, the internet era has further advanced and expanded the border-transcending production, dissemination, and reception of news. The rise of cross-border journalism reflects the “increasing connectedness, boundarylessness, and mobility in the world” (Berglez, 2008, p. 855). The new “The Palgrave […]

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Events Presentation

Vox Populi(st): Contexts and consequences of populism in user comments on news media Facebook pages

On December 13, 2023, Daniel Thiele (Freie Universität Berlin & Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin) presented his research titled “Vox Populi(st): Contexts and Consequences of Populism in User Comments on News Media Facebook Pages” at the Helsinki Conference on Emotions, Populism and Polarization at the University of Helsinki. The conference was organized by the Helsinki Hub on […]

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Publication

Politicization and Right-Wing Normalization on Youtube: A Topic-Based Analysis of the “Alternative Influence Network”

Curd Benjamin Knüpfer (Free University of Berlin), Carsten Schwemmer (Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich) and Annett Heft (Free University of Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute) published an article on the Politicization and Right-Wing Normalization on Youtube: A Topic-Based Analysis of the “Alternative Influence Network” in the  International Journal of Communication. The study addresses a  gap in current research on YouTube’s […]

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Publication

Mapping a Dark Space: Challenges in Sampling and Classifying Non-Institutionalized Actors on Telegram

November 14th a collaborative article Mapping a Dark Space: Challenges in Sampling and Classifying Non-Institutionalized Actors on Telegram with two members of our team was published in the journal Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft!  Written by Pablo Jost (Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich), Annett Heft (Free University of Berlin), Kilian Buehling (Free University of Berlin), Maximilian Zehring (Ilmenau Technical University), […]

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Events NEOVEX

Book launch with Eviane Leidig “The Women of the Far Right”

On November 2nd, 2023, we had the great pleasure of participating in the book launch of The Women of the Far Right, written by Dr. Eviane Leidig (Tilburg University). Hosted by the research project NEOVEX, the event was jointly organized with the Free University of Berlin, the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin, […]

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Presentation Workshops

Alternative Platforms/Platform Alternatives: Comparisons and Transnational Flows

We were happy to conduct the workshop titled “Alternative Platforms/Platform Alternatives: Comparisons and Transnational Flows” on October 20th and 21st at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin in collaboration with the Free University of Berlin! The workshop gathered approximately 20 international researchers, creating an intimate and relaxed atmosphere that fostered networking and great knowledge exchange. The […]

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Presentation

International PhD Workshop in the University of Bern

From October 10th to 11th, the University of Bern hosted a great opportunity to dialogue ideas and insights on various doctoral research projects in a PhD Workshop! In a colloquium format, the event presented a valuable chance for professional exchange and network building. It united researchers from four universities who shared a common investigation expertise […]

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Presentation

Theoretical Concepts and the Querdenken Mobilization on Telegram.

On October 5th and 6th, Annett Heft (Freie University of Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute) participated in the Conference “Value Conflicts in a Differentiated Europe: the impact of digital media on value polarization in Europe (ValCon)” in Florence hosted by the research group Media and political communication. The conference addressed transnational and domestic dimensions of the independence of […]

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Events Workshops

Hands-on workshop on data collection using the Telegram API

From September 27th to 29th, the 24th Conference of the Methods Section of the German Communication Association (DGPuK) was hosted by Babelsberg Film University in Potsdam. During the event, Kilian Buehling (Freie University of Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute) conducted a three-hour workshop on Digital Trace Data. The conference focused on the convergence of methodology and research ethics […]

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Panel Chair Presentation

ECPR General Conference at Charles University

On a five-day conference from the 4th until the 8th of September, we had an amazing chance to participate in the ECPR General Conference at Charles University! The event counted with an extensive program of about 60 sections covering the full breadth of political science and over 400 panels offering an engaging platform for discussion […]

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Panel Chair Presentation

2023 ECREA Political Communication Section Conference

On August 31st and September 1st, the Weizenbaum Institute and Free University of Berlin hosted the bi-annual ECREA Political Communication Section Conference! In an international environment, the event counted approximately 150 scholars from 23 countries in Europe, Australia, Asia, and America in Germany. The two-day conference was packed with exciting keynotes and insights into new […]

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Publication

Challenges of and approaches to data collection across platforms and time: Conspiracy-related digital traces as examples of political contention.

In today’s digital landscape, the proliferation of online platforms and the rapid evolution of communication technologies present unique challenges for researchers. A recent study by Dr. Annett Heft, Dr. Kilian Buehling, Xixuan Zhang, Dominik Schindler, and Miriam Milzner (2023) investigates these complexities, focusing on the collection of conspiracy-related communication data across various digital platforms. Published […]

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Transfer

Kick-Off Meeting and Fellow Visit Nicola Righetti

Exciting news! We’ve officially launched our new research group, “Dynamics of Digital Mobilization” with two kick-off meetings on January 19th and February 16th, 2023. Our research program will focus on analyzing the impact of digital connectivity on politics and society, both within and between European democracies, as well as in other international societies. Our goal […]

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Publication

Mobilization and support structures in radical right party networks

Whether a radical right party is in opposition or in government significantly influences the digital communication of its actors and supporters. This is a central finding of the latest publication “Mobilization and support structures in radical right party networks. Digital political communication ecologies in the 2019 European parliament elections” by Annett Heft, Susanne Reinhardt and […]