Doctoral Projects

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, various groups in Germany and other global regions have protested against governmental measures implemented to combat the virus. The Covid-skeptic scene in Germany particularly utilizes the social media (…)

Time and temporality are social constructs reflecting the ideological and practical circumstances of society. They are intertwined with other social processes, such as the sociotechnical emergence of automated communication. While automated communication technologies are in (…)

Artificial intelligence is considered a key technology today, even if it is interpreted in different and ambiguous ways. As AI products become part of everyday life, new fears of job losses and promises to lighten (…)

This doctoral project aims to examine how people with a history of migration living in Germany consume news content, particularly migration-related content, and to what extent the known patterns of news avoidance can be identified (…)

Due to promises of groundbreaking technologies and a considerable hype, the issue of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is receiving increasing attention. Besides the focus on innovation driven by actors in business and research, it is primarily (…)

How do visions of the future shape social change — and how do they affect collective identities in times of multiple crises? This dissertation examines competing visions for a time after a possible societal collapse (…)

“Can only a Muslim therapist really treat me well? How important is it that the therapist has the same faith?” These questions come from a post on the Instagram page of a German influencer of (…)

This doctoral project investigates how interpretable machine learning can advance communication science — from the transparent identification of protest-related news and the recognition of AI-generated images to the analysis of political TikTok communication in the (…)

“The camera is the inexhaustible expropriator of image-weapons; the projector, a gun that can shoot 24 frames per second.“ The 1960s have gone down in history not only in Latin America as the years of (…)

How do data-based algorithmic systems affect people who are particularly vulnerable — and what forms of injustice can arise as a result? From a legal philosophy perspective, this dissertation examines how government AI applications in (…)

Disinformation and fake news are not new, but digitalization and mediatization have taken the problem to a new level. The dissertation project aims to gain a better understanding and possible solutions. Through a quantitative content (…)

According to the 2018 LEO study, 6.2 million German-speaking adults in Germany have significant problems with reading and writing. The 2023 PIAAC study also reveals deficits in everyday mathematical competences. Those affected can attend literacy (…)