Here you will find all research projects that have been or are being carried out at the HBI since its admission to the Leibniz Association in 2019.
Last update: 03.07.2024
Current projects
Interdisciplinary BMBF Project
Security for Children in the Digital World
This project researches the legal framework for online interaction risks for children and young people and develops ways of optimally interlinking actors and measures.
How do software systems affect user behavior?
Software Systems, the Public and Participation
The aim of this project is to develop a communication-sociological approach to the relationship between software systems, the public sphere and participation.
Collaborative Project
Political Polarization and Online Information Environments
What is the interplay between the diversity of our information exposure online and the polarization of our political opinions towards certain issues or groups over time?
Volkswagen Foundation Funds Joint Project
Informing Regulatory Reasoning on Algorithmic Systems in Societal Communication with STEAM
The project, which is located between media law and computer science, aims to use a new method to visualize the functioning of news distribution on digital platforms and thus offer media regulation opportunities for new regulatory approaches.
New Methods in Automated Content Analysis
Few-Shot Learning in Communication Science
The cooperation project transfers computer science methods to empirical communication science. Semi-automated content analyses can thus also examine vast amounts of data.
Health Communication
Fertility and Ethics in Oncology
On behalf of the German Cancer Aid, this cooperative project investigates how younger patients with newly diagnosed cancer can be optimally counseled in dealing with fertility issues.
Telephone Survey
Media Use and Political Culture in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
The study aims to provide an overview of politically oriented media use and political culture in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as to develop strategies to improve outreach to population groups that largely avoid news.
International Study on News Usage
Reuters Institute Digital News Report
The annual international representative survey conducted by the Reuters Institute in Oxford examines news usage and reveals general trends and national characteristics of developments. The Leibniz Institute for Media Research is conducting the German part of the study.
Human in the Machine
Human In the Loop? Autonomy and Automation in Socio-Technical Systems
The research project Human in the Loop? investigates how human participation can improve automated decision-making processes.
For a Secure Data Exchange
Data Portal Right-Wing Extremism
A research data infrastructure is to be further developed for the "Data Portal for Research on Racism and Right-Wing Extremism".
Project within the RISC
Integration-Related Remit and Functions of Public Service Media
Are public service media legally obliged to create social cohesion? And how is the integration-related performance of these media perceived?
Local News App
molo.news: Validation of a Relational Platform for Urban Publics
After a successful test run in Bremen, a science team is researching how the local news and information app "molo.news" can be made available nationwide.
Based on data from the Reuters Institute Digital News Survey
Trust in Established News Sources
The project examines the relationship between the news sources people use and the trust people place in news. It is based on data from the Reuters Institute Digital News Survey.
FGZ Project on the Journalism-Audience Relationship
What Journalists Want and What They Ought to Do
What does the public expect from journalists and how do they view their own role in terms of social cohesion?
Research network
Research Institute Social Cohesion
At the Research Institute Social Cohesion (Forschungsinstitut Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt FGZ), the HBI researches the role of the media in social cohesion.
Database for FGZ projects
(Social) Media Observatory
The (Social) Media Observatory is a database for the systematic observation of the media-based public sphere.
AI Usage under the Microscope
Generative Artificial Intelligence for Information Navigation
The BMBF project investigates how often and in which areas generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as Chat GPT is used privately and professionally.
Interdisciplinary Network
Network for Media and Health Communication
This project establishes a network to support interdisciplinary exchange in the field of health communication.
World's Largest Journalism Study
Journalism under Duress
As part of the world's largest journalism study, "Worlds of Journalism", this representative survey examines the profession of journalism and explores the stresses and strains faced by professional journalists in Germany.
Monitoring and Improving the DSA
DSA Research Network
In the DSA Research Network, experts from all over Europe monitor the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and work together on reform proposals.
International Cooperation
Transnational Media Histories
Relationships between media and by media do not stop at borders. The cooperative project with the Macquarie University in Sydney investigates such transnational histories of media.
Subproject Research Institute Social Cohesion
Media Use and Social Cohesion
How do people in different social situations use different kind of media? And how do they contribute to the creation of public spheres and social cohesion?
Subproject Research Institute for Social Cohesion
Transfer Office “Media and Social Cohesion”
The transfer office “Media and Social Cohesion” is coordinating all transfer and research acitivities of the projects, which the HBI contributes to the Research Institute Social Cohesion.
Study for Hamburg Senate and dpa
Use the News
In the "Use the News" project, the Leibniz Institute for Media Research is researching the news literacy of the population under the age of 30.
Rules in Digital Communication Spaces
Norms of the Net
The framework project bundles research activities in the area of the structural perspective investigation of rule formation in digital communication spaces.
Scientific Accompanying Research
Repository for Policy Documents
Our institute provided scientific support for the development of this specific information and consulting infrastructure.
Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
The Role of Celebrities in Disinformation Campaigns
This project examines the communication of "celebrities" in social media to gain a better understanding of their role in disinformation campaigns.
Value of the News
The History of the German Press Agency (dpa)
The project compiles a comprehensive history of the German Press Agency from 1949 to the present. It shows the significance of the dpa as a leading news agency for public communication in Germany as well as for the democratisation of the German society after the end of the Second World War will be worked out.
Project in the Leibniz Research Network "Value of the Past”
Practices of Appropriating the Past
The past is negotiated by many actors and made relevant for the present in ever new communicative practices.
International Long-Term Comparative Study
EU Kids Online
How do children and young people in different European countries use the Internet, what risks do they encounter and how do they deal with them? An international research network is addressing these questions in a long-term study.