Dr. Irene Broer

Associated Researcher Science Communication & Social Cohesion

Irene Broer was a researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) in Research Program 3 “Knowledge for the Media Society” from 2018 to 2024. Her methodological focus is on ethnographic research as well as applied and co-creative designs. Her research interest is science communication, in particular the establishment of new actors, practices and orientations at the interfaces of science, media and politics. From March to September 2024, Irene will be investigating the role of artificial intelligence in and for science communication as a postdoc at the Institute of Communication Science at TU Braunschweig.

For her doctorate, Irene investigated new intermediaries between science and journalism, in particular through a newsroom ethnography at the Science Media Centre Germany (SMC) as part of the MeWiKo project (2018-2021). In her cumulative dissertation, she describes the working routines of SMC Germany, the crisis-related disruptions to these routines and the various broker roles that the organisation took on during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conceptually, she proposes to examine science communication as a communicative figuration and offers cultural anthropological perspectives on hybrid newsroom ethnography as a method.

In recent years, Irene’s research interests have expanded to include scientific policy advice. In 2021, COVID-19 was selected as a subject for research on communication in crises. Subsequently, she was involved as a scientific advisor for the BMBF in the development of the Crisis Science Hub (CSH) to optimise the exchange between science and politics. In a follow-up project, she contributed to the target group-orientated development of a repository for scientific advice documents (REPOD).

Since December 2021, she researched the integrative role and function of public service media at the Research Institute Social Cohesion and has organised Thinkshops with media users, creators and regulators.

In 2019-2020, Irene Broer was the Institute’s PhD spokesperson. In 2020-2021, she was elected spokesperson for Section B of the Leibniz PhD Network, representing all doctoral researchers at the Leibniz Institutes in the fields of economics, social sciences and spatial sciences.

Contact information

Dr. Irene Broer

Associated Researcher Science Communication & Social Cohesion

Technische Universität Braunschweig
Institute for Communication Science
Bienroder Weg 97
D-38106 Braunschweig

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Veröffentlicht am: 05.07.2024

Works by Dr. Irene Broer

Cover des Buchs "Recht der Digitalisierung"
Publikation Available Open Access

Law of Digitalization

Can the right legal framework meet the central challenges of digitization? This volume, edited by Prof. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann, explores important new areas of law, the regulation of AI, the role of digital services, and the characteristics of effective technology policy and sensible innovation law.

Screenshot der ersten "Seite" des Artikels auf dem Verfassungsblog
Publikation Article on Verfassungsblog

DSA Enforcement by the EU Commission

The problematic role of the European Commission in enforcing the Digital Services Act (DSA) and possible alternatives are the focus of a blog post published by Jan-Ole Harfst, Dr. Tobias Mast, and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz on 16 July 2025 on the Verfassungblog.

Cover der Zeitschrift
Publikation Recently Published

Community Data Trust for Sensitive Data

Jan Rau, Moritz Fürneisen, and Gregor Wiedemann co-developed the concept of community data stewardship to facilitate the collaborative creation and utilization of sensitive data in communication science. By using the example of research into right-wing extremist online communication, they demonstrate how community data stewardship can be structured.

Cover der Zeitschrift UFITA
Publikation Recently Published

On the Public Value of Public Service Media

"What Can Audience Research findings tell us about the public value of public service media?" This question explored by Prof. Dr. Uwe Hasebrink and PD Dr. Jan-Hinrik Schmidt, who published their insights in the issue 2/2024 of the journal UFITA.

Cover der Broschüre zum 75. Geburtstag
Publikation Brochure Available for Download

Facets of 75 Years Hans-Bredow-Institut

With this brochure. we take a look at the institute's development since 1950. While we do not claim to provide a complete history, we aim to highlight some of the institute's unique characteristics, showcasing moments in the past when these features were particularly evident.

Altes Zeitungsfoto von Hans-Bredow,
Beitrag HBI 75: Founding History

How the Institute Got Its Name

On May 30, 1950, the Hans Bredow Institute was founded by the former Northwest German Broadcasting Corporation (the predecessor of NDR and WDR) and the University of Hamburg. This blog post describes the history of its founding and explains how the institute got its name.

Cover von Heft 2/2025 M&K
Publikation Recently Published

M&K 2/2025 Special Issue “Media Structures Revisited”

Issue 2/2025 of Media & Communication Science has been published as a special issue entitled “Media Structures Revisited,” edited by Josef Seethaler, Marlis Prinzing, Petra Herczeg, and Mark Eisenegger. The entire issue is available open access via the Nomos eLibrary.

Cover der Publikation "
Publikation Research Project on Misinformation and Disinformation

Destructive Discourses

The final research report, jointly written as part of the NOTORIOUS research project, looks at how climate-related misinformation and disinformation spreads across different platforms. At the HBI, Philipp Keßling, Dr. Felix Victor Münch, Dr. Gregor Wiedemann, and Mattes Ruckdeschel worked on the report.

Bild des 1600 Seiten starken Kommnatrs
Publikation The most comprehensive HBI publication ever!

DSA DMA Commentary

It is the most extensive publication the HBI has ever produced: the 1600-page commentary on the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), edited by Tobias Mast, Matthias C. Kettemann, Stephan Dreyer and Wolfgang Schulz. In addition to several current and former researchers from the institute, almost 30 other experts from Germany, Austria and Switzerland were recruited for the commentary project.

Cover des Kurzgutachtens
Publikation Brief Expert Opinion

State Treaty on the Reform of the Procedure for Setting the Broadcasting License Fee

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz and Dr. Tobias Mast have provided their expert opinion on the State Treaty on the Reform of the Procedure for Setting the Broadcasting Fee (RFinÄStV). At the end of 2004, the federal states had decided to separate the pillars of the reform of public broadcasting and to adopt the draft reform first and to continue the process of reforming the procedure for setting the licence fee separately.

Cover of the first volume of the EU publication series

The Protection of Freedom of Expression in the Digital Services Act

The publication "Der Schutz der Meinungsäusserungsfreiheit im Digital Services Act" [The Protection of Freedom of Expression in the Digital Services Act], to which Matthias C. Kettemann contributed significantly, is the first in a series of KommAustria publications on the DSA, which are intended to provide a basis for understanding the DSA and contribute to a more differentiated discussion.

Cover of Working Paper No. 76
Publikation Project Findings Available for Download

Between Curiosity and Skepticism: Use and Perception of Generative AI for Information Search in Germany

The research project "Generative Artificial Intelligence for Information Navigation", funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), investigated to what extent, for what purposes and for what reasons the German population uses generative artificial intelligence in applications such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini. The findings can be downloaded as a working paper.

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