Prof. em. Dr. Uwe Hasebrink

After retiring on 1 October 2021, Prof. em. Dr. Uwe Hasebrink will continue to be associated with the Leibniz Institute for Media Research │ Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) as an associated researcher.

Since the HBI became a member of the Leibniz Association in 2019, Uwe Hasebrink has represented the institute as Scientific Director on the Executive Board. He had previously been a member of the Hans-Bredow-Institut’s Board of Directors since 1998.

After studying psychology and German philology in Hamburg, Uwe Hasebrink initially worked for three years as a research assistant at the Institute for Social Psychology at Universität Hamburg. He has worked at the HBI since 1986, initially as a scientific consultant, and from 1988 as executive manager. In 1998 he was elected to the Institute’s Board of Directors. In 1999, he held a professorship for communication science at the College of Music and Theatre in Hanover. In spring 2001, he was jointly appointed to a professorship for “Empirical Communication Studies” by the Universität Hamburg and the Hans-Bredow-Institut.

Memberships

From 2009, he was a member of the board of directors of the Research Center for Media and Communication (RCMC), with which university and non-university media and communication research in Hamburg was bundled. At the same time, he was a member of the spokesperson team of the Graduate School Media and Communication (GMaC), which was funded from 2009 to 2012 as part of the Hamburg Excellence Initiative. From 1998 to 2003, he was also spokesperson for the Media Reception and Effects research section of the German Communication Association (DGPuK), co-editor of the publication series “Reception Research” from 2003 to 2007, a member of the Management Committee of the International Radio Research Network (IREN) from 2004 to 2006 and a member of the Management Committee of the COST Action “Transforming Audiences – Transforming Societies” from 2010 to 2014. From 2004 to 2012, he was a member of the Executive Board of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) and its predecessor organization ECCR.

He has been on the International Board of the “Journal of Children and Media” since 2009 and a member of the International Advisory Board of the journals “Studies in Communication | Media” and “Communication Management Quarterly” since 2011.

Main Research Areas

His research focuses on the areas of media use and media content as well as media policy. In recent years, these have mainly been individual usage patterns and media repertoires, convergence of media from the user’s perspective, the consequences of online media for traditional media, media use by children and young people, youth media protection, forms of audience participation and safeguarding user interests vis-à-vis the media, as well as European media and European audiences.

Last update: 01.07.2024

Works by Prof. em. Dr. Uwe Hasebrink

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.

Cover of the 6/2025 issue of the New Journal of Administrative Law.
Publikation Article in Journal for Administrative Law

Trusted Flaggers Are Not Authorized Agents!

In the current issue of the Neue Zeitschrift für Verwaltungsrecht, Tobias Mast challenges the increasingly prominent view in legal literature that trusted flaggers under Art. 22 of the Digital Services Act (DSA) are public authorities in the sense of German administrative law.

Cover of the Publication
Publikation Education Study in Media Perspektiven

The Population’s View of ZDF’s Educational Function

A study on the educational mandate of the ZDF has for the first time examined the population's educational expectations and perceptions. Jan-Hinrik Schmidt, Uwe Hasebrink and Dieter Storll were involved in an advisory capacity in the design and evaluation of the study and have presented the core findings in detail in an article.

Auf schwarz-weißem Schachbrett stehen sich weiße und schwarze Figuren gegenüber
Projekt DAAD cooperation project

Mapping Polarization in News Media Content

How are polarizing topics reported in Germany and Australia – and does this reporting contribute to the polarization of political attitudes? The project examines how news content in both countries differs in its coverage of controversial issues – and whether this reporting contains potentially polarizing elements.

Cover of the Handbook Digital Journalism
Publikation Recently Published

Handbook of Digital Journalism

The second edition of the Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies offers a collection of 54 essays addressing current issues and debates in the field of digital journalism studies, including two articles by Julius Reimer / Wiebke Loosen and Lisa Merten.

Cover von Heft 1/2025 der Zeitschrift M&K
Publikation Available Open Access

Issue 1/2025 of M&K Published

Issue 1/2025 of our journal Media & Communication Studies (M&K) has been published, including articles on journalism in Germany in 2023, on the role of Google and YouTube in the dissemination of conspiracy theories, and on journalistic role expectations and ideals of social coexistence in the German population. All content can be downloaded for free from the Nomos eLibrary.

Cover of the journal Computational Communication Research
Publikation Open Access Article

Data Donations from Journalism

In their article “I Really Thought I Would Use More Than Just Google: Investigating Professional Journalistic Online Use with Browser History Donations”, Lisa Merten, Felix Victor Münch and Maren Schuster describe how the method of data donation can be used to investigate professional media use in journalism. The article was published in the open access journal Computational Communication Research.

Cover des Nomos-Handbuchs Journalismusforschung
Publikation Recently Published

Journalism Research

A new Nomos Handbook, edited by Thomas Hanitzsch, Wiebke Loosen and Annika Sehl, offers an insight into the diversity of research on journalism in its social context. It looks, among other things, at actors, organisations and institutions, as well as at news, how it is produced and how it is used. The volume reflects the thematic, theoretical and methodological diversity of research.

Portrait Jan-Ole Harfst
Publikation Blog Post on Verfassungsblog

Elections in a Fortified Platform Democracy

The integrity of the German parliamentary elections and future European elections has been and continues to be threatened by influence peddling via social networks. The Digital Services Act (DSA) is supposed to provide a remedy against election manipulation. In a blog post on the Verfassungsblog, Jan-Ole Harfst explains why Art. 34-35 of the DSA could hardly remedy the systemic risks of this federal election campaign.

Deutschlandkarte auf dunklem Hintergrund
Beitrag RISC Blog Article

Elon Musk, the AfD and the Agenda-Setting of the Radical Right in the 2025 German Federal Election

The article explains how Elon Musk's communication interventions increase the media presence of Alice Weidel and the AfD, and how these dynamics are driven by the mechanisms of the digital attention economy.

Cover der Zeitschrift "Youth and Society" Ausg. 1/2025
Publikation Article in the Journal Youth & Society

Information and Political Engagement Practices of Disadvantaged Youth

In the study “Disinterested and Disillusioned? Information and Political Engagement Practices of Young People from Disadvantaged Backgrounds”, the information and participation practices of young people with a low level of formal education are examined.

1 2 3 7

Page 1 from 7

Newsletter

Information about current projects, events and publications of the institute.

Subscribe now