Prof. Dr. Judith Möller

Scientific Director

Judith Möller has taken up the professorship “Empirical Communication Research, especially Media Use and Social Media Effects” at Universität Hamburg in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) on 1 February 2023. This is a joint appointment, which combines teaching at the University’s Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies with extensive research activities at the HBI.

Her research focuses on the effects of political communication, especially in social media. The focus is on two questions: (1) the impact of personalised political communication on individuals and society as a whole, and (2) the role of (new) media in the process of opinion formation, especially as part of political socialisation processes.

Judith Möller war Associate Professor of Political Communication at the Department of Communication Studies, University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Political Science, University of Trondheim before. She is an associate member of the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), the Center for Politics and Communication (CPC) and the Information, Communication, & the Data Society Initiative (ICDS).

In 2019, Judith Möller received a VENI Talent Track grant from the Netherlands Science Foundation (NWO). The project is entitled “Vocal, Visible and Vaulting? (Dis)connected Niche Audiences in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” and investigates the impact of algorithmic filtering systems and artificial intelligence on specific populations and niche audiences. Her work has been published in numerous international journals. She is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Communication and Political Communication and an ad hoc reviewer for leading journals in the field.

Transfer

The transfer of her research and collaboration with practitioners is of great importance to Judith Möller. She regularly participates in public debates or science festivals and is in constant dialogue with newspaper publishers, public broadcasters and media regulators. For the German media authority Medienanstalten, she contributed to an expert opinion on types of disinformation and misinformation, which looked at different forms of disinformation and their dissemination from a communication science and legal perspective. She is also regularly invited as an expert to meetings of media regulators and consumer and market authorities, such as the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA), the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities (EPRA), Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (mabb), Landesanstalt für Medien NRW, the Swiss Federal Media Commission (EMEK) or Election Observation and Democracy Support (EODS).

Contact information

Prof. Dr. Judith Möller

Scientific Director

Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut
Warburgstraße 30b
20354 Hamburg

Last update: 28.01.2026

Works by Prof. Dr. Judith Möller

Publikation Recently Published

Visualizing Regulatory Ecosystems: The AI Act as a Case Study

The article by Magdalena Stratmann, Tobias Mast, and others was developed as part of the STEAM project, "Informing Regulatory Reasoning on Algorithmic Systems in Societal Communication with STEAM." It introduces Architectural Ecosystem Modeling, a visual method that makes the institutional structures of the AI Act visible. This method analyzes responsibilities and dependencies and identifies gaps, overlaps, and opportunities for coordination within the regulatory framework.

eine Frau hinter einem Tisch mit ablehnender Haltung gegenüber Zeitungen auf dem Tisch.
Projekt New Project!

Practices of News Avoidance and Their Implications for Public Connection

What are the effects of news avoidance on belonging to different publics and on political participation? And to what extent do these dynamics contribute to the fragmentation of public spheres? This study examines the effects of different practices of news avoidance on individuals‘ public connection.

Projekt BMFTR Project

Podcasts: Actors, Topics, and Misinformation

As audio media, such as podcasts, become more widely used, the risks of them distributing misinformation, disinformation, and fake news increase. The collaborative project “Systematic Observation of New Auditive Risks” (SONAR) examines the structure of online audio media offerings and develops methods for identifying relevant narratives and manipulation strategies.

Publikation Merz issue and Podcast Available!

Thoughts on the Debate Over Media Bans

Dr. Claudia Lampert, together with Klaus Lutz (Parabol Media Center), edited the latest issue of the media education journal “merz” (2/2026). The issue is titled “Everything Under Control? Thoughts on the Debate Over Media Bans.” Dr. Stephan Dreyer also contributed an article.

Publikation Available for Download

Annual Report 2023-2025

Evaluation, growth, our 75th anniversary, and a new building. The years from 2023 to 2025 were challenging yet fruitful. Our research output was impressive, and our social impact was significant. This annual report provides a brief overview of our activities.

Publikation Open Access Publication

Determinants of Verification Behavior in Generative Search

Generative AI is being increasingly integrated into search engines, but it has been criticized for producing content that sounds plausible yet is sometimes inaccurate. Little is currently known about the factors that prompt users to verify these responses. The study by Eva-Luise Knor, Michael V. Reiss, Judith Möller, and Lisa Merten addresses this knowledge gap.

Publikation Recently Published

Platforms, Online Surveillance, and the European Union: The Digital Services Act (DSA)

In their open-access article, Prof. Dr. Judith Möller, Ronan Ó Fathaigh, Bengi Zeybek, and Rocco Bellanova explore how the DSA facilitates public and private surveillance practices regarding content disseminated on online platforms.

Cover of issue 2/2026 M&K
Publikation Open Access Publication

M&K 2/2026 Has Been Published

The February 2026 issue of M&K features articles that explore the understanding of roles and the transformative potential of peripheral actors in the DACH region. Other articles examine developments in sports coverage in German daily newspapers from 2011 to 2021 and the usage patterns of ChatGPT, as well as anthropomorphic role attributions. You can download all of these articles free of charge.

Front Page of the Working Paper
Publikation Working Paper Available for Download

Babies and Toddlers in Family Influencing

In what ways and how often are babies and young children (ages 0–5) depicted on commercially oriented German-language social media profiles on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube? Stephan Dreyer, Claudia Lampert, Kira Thiel, and others analyze this question using qualitative and quantitative methods. They also critically discuss the findings in light of the applicable legal framework and media ethics considerations.

Publikation Open Access Publication

Assessing Age Assurance Technologies: Effectiveness, Side-Effects, and Acceptance

In the article “Assessing Age Assurance Technologies: Effectiveness, Side-Effects, and Acceptance,” Dr. Wouter Lueks, Dr. Stephan Dreyer, Prof. Dr. Hannes Federrath, and Prof. Dr. Judith Simon analyze existing age verification methods.

Publikation Review of a Dissertation

Government Public Relations in New Media

For years, the democratic legitimacy of government public relations has been a topic of discussion in academic literature and constitutional jurisprudence. Tobias Mast reviews a recently published dissertation on the subject, exploring the untapped potential of interdisciplinary legal scholarship in relation to commonly accepted empirical assumptions.

Publikation Article for Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Platform Badges for Civic Communication

Digital platforms have become central infrastructures for political communication and social negotiation processes. In his article, Jan Rau examines platform badges, which are tools that platforms use to fulfill their obligation to mitigate risk by creating positive incentives for users to adhere to certain communicative norms.

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