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
Coding Public Value
How can we develop software that is not only oriented towards business models, but also towards the common good, user interests, and media regulation? Coding Public Value (CPV) translates questions on media law into approaches and methods for a responsible software engineering.
Journalistic Use of Information Environments Influenced by Algorithms
The pilot project in the field of computational social science used browser data donations to investigate how relevant the offerings of individual search engines and social media are in the everyday work of journalists.
Communication in Times of Crisis
How do communications change in a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic? What role do actors from science, politics and the media take over? How do they deal with uncertainty from this situation? A project that reviewed existing studies and interviewed experts provided answers to this question.
Platform Democracy
How could "platform councils" or other institutions for integrating public interests into platform rule-making processes ensure that public interests and democratic values are taken into account? A new project is embarking on a search for global best practice models.
Media and Science Communication
How do scientific findings about journalistic media and social media get into the world? What criteria do science editors use to select topics? And what impact can scientific content have with it?
Global Media and Internet Concentration
The international Global Media & Internet Concentration Project (GMICP) analyses communication, internet and media markets in nearly 40 countries. The HBI is responsible for collecting and reporting the data for Germany.
Labeling of Edited (Influencer) Photos
Must, should, may digitally edited photos in social media be labeled? On behalf of the Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media (KJM), the HBI is investigating the necessity of a legal labeling requirement for edited photos and videos.
Connected Kids: Socialisation in a Changing Media Environment
Children and young people use media to establish their position within their respective social groups and contexts. The role their media repertoires and communicative practices play in this and how these change over time is being examined in a qualitative longitudinal study with colleagues from the FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg.
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.
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.
Information Environments Online and the Polarization of Political Opinions
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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".
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?
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.
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.
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 Institute Social Cohesion
At the Research Institute Social Cohesion (Forschungsinstitut Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt FGZ), the HBI researches the role of the media in social cohesion.
(Social) Media Observatory
The (Social) Media Observatory is a database for the systematic observation of the media-based public sphere.
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.
Network for Media and Health Communication
This project establishes a network to support interdisciplinary exchange in the field of health communication.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Repository for Policy Documents
Our institute provided scientific support for the development of this specific information and consulting infrastructure.
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.
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.
Practices of Appropriating the Past
The past is negotiated by many actors and made relevant for the present in ever new communicative practices.
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.