The Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) has organized its research planning into research programs through the end of 2025. In January 2026, these were replaced by newly structured program areas. A corresponding redesign of the website is currently underway.
The HBI receives core funding for its research, so it does not rely solely on external grants. This enables the HBI to plan and carry out its research projects in the long term.
Program-based research focuses on fundamental questions designed to be addressed over several years. These questions are addressed through interrelated research funded by the institute itself and external grants. These programs are interdisciplinary and based on specific guiding questions to be answered in a coordinated manner.
Based on the institute’s mission to study the development of public communication in a media-driven society, four research programs were established and ran across disciplinary pillars until the end of 2025:
- Research program 1 “Transformation of Public Communication: Journalistic and Intermediary Functions in the Process of Opinion Formation”
- Research program 2 “Regulatory Structures and the Emergence of Rules in Online Spaces“
- Research program 3 “Knowledge for the Media Society“
- Media Research Methods Lab
The Institute productively combines the processing of long-term basic scientific questions with practice-oriented expertise for politics, business and civil society. The work is always committed to the standards of scientific excellence and the principle of research independence.
