Portrait of Leonie Wunderlich

Leonie Wunderlich

Junior Researcher Media Use

Leonie Wunderlich has been working as a research associate at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans Bredow Institute (HBI) in Research Program 1 “Transformation of Public Communication – Journalistic and Intermediary Functions in the Process of Opinion Formation” since July 2020. Her research interests include news and information consumption in digital media environments, in particular the role of new public actors in opinion-forming processes and information practices in algorithmically controlled information environments.

Leonie Wunderlich wrote her doctoral thesis on “Information-related Practices of Young People in the Hybrid Media System”. In her cumulative dissertation, she focuses on the role and function of (non-)journalistic sources in the information and opinion-forming behavior of 14 to 24-year-olds.

Since 2020, she has been working on the project “Use the News – News Usage and News Literacy in the Digital Age”, which focuses on the role of journalism, news literacy, especially among the population under 30, and the transfer of scientific findings into journalistic and educational practice.

Contact information

Leonie Wunderlich

Junior Researcher Media Use

Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI)
Rothenbaumchaussee 36
20148 Hamburg
Germany

Last update: 23.06.2025

Works by Leonie Wunderlich

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.

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.

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