Dr. Stephan Dreyer

Senior Researcher Media Law & Media Governance

Stephan Dreyer is Senior Researcher in Media Law and Media Governance at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI). His research focuses on regulatory issues of mediated communication in a datafied society. He looks into challenges that regulation is facing in the light of new technologies, services and changing media use.

Currently he is working on legal issues of AI-based communication and automated decision-making systems, (social) bot communication and the limitations of transparency/disclosure as a regulatory resource.

He’s a legal expert in regulatory questions at the intersection of protection of minors, privacy and data protection. He also conducts legal and comparative analyses of systems in the area of media-related governance.

In the context of his PhD thesis, he has investigated the margins of appreciation as well as the determinants of legal decisions under uncertainty, with a specific focus on the protection of minors. His thesis also focused on the different scope for decision-making by legislators, supervisory authorities and self-regulatory bodies and their relevance for dealing with uncertainty.

After having studied Law at Universität Hamburg with a focus on Information and Communication Law, he has been member of staff at the Hans-Bredow-Institut since 2002.

Activities Outside of the Institute

Stephan Dreyer is spokesperson for the Complaint Committee as well as the Expert Committee of the “Association for Voluntary Self-Regulation of Digital Media Service Providers” (FSM); he is a Surveyor for Child Protection at the Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK.online) as well as member of the USK Appeal Commission. He is member of the board of trustees of the German Association for Voluntary Self-Regulation of Television (FSF) and member of the Advisory Board at klicksafe.de. In the context of the European CEO Coalition (2011-2014) he has chaired the “Technical Task Force on Interoperability and Machine-Readability”, who has analysed opportunities and specifications of technical interoperability of electronic age classification information. From 2014 to 2016 he has been leading project co-ordinator of the international, EC co-funded technical pilot MIRACLE (Machine-redable and interoperable age label classifications in Europe), a project that has shown that interoperable age classifications are technically feasible, consumer-friendly and that ratings interoperability can strengthen the Digital Single Market to a significant degree.

Contact information

Dr. Stephan Dreyer

Senior Researcher Media Law & Media Governance

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

Last update: 04.07.2024

Works by Dr. Stephan Dreyer

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.

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