Darian Harff

Gestern im vollen Audimax 🎓 Desiree Schmuck diskutierte mit @arminwolf.at, @klenkflorian.bsky.social und @brodnig.bsky.social über aktuelle Entwicklungen im Journalismus 🗞️ Viele Fragen, viel Interesse und richtig gute Einblicke für die Studierenden! Vielen Dank und bis nächstes Jahr! 🙌

Screenshot der Website des Shanghai Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2025. Im oberen Bereich befindet sich ein blau hinterlegter Header mit dem Titel „2025 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects“. Darunter ist die Kategorie „Communication“ ausgewählt. Die Rangliste zeigt Platz 1 bis 5: 1. University of Amsterdam (Niederlande, Score 278.6) 2. University of Vienna (Österreich, Score 225.6) 3. University of Texas (USA, Score 223.9) 4. Pennsylvania State University (USA, Score 223.1) 5. Michigan State University (USA, Score 201.5).

Im Shanghai Global Ranking of Academic Subjects ist @univie.ac.at in Kommunikationswissenschaft heuer auf Platz 2 aufgestiegen. Weiterhin das bestplatzierte Institut unserer Universität. Ein starkes Zeichen, dank aller engagierten Kolleg:innen, Projektmitarbeiter:innen & Studierenden. 🤝

Balkendiagramm aus der FWF-Studie 2025 zur Situation des wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses. Zur Aussage „Die Karriereperspektiven sind zu unsicher“ (Wert 5) stimmen 64 % voll und ganz und 18 % eher zu (Wert 4).

Balkendiagramm aus der FWF-Studie 2025 zu Reformvorschlägen im Wissenschaftssystem. 91 % befürworten den Ausbau unbefristeter Stellen unterhalb der Professur (davon 76 % voll und ganz + 15 % eher).

Neue FWF-Studie (vorgestellt im Sept.) zu Postdocs bestätigt, was wir seit Jahren sagen:

- 82 % finden die Karriereperspektiven zu unsicher,
- 91 % fordern mehr unbefristete Stellen unterhalb der Professur.

Das Problem ist bekannt – wann wird es endlich gelöst? 🤷‍♀️

#IchBinHanna @nuwiss.bsky.social

We're hiring! @univie.ac.at is seeking a TT Assistant Professor in the Psychology of Digitalization. If your work is about automation, AI, or immersive technology (e.g., VR) in the context of work and organizations (broadly defined), we’d love to hear from you. 👇

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Screenshot of an academic article titled “Rally and Recalibrate: Political Dynamics of Audience Expectations of Journalism During Times of Crisis” published in The International Journal of Press/Politics (OnlineFirst, Sage Journals). Authors: Claire Roney, Daniel Wiesner, Andreas A. Riedl, and Jakob-Moritz Eberl. The abstract explains that the study examines how audience expectations of journalism in Austria evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies shifts toward emerging journalistic roles such as Fact Checker and Science Communicator, based on data from three waves of the Austrian Corona Panel Project. Findings show fluctuating audience expectations tied to changes in public trust and crisis dynamics, emphasizing journalism’s need for adaptability. Keywords listed: journalism, audience expectations, trust in institutions, crisis attitudes, survey research, COVID-19. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612251375203

New publication out in #IJPP! 📑
We study how audience expectations of journalism 📰 shifted during COVID-19 in Austria 🇦🇹 – showing both short-term rally effects & longer-term recalibration 🔄.
Led by @clmron.bsky.social & @danielwiesner.bsky.social , w/ @andreasriedl.bsky.social & me. 1/n

TikTok als wichtigste Medien-, Kultur-, Informations-, Wissens- und Unterhaltungsplattform junger Amerikaner:innen wird dagegen nun möglicherweise einen Regierungszensor und -dirigenten in den Vorstand hineininstalliert bekommen. Die von außen kaum nachvollziehbare Aussteuerung der Inhalte mithilfe des geheimen Algorithmus kann leicht ein dystopisches Szenario ergeben: Eine trumpstaatliche Scheinöffentlichkeit, in der Pro-Trump-Inhalte um den Faktor hundert häufiger ausgespielt werden als Anti-Trump-Inhalte.

Die neue TikTok-Betreiberfirma in den USA wird von den Trump Bros Ellison und Andreessen kontrolliert werden & das Weiße Haus soll sogar einen Vertreter im Vorstand bekommen. Demokratiepolitisch verheerend. Bemerkenswerte Analyse von @saschalobo.bsky.social www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/net...

🙋‍♀️ Last, this article explores differences in the presence of these elements across SMIs (e.g., based on gender). As such, female SMIs in this sample are most likely to self-disclose and to offer simplifying political content, which may have positive consequences for followers’ political involvement.

📢 In addition, about half of the political videos contain specific content cues such as calls for participation or explanations of political terms that could elucidate why people often associate parasocial opinion leader functions with them (e.g., the ability to simplify political topics).

🤳 To compensate for the lack of personal exchange—which is the typical context of opinion leadership—SMIs for example use direct address or self-disclosure to build a connection with followers. I find that they employ these techniques as much in their political as in their non-political content.

📰 Consistent with the opinion leader label, SMIs are primarily opinion-driven in their communication. When factual claims are made, SMIs mainly draw from legacy news media to support them—but frequently they also fail to provide sources for most claims made in a video.

Intimate and Opinion-Oriented Communication? Examining Social Media Influencers’ Opinion Leader Potential Through Their Political Content Social media influencers (SMIs), described as popular social media users, have repeatedly posted about political topics on their channels. Extant work has described these SMIs as (parasocial) opini...

📊 New publication! In this single-author piece, I present insights into political content from social media influencers (SMIs) on YouTube in Germany. In the article, I examine to what extent SMIs construct an opinion leader role in their communication. doi.org/10.1080/1520...

Intimate and Opinion-Oriented Communication? Examining Social Media Influencers’ Opinion Leader Potential Through Their Political Content Social media influencers (SMIs), described as popular social media users, have repeatedly posted about political topics on their channels. Extant work has described these SMIs as (parasocial) opini...

Intimate and Opinion-Oriented Communication? Examining Social Media Influencers’ Opinion Leader Potential Through Their Political Content by @darianharff.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1080/1520...

📢 Happy to see this #OpenAccess paper out in #Journalism!
"From disruptive protests to disrupted news frames: Comparing German news on climate protests"
with @mikefarjam.bsky.social, Helena Rauxloh & Michael Brüggemann

NEW PAPER!!

We study how the "AI slop" era could actually boost demand for credible news.

In an experiment with thousands of Süddeutsche Zeitung readers, we found that AI misinformation made people *trust news less*, but *read it more*. 🧵

The Internalization of a Performance-Oriented Self-Concept Among Adolescents Through Their Favorite Music Artists Music is a highly popular yet understudied element of adolescents’ media and cultural consumption that functions as an influential agent of socialization. Past work has shown the presence of perfor...

Excited to share our latest preregistered study with Christoph Klimmt and @lauravandenbosch.bsky.social about the role of adolescents’ favorite music artists for the internalization of a performance-oriented self-concept! 🎶 doi.org/10.1080/1520... 1/

Top social issues advertisers across various EU countries in the last 90 days - lots and lots of fundraising advertising, particularly for aid to Gaza. From October, Meta stops this.

Also Mia is on the job market and you should hire her, she’s an amazing scholar!

New in Social Media + Society:
How do (non-)disruptive #climate #protests shape social media debates?
We analyzed ~5M Twitter/X posts on #FFF & #LetzteGeneration: Disruptive protests generate more engagement—but also more polarization, driven by right-wing/conservative users: doi.org/10.1177/2056...

Idols Within Reach: Measuring Perceptions of Media Role Models’ Attainability - Darian Harff, Heleen Dekoninck, Desiree Schmuck, 2025 Media do not only enable social comparison with perfect idols but also with role models who seem “attainable” and thus within reach for youth, which can invoke ...

Read all about how media enable social comparison with “attainable” role models here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10..... This study was authored by Darian Harff, Heleen Dekoninck, and Desiree Schmuck. @ipk-univie.bsky.social

🥳 New publication on the links between social media use and perfectionism in adolescence, as part of Prof. @lauravandenbosch.bsky.social 's MIMIc project (www.projectmimic.eu/)

The Media Psychology Lab has been awarded the Society Award 2025 by KU Leuven’s Humanities and Social Sciences Group, recognizing our research’s societal impact and public relevance.
We are honored by this recognition and committed to continuing research that bridges media, well-being, and society!

📢 New Publication 📢

@rinatmeerson.bsky.social, @kevinkoban.bsky.social, Jörg Matthes review bystander research on content moderation, highlighting theoretical heterogeneity, a focus on cognitions, & lacking attention to content, moderation, context, & individual features.

👉 doi.org/10.1080/1369...

Pub alert ⚠️ It’s not just about 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 to be like them—it’s about 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯. Our new PoMRA scale measures perceptions of media role models’ attainability. We found that influencers seem more within reach than celebrities, underscoring why attainability matters in media effects studies✨

Possible areas of use
- in research on counter-stereotypical role models
- in social comparison research (it may act as a potentially important boundary factor of effects)
- in research on social media influencers (attainability may be their unique quality and explain their influence potential)

We found that PoMRA is correlated with constructs like perceived similarity, but clearly captures a unique construct. We examine that men generally view their role models as more attainable than women, and that social media influencers are viewed as more within reach than traditional celebrities.

Our scale Perceptions of Media Role Models‘ Attainability (PoMRA) measures the extent to which people feel that they can become like their media role models. We used data from 3 independent youth samples to test and validate our scale. Three versions of the scale (23-, 10-, 5-item) were created.

2️⃣ In the concept paper, we argue that closeness to opinion followers in status can make opinion leaders seem *attainable*. In the second pub @jmcquarterly.bsky.social, we (w/ @heleendekoninck.bsky.social and @desireeschmuck.bsky.social) present a measure for attainability: doi.org/10.1177/1077...

Last, a simple two-step model does not sufficiently capture the various flows of communication between influencers (dubbed *proximal mass opinion leaders*/ProMOLs), their audiences, and other actors in the public sphere. We illustrate the multiple layers of ProMOLs’ impact in the visual model below.

Using this typology, we argue that influencers—who have often been referred to as OLs—share some similarities with traditional OLs despite their high reach. We argue that personalized communication with followers in self-built networks allows them to develop horizontal + personal influence.