Polcom Vienna

👏 Shout-out to Lena Pohlmann-PhD in the Vienna Doctoral College on #DigitalHumanism-for her insights at the #CEU debate series “AI vs. Planet: Peril or Opportunity?” tackling how AI shapes planetary futures and sustainability from a humanistic lens. #AI #Planet #DigitalHumanism #CEU

See the 📚Launch: "Twitter Activism in Iran" at #ECPR!
Exploring how Iranians use Twitter under restrictions to mobilize, shape discourse & challenge authoritarians.
🗓 13 Feb 2026, 09:00 GMT
Presenter: Dr. @hosseinkermani.bsky.social
Discussant: Dr. Gi Yeon Koo
#SocialMedia #Iran #PoliticalScience

#IPKW welcomed ~80 guests for the alumni #ScienceSlam on “The Future of Truth–How Fact-Checking Must Change in the Age of #AI, #Deepfakes and Social Media.” Great contributions by @gngeorgarakis.bsky.social, Claudia Wilhelm @jamoeberl.bsky.social and more! Looking forward to another event soon!👏🔬

We at the POLCOM team wish you a happy, successful and fulfilling new year! We look forward to new opportunities, growth, exchange, and meaningful collaborations in 2026! ✨ 🥳 ✨

Beyond Credibility: The Effects of Different Forms of Visual Disinformation - Teresa Weikmann, Jana Laura Egelhofer, Sophie Lecheler, 2025 Deepfakes dominate discussions about manipulated videos, but other forms of visual disinformation are more prevalent and less understood. Moreover, deception is...

📊 A new @jmcquarterly.bsky.social study by @teresaelena.bsky.social, @jlegelhofer.bsky.social and @solecheler.bsky.social compared how deepfakes, cheapfakes, and decontextualized videos influence perceptions, finding distinct effects. Read the full #OA paper:
doi.org/10.1177/1077...

Congratulations to Dr. @andreawiesner.bsky.social, who successfully defended her PhD thesis, “Drawing Lines in Gray Areas: Toward Feasible, Accepted, and Effective Content Moderation” supervised by Professor @solecheler.bsky.social and Assistant Professor Svenja Schäfer. 🤩🥳 Congrats, Dr. Wiesner!

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

ONLINE FIRST! This article by Dominika Betakova et al. uses a comparative online experiment to test whether nudges could help with #news avoidance. Available with OPEN ACCESS.
➡️ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Tackling (misleading) incivility online: a user-centric evaluation of different comment moderation strategies Uncivil online comments, e.g., in the form of insults or misinformation, come with severe consequences for platforms, users, and democratic processes – making effective moderation essential. Howeve...

1/
I’m thrilled (and a little proud 🤗) to share my first single-authored publication!
It’s now out open access in Information, Communication & Society:
🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1369...

The Role of Choice Architecture in Mitigating News Avoidance News avoidance has become more common and is associated with negative democratic outcomes. However, only a handful of studies have explored solutions to reduce news avoidance, with nudges offering ...

🚫📰 Can we use nudges to mitigate news avoidance?
Yes and no — it depends on what nudges we use!
Together with @hajoboo.bsky.social & @solecheler.bsky.social I wanted to test whether nudges can reduce news avoidance as limited news consumption—and to do so beyond established Western democracies. 🧵👇

📣👀Early-Career Researchers @ ECREAs PolComm Section Conference 2025!
A few last-minute spots for the ‪@yecrea.bsky.social‬ pre-conference workshop just opened. Want to join a great lineup of speakers on early-career profile building, network development, and transience? Just drop us a message! 🙂

Solutions that Move Us? The Role of Responsibility Framing in Audience Reactions to Sustainability Stories Research on the effectiveness of solutions journalism in influencing self-efficacy, responsibility perception, and behavioral intentions has produced mixed results. While emotional responses to sol...

🚨📝 New publication: Svenja Schäfer w/ Lea Gorski and PolCom members @hannahgreber.bsky.social + @solecheler.bsky.social explored whether solutions are effective in sustainability communication and examined the attribution of responsibility through an experiment. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1751...

Today @ #ViennaChildren'sUniversity 🧒
How can YOU stay safe on social media? 🤔
Our @solecheler.bsky.social & @amplanitzer.bsky.social, with @julianeidhardt.bsky.social & @allanhanbury.bsky.social, explored counter speech 🗣️ & algorithmic moderation 🤖 via roleplay, annotation games & a kindness wall 💛

@ipk-univie.bsky.social is wrapping up #ica25 in Denver!

From awards to withdrawn presentations, we‘ve had it all this year. Sending warm greetings & thoughts to all colleagues who could not participate 🫶✨

Thanks #ICA25 for a great panel on Science in Political Contexts. It was a pleasure to present our latest findings to such an engaged and insightful audience.
w/ @jamoeberl.bsky.social & @solecheler.bsky.social

Another windowless room (but this time way bigger) in which I got to present first preliminary findings on how strategic politicians can *actually* be about their emotions in election campaigns

📷 @amplanitzer.bsky.social

What are the content-level characteristics of selectively avoided news? 🤔
@dbetakova.bsky.social presenting her impressive two-study research using computational text analysis and baysian modelling /w @solecheler.bsky.social & @hajoboo.bsky.social at an engaging #ICA25 panel on news avoidance 👏

What kinds of content do users themselves want to see moderated on platforms? 👀
Surprisingly, it's less about the incivility of language and more about authorial intention, target vulnerability and platform affordances /w @solecheler.bsky.social, @pia-p.bsky.social & Svenja Schäfer 🙂 #ICA25 #PolComm

📰 Empathy in journalism - meant to connect us, but can it also divide?
@hannahgreber.bsky.social presents findings on the unintended side-effects of empathy-driven journalism at #ICA25 w/ @jesperstromback.bsky.social & @solecheler.bsky.social 👏

@polcomvienna.bsky.social at the #ica25, come see our presentations!

I will be presenting first findings on how Austrian politicians are building their emotional capital to meet the increasing need for personalisation and emotionalisation on Monday at 12 noon ✨

But also come and see all the other inspiring research findings from our team 💫

YES! Come see me presenting our paper “The shadow side of empathy? Eliciting empathy in journalism and its (potentially) unintended side-effects on polarization”- w. @solecheler.bsky.social & @jesperstromback.bsky.social

Sunday, 13:30, Mineral G
#ica25

Presenting in the coziest corner of #ICA25 including a weird neck tilt to see the screen ✅
w/ the one and only @andiisto.bsky.social, co-authored with @solecheler.bsky.social & Svenja Schäfer.

Come watch me do that move again!
📅 Monday, 10:30
📍 Mineral G (again)
🗣️ „Science on the Political Stage“

I won something at #ica25 🥹❤️

Welcome to the ICA conference!

Our team showed up strong for the #PolcommPreconference25 🥳
@dominikhokamp.bsky.social shared his work on emotional ties of journalists & politicians, @amplanitzer.bsky.social presented her work on personalised algorithmic platform moderation and @solecheler.bsky.social was a discussant & panelists👏

These are the participants of the #PoliticalCommunicationPreconference25. It was an amazing day, full of interesting insights and great research. Although it's hard to say goodbye to a great day, #ICA25 is now officially starting! Let's enjoy the conference together! ❤️

📣 POLCOM Vienna @ #ICA25
Happy to see eight of our team members at ICA in Denver, CO this week - mentoring and sharing their latest research 🙂
Come say 👋 if you are around!

So proud of former PhD candidates at @polcomvienna.bsky.social , @hannahgreber.bsky.social and @teresaelena.bsky.social, who won the dissertation award of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences this year! Absolute 🌟🌟!

At #DigHum2025 conference this week in Vienna's MuseumsQuartier🌞 and excited to kick off Day 2 themed around AI, platforms & power! Happy to also contribute by discussing our ongoing project on algorithmic content moderation /w @pia-p.bsky.social @solecheler.bsky.social @julianeidhardt.bsky.social 🙂