On May 1, 2020, the research project "Journalism Challenged: Understanding Performative Publics through Media Practice” at the Division for Journalism Studies will be launched. Under the direction of Prof.'in Dr. Margreth Lünenborg and in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Christoph Raetzsch (Aarhus University), Miriam Siemon as a doctoral researcher and Dr. Wolfgang Reissmann as a post-doctoral researcher will study the challenges of journalism using the example of #MeToo.

The DFG-funded project investigates how journalism is dealing with digitally networked communication media changes in relation to other forms of public articulation. The aim is to empirically substantiate the concept of "performative publics", which has already been introduced, and to develop it further on the basis of data. The focus will be on the relations between journalists, civil society actors and users across different levels of publicity, as well as the media practices that constitute the #MeToo-public sphere(s). Over the next three years, digital methods such as quantitative network analysis will be used, as well as qualitative methods of interview research and ethnography.

More information on the research project can be found here.