The Division Media Use Research is looking for committed students planning to write their final paper on one of the following topics. The topics indicate whether they are suitable for Bachelor's and/or Master's theses:

• Reporting on flight and migration (Bachelor & Master): We provide you with a data set we have collected on refugee discourses in journalistic mass media. The data is representative for Germany, Switzerland, UK and Spain. It makes sense to go beyond simple “how are refugees portrayed” questions and ask in-depth, comparative questions: in particular, working with different theoretical points of reference, such as news value theory and the concept of “journalism cultures”, can provide interesting levels of comparison for explanatory contributions to refugee and journalism research in communication studies.
• Graduate study Bachelor's degree programs (Master's): Occupational fields and course content are changing very quickly in media and communication-related degree programs. In this environment, orientation based on reliable data is particularly important for both students and lecturers. For this reason, the IfPuK wants to regularly examine the satisfaction with the degree program, the evaluation of the content and course of the degree program as well as the career entry and further career phases of graduates. Previous studies are available for both the PuK Bachelor's degree course and the Master's degree courses from previous years, which can be built upon. This work will be supervised by Prof. Dr. Martin Emmer and Prof. Dr. Joachim Trebbe.
• Secondary analysis of online political communication and participation (Bachelor & Master): At the “Weizenbaum Panel” research facility of the Weizenbaum Institute, which is headed by Prof. Martin Emmer, high-quality quantitative survey data on questions of digital media use and online political communication and participation are collected annually (https://panel.weizenbaum-institut.de/ressourcen/). This data enables the investigation of a wide range of research questions on topics such as digital activism, dealing with disinformation or hate speech as well as annually changing special topics (e.g. acceptance of AI). As the data is collected using a panel design, Master's students also have interesting opportunities for advanced analyses, such as causal analyses or time series analyses.
• Social media use in global comparison (Bachelor & Master): The state of research on the use of social media is very uneven internationally: while there is a lot of research and data on this in Western or WEIRD countries (western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) such as the USA, Korea, Germany and European countries, there are major gaps in research on the role of digital media in other societies, such as the Global South or authoritarian countries. Here, it is possible to develop literature-based research on specific countries or regions (especially in Bachelor's theses), but data can also be collected empirically (online, qualitatively, quantitatively) if students have personal access to specific countries or populations or wish to do so.
• Case studies on the potential of digitalization for development in sub-Saharan Africa: While some innovative ICT applications in SSA, such as the mobile banking system MPesa or the crowdsource platform Ushahidi, have attracted some attention, others have so far led a shadowy existence. For example, digital crowd-sourced mapping of slum areas has so far been underexposed in political communication research. Yet such projects contribute significantly to the empowerment of the population and can be classified as political participation in the broadest sense: This is because, with the help of ICT, the slum dwellers take on tasks that the state cannot do justice to. Case studies on the use of ICT are also possible in other areas, such as health, governance or business. A qualitative survey on a specific project can provide insights into the organizational form and implementation of ICT projects in SSA, as well as theoretical anchoring. Writing the thesis in English is welcomed.
• Computer game use (Bachelor & Master): In cooperation with the Computer Games Museum in Berlin, the use of computer games is to be examined in detail. For this purpose, a data set from a visitor survey of the museum is available, which can be selected for secondary analysis. However, based on the current state of research, own data surveys can also be carried out to clarify specific questions in the context of computer game use, for example on usage patterns of older users, to explain the use of certain types of computer games, etc.

Interested students can contact Prof. Dr. Martin Emmer.