Thomas is Professor of Political Communication and holds the Chair of Communication and Media Studies IV at the Institute of Social Sciences at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf with a focus on “Democratic Will Formation in the Digital Society”.
In the research field of political communication, his focus is on the processing and impact of media-mediated diversity, persuasive political communication, and the perception of political opinion.
Sarah-Michelle Nienhaus has been a research assistant at the Chair of Communication and Media Studies III at HHU-Düsseldorf since April 2021, where she previously worked as a research assistant. She also completed her studies at HHU (B.A. Social Sciences – Media, Politics, Society, M.A. Political Communication). The topic of her master’s thesis was the framing of the Covid 19 pandemic in Bundestag debates and news reports. The topic of her dissertation project are debate styles within political parties.
Lena Wilms is a research associate in the junior research group “Deliberative Discussions on the Social Web” at HHU-Düsseldorf. She studied political science, sociology and communication science in Düsseldorf and Budapest. As part of her work in the “KOSMO” project, she develops and evaluates measures to improve online participation processes using AI-assisted moderation. She is particularly interested in the design of inclusive democratic online environments in the context of deliberation and participation on the Internet.
Her research interests also include media sociology as well as quantitative methods in the social sciences and applied statistics.
Prof. Dr. Olaf Jandura is co-director of the research focus on communication research at the Department of Economics at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences (HSD) and associate professor at the Institute for Social Sciences at HHU-Düsseldorf. In research and teaching, he deals with questions of political communication, analysis of media offerings and communication practice in political-communicative milieus.
As part of the DIID, he researches the fragmentation of online offerings and audiences as well as the quality of online surveys.
Henri Mütschele is a research assistant at the Chair of Communication and Media Studies III at the HHU-Düsseldorf. He studied Sociology, Politics & Economics (B.A.) at Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen and General Rhetoric (M.A.) at the University of Tübingen. He also holds a degree in Legal & Political Theory (M.A.) from University College London. His dissertation deals with deliberative argumentation structures in online communication and their influence on the political decision-making of Internet users.
Thematically, his focus is on climate policy in Germany.
Dr. Carina Weinmann is a postdoc at the Institute of Social Sciences at the HHU-Düsseldorf. She studied Media and Communication Studies with minors in German Studies and Psychology at the University of Mannheim from 2007 to 2013 and received her PhD in 2018.
Her research is located at the intersection between communication science and media psychology. Against this background, she is primarily concerned with entertainment research, mediated deliberation, and the psychological processes surrounding political (online) communication.
Dr. Ole Kelm has been a research assistant at the Institute of Social Sciences at HHU-Düsseldorf since 2015. In 2020, he completed his doctorate in communication science. Previously, he studied Political Communication at HHU-Düsseldorf (M.A.) and Political Science and Communication Studies at the University of Greifswald (B.A.).
His research interests include political (online) communication, consequences of media perceptions, political consumption, and the consequences of algorithmic curation of online content.
Marius Gerads has been a research assistant at the Chair of Communication and Media Studies III of the Institute of Social Sciences at HHU-Düsseldorf since 2020. Previously, he worked as an online journalist for the magazine Wirtschaftswoche and still works for the multimedia editorial department of Deutschlandfunk. He studied Political Communication (M.A.) at the HHU-Düsseldorf and Social Sciences and Economics (B.Sc.) at the University of Cologne. Parallel to his bachelor studies, he completed the training of the Cologne School of Journalism for Politics and Economics. His research interests include public discourse and public opinion formation under conditions of online communication, dissonant public sphere and perception of media bias.
In the context of DIID, his interests include public opinion formation and the roles of established mass media (offline/online) and online-mediated interpersonal communication in this process.
Viviana N. E. Warnken is a research associate at the department for Communication and Media Science at HHU Düsseldorf. Previously, she obtained her Master’s degree in Political Communication at HHU-Düsseldorf. Before that she studied Communication Science and Social Sciences at the University of Erfurt. In the project “Innovative Interventions for Discursive Integration”(IndI), she is working on the potentials and risks of public online discourses for social cohesion.
Her research interests also lie in political (online) communication and public opinion formation, especially through political social media influencers.
Katharina Frehmann is a research assistant in communication and media studies at HHU-Düsseldorf. She studied Journalism and Audiovisual Publishing (B.A.) and Communication Science (M.A.) at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. In the context of her doctorate, she is working on the use and effect of voice assistants in everyday life.
Furthermore, her research focuses on journalism research and health communication.
Birte Keller has been a research assistant at the Chair of Communication and Media Studies I at HHU-Düsseldorf since January 2020. She first studied Social Sciences in the Bachelor’s program and later Political Communication at HHU-Düsseldorf. In 2019, she worked as a research assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Marcinkowski, where she supported the project “Fair Artificial Intelligence Reasoning in Higher Education” as part of the project series “Artificial Intelligence – Its Impact on Tomorrow’s Society” of the Volkswagen Foundation. Building on this, her master’s thesis focused on perceptions of artificial intelligence in higher education.
She is currently working on the Opinion Monitor Artificial Intelligence [MeMo:AI], which is being realized in research partnership with the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS).
Dr. Marco Lünich has been a research assistant at the Department of Communication and Media Studies (KMW I) at HHU-Düsseldorf since October 2017. From 2014-2017, he was a research assistant at the research area “Communication – Media – Society” at the Institute of Communication Studies at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster. Previously, he studied communication science at the University of Erfurt and the Universiteit van Amsterdam (NL). In the context of his dissertation, he focuses on public perception and epistemic conceptions of digitization, especially in relation to Big Data.
His research interests lie in the areas of political (online) communication, media sports, and the social consequences of digitization.
Prof. Dr. Christiane Eilders has been Professor of Communication and Media Studies at HHU-Düsseldorf since 2011. In October 2023 she became the new director at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum. From 2019 until 2023 she served as the speaker of the DIID. She used to be a member of the DFG research group “Political Communication in the Online World”. In research and teaching, she is concerned with public discourse and public opinion formation and examines the role of established mass media and online communication in this process.
In the context of DIID, she is interested in the deliberative quality and trajectories of online discourses in the context of political participation processes.
Marc Ziegele has been Professor of Communication and Media Studies at HHU-Düsseldorf since February 2024. He previously held the Junior Professorship for Communication and Media Studies with a focus on “Political Online Communication”. At the same time, he is head of the junior research group “Deliberative Discussions on the Social Web” funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Previously, he was a research assistant at the Institute for Journalism at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and studied media economics at the same institute. His research focuses on participation and discussions of citizens on the Internet. In the junior research group based at DIID, he is investigating measures to improve the quality and impact of users’ public discussions about political media topics – so-called online public-political connection communication.
It also researches the causes and consequences of media trust as well as various aspects of citizens’ social web use at the interface of communication science and psychology.
Marc Ziegele was elected speaker of the Institute by the DIID General Assembly in December 2023.
Dr. Marike Bormann is a research assistant at the Chair of Communication and Media Studies I at HHU-Düsseldorf. She studied Social Sciences (Communication Science, Political Science and Sociology) (B.A.) in Düsseldorf and Communication Management (M.A.) at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover.
In the context of her doctorate, she is working on deviant forms of political communication in online contexts. The doctoral thesis is part of a tandem doctoral program within the Research Training Group NRW “Digital Society”.
Frank Marcinkowski has been Professor of Communication and Media Studies (KMW I) at the Institute of Social Sciences at HHU-Düsseldorf since October 2017. His research and teaching areas include communication and public sphere theories, political communication, and the social consequences of media developments.
At DIID, he is interested in the social perception, evaluation and opinion formation of digitalization.
Dr. Dennis Frieß is coordinator of the DIID. Since May 2019, he was coordinator of the NRW Research College Online Participation. From 2014 to 2019, he was a research assistant at the Chair of Communication and Media Studies III at HHU-Düsseldorf and a staff member at DIID. He studied Social Sciences, Law and Communication Science at the University of Erfurt (B.A.) and Political Communication in Düsseldorf (M.A.). His doctoral thesis focused on the analysis of deliberative online publics. His research focuses on political (online) communication, online deliberation, and online participation.
At the DIID, he is particularly interested in online-supported deliberation processes and the democracy-relevant expectations associated with online participation offerings.