At least since the so-called “refugee crisis” two years ago, there has been intense debate about how German society deals with refugee movements, how to combat the causes of flight and how to integrate migrants. Media coverage in particular influences which opinions prevail in society on the subject of flight, migration and integration.
What information children and young people aged ten to 16 receive and how they deal with this information is being investigated in a research project at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, which has been funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research for two years since October 2017.
Central research questions are: How is escape reported in media and channels used by adolescents? How do adolescents communicate with this content in social network media? In this research project, the content used by adolescents in traditional and online media on the topic of flight, migration and integration will be examined by means of standardized content analyses as well as the topic-specific communication processes of adolescents in social media. The research project is part of a joint project coordinated by the “JFF – Institute for Media Education in Research and Practice” in Munich. Further partners are the “University of Applied Sciences” in Leipzig and the “Center for Ethics in Media and Digital Society (zem::dg)”.
Contact
Private: Prof. Dr. Gerhard Vowe
Communication Studies
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Vowe has held the Chair I for Communication and Media Studies at the HHU-Düsseldorf since 2004. He has been spokesman for the DFG research group “Political Communication in the Online World” since 2011. His research interests include online political communication, media policy, and security in the media.
Within the DIID, he is particularly interested in deviant forms of political communication in online contexts.