Quality of online debate, content characteristics and forms of online discourse in political participatory processes.
- Which features of online discourse increase the quality of debate and decisions?
- What is the effect of interaction density, controversy, emotionality and reasoning in an online debate on the emergence of majorities?
- Under which conditions does online discourse promote consensus and which conditions lead to polarization?
- What role do story telling or personal experiences play in an online discourse?
Ansprechpartner
Prof. Dr. Christiane Eilders (speaker)
Board, Communication Studies, DIID-Team

Prof. Dr. Christiane Eilders has been a professor for communication and media studies at the Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf since 2011. She is a member of the DFG research group “Political Communication in the Online-World”.
Her research deals with public discourses and public opinion formation and puts a focus on the role of established mass media and online-communication.
Within the DIID, her interest lies in the deliberative quality and the different types of processes in online-discourses in the realm of political participation.
Research Interests
Projects
Contact
Dr. Katharina Esau
Alumni, Communication Studies

Katharina is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), working on the Australian Laureate Fellowship project “Determining the Drivers and Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate”.
She holds a PhD in Communication and Media Science from the University of Dusseldorf, titled “Communication Forms and Deliberation Dynamic”. Her research focuses on political communication, digital public sphere, opinion formation processes and democratic innovations.