I am an assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany. From March to December 2025, I am also a fellow at the Digital Democracy Center of the University of Southern Denmark. My research focuses on journalism and audiences online, trust in news & media effects. I do empirical work, mainly focusing on surveys, qualitative interviews and experimental designs.
At the University of Erfurt, I am a member of the Institute for Planetary Health Behaviour, the Erfurt Laboratory for Empirical Research and spokesperson of the graduate school Communication and Digital Media.
At the University of Erfurt, I am a member of the Institute for Planetary Health Behaviour, the Erfurt Laboratory for Empirical Research and spokesperson of the graduate school Communication and Digital Media.
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Most recent publication: Self-effects of online commenting in different opinion environments.
We investigate how writing user comments on political topics affects opinions. In an online experiment with ~1000 participants, we tested whether commenting (vs. just reading a news post) influenced opinions, depending on whether the surrounding comments agreed or disagreed.Â
🔍 Key finding: Writing and posting a comment does change opinions—but mainly for those who didn’t have a firm stance to begin with. The opinion climate (agreement/disagreement) didn’t change this effect.Â
We investigate how writing user comments on political topics affects opinions. In an online experiment with ~1000 participants, we tested whether commenting (vs. just reading a news post) influenced opinions, depending on whether the surrounding comments agreed or disagreed.Â
🔍 Key finding: Writing and posting a comment does change opinions—but mainly for those who didn’t have a firm stance to begin with. The opinion climate (agreement/disagreement) didn’t change this effect.Â