Communication and Media Psychology
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14.09.2020: New publication on microtargeting in social media
A new study by Stephan Winter, Ewa Maslowska (University of Illinois) and Anne Vos (University of Amsterdam) investigated the persuasiveness of social media ads that are personalized for different traits (e.g., when extraverts are shown ads that highlight social situations). Results show a more nuanced picture than previous research and debates on microtargeting: Ads tailored to persuasive susceptibilities lead to higher engagement intentions, but no consistent personality-matching effects on consumers' attitudes toward the products were found.
The article can be accessed under the following link:
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1bgRs2f%7EUWCNku
30.05.2020: ICA presentations and co-authorships
These submissions successfully made it to this year's ICA in Australia, which unfortunately took place virtually due to the corona pandemic:
• “The Effects of Trait-Based Personalization in Social Media Advertising” (Stephan Winter, Ewa Maslowska, Anne Vos)
• “You’re Still Worth It: The Moral and Relational Context of Politically Motivated Unfriending Decisions in Online Networks” (German Neubaum, Manuel Cargnino, Stephan Winter, Shira Dvir Gvirsman)
• “An Agenda for Open Science in Communication” (Tobias Dienlin, Niklas Johannes, Nicholas D. Bowman, Philipp K. Masur, Sven Engesser, Anna S. Kuempel, Josephine Lukito, Lindsey M. Bier, Renwen Zhang, Benjamin K. Johnson, Richard Huskey, Frank M. Schneider, Johannes Breuer, Douglas A. Parry, Ivar Vermeulen, Jacob T. Fisher, Jaime Banks, Rene Weber, David A. Ellis, Tim Smits, James D. Ivory, Sabine Trepte, Bree McEwan, Eike Mark Rinke, German Neubaum, Nathan E. TeBlunthuis, Andrea S. Won, Julian Unkel, Xiaohui V. Wang, Stephan Winter, Brittany I. Davidson, Nuri Kim, Nicole Krämer, Sonja Utz, Christopher J. Carpenter, Timothy R. Levine, Neil Lewis, Emese Domahidi, Claes H. de Vreese)
• “Mediated protest in the digital era: Exploring theEvolution of Mainstream Coverage of Social Protest From 1997 to 2017.” (Teresa Gil-Lopez)
• “In the eye of the beholder: A case for the visual hostile media phenomenon.” (D. Schmuck, Jörg Matthes, Christian von Sikorski)
• "To Track or Not to Track: Examining Perceptions ofOnline Tracking in the Context of Information BehaviourResearch.” (Mykola Makhortykh; Aleksandra Urman; Teresa Gil-Lopez; Roberto Ulloa)
17.03.2020: Corona crisis: IKM team available via email
Even if normal university operations are severely restricted due to the Corona crisis, the employees of the IKM will still be available for you. The best medium for this is currently email (see addresses on the homepage).
29.01.2020: New publication: #Opinionleaders: a comparison of self-reported and observable influence of Twitter users.
A study by Stephan Winter, German Neubaum, Stefan Stieglitz and Björn Ross analyzes whether and to what extent the self-assessed impact as opinion leader differs from the actual reach on the Twitter platform.
20.08.2019: Gene Burd Top Faculty Paper Award
Asst. Prof. Dr. Christian von Sikorski received the "Gene Burd Top Faculty Paper Award" (1st place) for the best communication article at the AEJMC (Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication) in Toronto (Canada). His article: "Social Bots as Threat for Digital Democracy? How News Coverage Can Empower Media Users" was voted the best article by the Communication Technology Division of the AEJMC.
15.07.2019: Research stay at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding a 6-week research stay by Dr. Corinna Oschatz in September and October at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Together with Jeff Niederdeppe, she is researching the long-term effects of narrative media messages and the role of presets on the persuasion process.
11.03.2019: New publication: Do anticipated Facebook discussions diminish the importance of argument quality? An experimental investigation of attitude formation in social media.
A new study from the media psychology group shows how the expectation of opinions in social networks can lead to a neglect of the quality of arguments.
19.02.2019: ICA Conference 2019: Ten Landau contributions and a top paper award
The IKM is represented this year with ten contributions to the renowned ICA conference in Washington. A contribution by Fabian Thomas, Lukas Otto, Charlotte Ottenstein and Michaela Maier will receive a top paper award from the Political Communication section.
01.10.2018: New Professor of Media Psychology New member of the Institute for Communication Psychology and Media Education: Stephan Winter has been appointed Professor of Media Psychology in Landau. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor of Persuasive Communication at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. His research investigates information selection and opinion formation in digital channels, for instance, regarding the question of whether the characteristics of social media foster motivated processing of news content and under which conditions people express their opinions publicly. Further research lines address self-presentation and interpersonal relationships in social media. More information about research and teaching can be found on the homepage of the chair group.
10.01.2017: MediaPsych2017, the 10th Conference of the Media Psychology Division of the German Psychological Society, will take place on September 6th to 8th, 2017.It will be hosted by the Universität Koblenz-Landau in Landau, Germany, and organized by Markus Appel, Tobias Rothmund and Uli Gleich. The division and the local organizers cordially invite you to come to Landau.