IPKW - Department of Communication

Great to see our study w/ amazing Mykola Makhortykh & @maikovska.bsky.social finally out! 🙌 From manually identifying Telegram channels of Ukrainian and Russian political elites to meticulously collecting data and analyzing their communication (2019–2024), this was quite a journey! 📖 Open access 👇

Wie prägen Studium und Medienwandel Karrierewege? 🎓 Bei der Publizistik-Gesprächsrunde im Rahmen des ReConnect-Day sprechen Susanne Höggerl, @desireeschmuck.bsky.social und Alexander Wastl über Studium, Forschung, Lehre und Berufspraxis. 📅 30.10.2026, 14:45 Uhr 📍 Senatssaal, Uni Wien

What are we planning for the MEDem Service Center for Text and Multimedia Data? Our colleagues have laid out the vision, services, and challenges in a new open-access paper. 👇

Back in #Dienten for our annual team retreat! 🗻 A few days filled with hiking, productive discussions, strategic decisions, & even some karaoke. As the CCL is growing, it is great to spend time together beyond our usual work routines & return with fresh ideas. 💡

🏆Award time @rinatmeerson.bsky.social and @jarakankova.bsky.social received the Klaus Schönbach Award 2026 from our department. They will develop and implement a custom GPT-based chatbot in an online experiment, allowing participants to engage in dynamic, personalized AI conversations!

🎓 CONGRATS to @julaluehring.bsky.social on successfully defending her dissertation on socio-affective dynamics in misinformation spread! 👏Thanks to advisors @anniewald.bsky.social, @dgarcia.eu & @hannahmetzler.bsky.social! Jula continues at GESIS as Senior Researcher. All the best for what’s next! 🥂

📢 New research from POLCOM! Congrats to our colleague @hosseinkermani.bsky.social and co-authors on their new paper in Democratization! 🎉 The study explores false information on Persian Twitter during Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom uprising. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1351...

🏛️ Welche Rolle spielt Wissenschaft in Parlamentsdebatten? Darüber habe ich mit Veronika Schmidt von der Tageszeitung Die Presse gesprochen. 📰 Ganzer Artikel: diepresse.com/41318092 📝 Out now: doi.org/10.22323/385320260718153107 (mit @jamoeberl.bsky.social & @solecheler.bsky.social)

I hadn't noticed earlier but our "Bioweapon" paper is finally out in print. We really worked hard on this, so if you haven't read it when it cam out online, give it a try now! Old detailed thread linked below. Full open access paper here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️ Running for a good cause! Today, a delegation of current and former CCL members took part in the #CancerResearchRun! 💙 Great to see our CCL community coming together (again) beyond academia to support a good cause, get moving, and enjoy some time together. #CancerResearchRun #CCL

🎤Keynote on AI 🎤 🤖AI is embedded in all domains of life. But what does this imply for research, communication, and interpersonal relationships? These questions will be answered by scholars (including Prof. Matthes) at the AITEM 2026 Conference. More info? comm.hkbu.edu.hk/en/aitem2026...

📢 New Publication in @jscicom.bsky.social

📢 Call for Papers: "AI, Self-Harm, and Suicide Prevention" Together with Dan Romer and Sebastian Scherr, Florian Arendt is guest editing a special issue of "Psychology of Violence", with Brad Bushman as journal editor. 📅 Proposals: March 15, 2027 📅 Full papers: Sept. 30, 2027 📅 Publication: 2028

📣 Deadline extended! If you think this could be the right position for you, don’t miss the opportunity to apply. 👇✨

Deadline extended - apply until the 12th of October to join our department! ⏱️

We are so proud to congratulate our dear Fabienne Lind on starting her professorship at @unisalzburg.bsky.social today! 🎉 Not saying goodbye just yet 🥲 We will stay in touch and keep collaborating! 🫶 Wishing you a wonderful start, @fabiennelind.bsky.social, and all the best for this new chapter! 💙💚

Today we are saying goodbye to Antje Sader 💙 She supported our teaching, kept our lab meetings running, and was always looking out for everyone. And she brought plenty of fun along the way! Our “#1 Guardian of the Team” award says it all🛡️Thanks for everything, Antje 🙌 We will miss having you around!

Last week, CCL hosted the Summer School on Digital Public Spheres in Vienna ☀️ ECRs and experts from Berlin, Roskilde, Tübingen, Bern & Vienna came together to discuss their research projects 🎓 Many thanks to @anniewald.bsky.social & @sarahepp.bsky.social for organizing such a memorable event! 🙌

ECC2026 was an inspiring event for the entire field, and WHAT-IF was glad to participate on such a scale!🔥 For a full reflection on our contributions, we’ve gathered all of our team's highlights in one article. Check it out: what-if-horizon.eu/2026/09/22/w...

Had a very nice and productive week in beautiful Kraków at the ECPR General Conference @ecpr.bsky.social! Lots of inspiring exchanges, interesting discussions, and valuable feedback from brilliant colleagues.

On the final morning of #ECC2026, #WHAT-IF team hosted a session on LLMs and ABMs in digital communication research. Organized by @aytalina.bsky.social and chaired by @vanatteveldt.com, the session highlighted some perspectives on the current state of the social simulation field development.

First #WHATIF presentation at #ECC2026 Many thanks for @maxvandrunen.bsky.social sharing the possibilities of using social simulations for evidence-based policymaking. 📖 Pre-print with more insights: osf.io/preprints/so... Great discussion with Communication Law & Policy colleagues!

Another #WHATIF presentation at #ECC2026! 🚀 In a session chaired by @rupertkiddle.com, @maxpe.bsky.social shared the insights on whether certain LLMs can reliably predict and replicate human cooperation patterns in game-theoretic settings. Check out the pre-print: doi.org/10.48550/arX...

🎉 Congratulations to our lab member @dsior.bsky.social, whose Master’s thesis, “Testing network-based media literacy interventions against the spread of online misinformation: A simulation approach,” received the Best Abstract Award in the Political Communication Section at ECREA’s #ECC2026 👏👏👏

📢 We’re hiring a Postdoc in Computational Communication Science at the University of Vienna! 🔎 Text/image analysis, platform data & political communication 📍 Vienna ⏳ 6 years, full-time ⏰ Apply by 3 Oct jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi... Find out more about our team here: compcommlab.univie.ac.at

🎉 New publication in Mass Communication and Society! The latest study by Mirjana Čirjak, @ahrabhikat.bsky.social, @dbetakova.bsky.social, K. Pamina Syed Ali, & @hajoboo.bsky.social examines the dynamics of news and social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria 🇦🇹 Read more👇

📢 Job Alert! The @compcommlab.bsky.social at the University of Vienna is hiring a University Assistant (Postdoc) in the area of computational communication science! 💻 📍 Vienna | 6-year position | full-time Apply until the 3rd of October via the University of Vienna job portal ⬇️

📢 New publication: How do political journalists balance closeness to political sources with journalistic independence? Through the “double adaptation” according to 🇨🇿 and 🇦🇹 researchers, including POLCOM’s Melanie Haberl and @solecheler.bsky.social. Read the study below! 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/2167...

📢 We’re hiring a Senior Scientist in Computational Communication Science at the University of Vienna! Come join our CCL Team and work on building a research infrastructure for #CSS @medem.bsky.social 🤓 📍 Vienna | 4-year position | full-time Apply via the University of Vienna job portal 👇

📍Last week at the Social Simulation Conference 2026 in Durham! 🎤 Our lab members @anniewald.bsky.social, @maikovska.bsky.social, and @aytalina.bsky.social presented research from the projects @what-if-horizon.bsky.social and Social Issue Emergence in the Hybrid Media System 🚀 And more ahead!

Truly grateful to have had the opportunity to share and discuss the work @what-if-horizon.bsky.social with the social simulation community💡 and not alone this time but with the brilliant @maxvandrunen.bsky.social & @anniewald.bsky.social 👏👏 Many thanks for the inspiring event in 💚Durham, #SSC2026 🥳

💡 New preprint is out: Can AI-simulations help shape the future of platform governance? 🔗 The whole paper is available here: osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/y2ext_v1 Many greetings for the authors @maxvandrunen.bsky.social @natalihelberger.bsky.social @aytalina.bsky.social @anniewald.bsky.social

Summer School for Women* in Political Methodology 2026☀️ so many exciting projects and ideas! We discussed how to measure and validate various highly relevant but complex constructs with dictionaries an LLMs 💻

🎉 New publication in Digital Journalism! The latest study by Paul Balluff, @hajoboo.bsky.social, and @anniewald.bsky.social compares how German alternative and legacy media reported on Nord Stream 2 and reveals both distinctive reporting patterns and substantial overlap. Read more👇

💡📄 How does an authoritarian regime fight back against a hashtag movement? @hosseinkermani.bsky.social & colleagues examined how pro-regime Iranian Twitter accounts suppressed the Mahsa Amini movement, clarifying mechanisms of repression under theocracy. Read #OA: doi.org/10.1080/1353...

📬 WHAT-IF was featured in the latest @yerunnetwork.bsky.social newsletter! @dgarcia.eu introduced the WHAT-IF project and explained why and how we study information flow specifics, their societal impact, and develop a “digital twin” of the online world. 🔗 Full text: yerun.eu/2026/07/resp...

🤖 🔥 New preprint is out The paper, co-authored by Taehee Kim and @dgarcia.eu, demonstrates that AI-generated conversations can be remarkably convincing. 💡 For more insights check out the preprint: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🇪🇺 MEDem is on the ESFRI Roadmap 2026. Our new blog post takes a closer look at what this means for MEDem’s future and for the wider MEDem community. Thank you to everyone who has helped bring MEDem to this point. The work continues! 🤝 www.medem.eu/medem-on-the...

A major milestone for #DemocracyResearch. 🏛️ MEDem has been included in the ESFRI Roadmap, recognizing its role in advancing the empirical study of Democracy in Europe. 🇪🇺 Thank you to everyone who helped bring us to this point! 🙏 #ResearchInfrastructure⚙️

📢 DGPuK Advertising Conference 2026 Join us in Innsbruck, Austria (Nov 25–27, 2026) for the conference "Persuasion in Transition? Current Topics in Persuasion and Advertising Research." We welcome submissions on advertising & persuasion (e.g., AI-driven ads, influencers, social responsibility) 1/🧵

Rudolphina, the Science Magazine of @univie.ac.at is featuring our @what-if-horizon.bsky.social, where we use #ABM and #LLM -powered simulations to explore civic engagement in digital information environments: rudolphina.univie.ac.at/en/computer-... @aytalina.bsky.social @compcommlab.bsky.social

The #WHATIF 2nd General Assembly meeting in Bucharest came to an end Many thanks to Facultatea de Comunicare si Relatii Publice for the excellent organisation and hospitality, and to the city of Bucharest for the welcoming atmosphere. Stay tuned for upcoming project updates!

🔥 Happening now: The 2nd General Assembly Meeting of the WHAT-IF project is currently taking place in 📍 Bucharest, Romania. Over the coming days, partners from across the consortium will come together to share progress, discuss preliminary findings and explore new research ideas. Stay tuned!

🤖📊 On Tuesday, I somewhat spontaneously “raged against the machine” at @tuwien.at #Informatics. In short: replacing population surveys with generative AI is a bad idea. On many levels. Still, it's something that is currently being discussed in parts of the polling & market research industry.

Many thanks to Professor Alina Bârgăoanu for joining the WHAT-IF General Assembly Meeting and contributing to the scientific exchange with an insightful guest presentation 💡“Ways forward for Researching Information Ecosystems under Conditions of Algorithmic Mediation”💡.

One of the important part of the WHAT-IF General Assembly Meeting today was dedicated to plenary sessions. Collaboration is key to delivering impactful research, and we thank all partners for their valuable contributions and engaging discussions 🔥

🏛️ Kürzlich war ich im @parlament.gv.at. Dort wurde ich dann auch gleich für #HohesHaus zur Rolle von Emotionen in der Politik befragt. Kurzum Emotionen sind nicht der Gegensatz zu Vernunft. Sie sind oft die Voraussetzung dafür, dass Menschen pol. Themen überhaupt als relevant wahrnehmen.

Exiting news! 🙌

It was great to attend the Day of Parliamentary Research at the 🇦🇹 Parliament and share ongoing work on science and expertise in parliamentary debate: 1. Who refers to science, when, and in what contexts? 2. How do politicians draw on expertise, evidence, and knowledge in debate? @parlament.gv.at

Am Sonntag wählt Graz. Gerade dort gibt es viele #Jungwähler:innen. Wer sie erreichen will, muss auch auf Social Media sichtbar sein – mit ganz untersch. Strategien. Aber wer Likes mit Stimmzetteln verwechselt, überschätzt den Feed. My 2 cents an @annastockhammer.bsky.social in @wienerzeitung.at