Press Releases

Democracy on the Internet

Platform Councils as an Advisory Tool for Social Media

Hamburg, Berlin, Innsbruck, 4 May 2023. A research team publishes policy recommendations for the implementation of independent bodies to monitor social media platforms. It has spent a year investigating how democratic values and human rights can be protected in the digital space. The researchers pro...

BMBF Supports Document Collection

Establishing a Repository for Policy Documents

Kiel/Hamburg/Berlin, 16.03.2023. This project aims to create a targeted information and advisory infrastructure for actors from politics, administration and other areas of society, by establishing a repository that exclusively contains publications of policy and societal advice from the entire Germa...

Project Funded by the BMBF

Making the App "molo.news" Available Nationwide

Bremen/Hamburg/leibzig, 15.03.2023. Local news has a hard time: local newspapers are under economic pressure and commercial social media platforms have proven to be less suitable for local news. The news and information app molo.news in Bremen, on the other hand, provides local information via smart...

Welcome to the Institute!

Judith Möller Is Professor at the HBI

Hamburg. 1 February 2023. Judith Möller, the internationally highly renowned communication scientist has taken up the professorship "Empirical Communication Research, especially Media Use and Social Media Effects" at the University of Hamburg in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute...

Study Open Access Available

Social Media Content Creators aus Sicht ihrer jungen Follower

Teenagers and young adults specifically follow influencers and other accounts on social media to be entertained, informed or to participate in the conversation. Social media content creators on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms fulfil different functions for different motives of use and contribu...

Support for Research with Children

Animated Film Explains the Topic of Research Ethics to Children

Hamburg, 19.10.2022. Children and adolescents who participate in research projects must give their free and informed consent to this. But do they understand what is meant by this? An animated short film playfully explains to children why it is important for them to participate in research projects a...

Professur besetzt

Judith Möller New Professor at HBI

Hamburg, 5 October 2022. Judith Möller, internationally highly renowned communication scientist from the University of Amsterdam, has accepted the call to the professorship "Empirical Communication Research, especially Media Use and Social Media Effects" at the University of Hamburg i...

Invitation to Discussion Series "Insights & Power"

Talks on the Future of Platform Supervisio

Hamburg, 8 September 2022. What do Dr Tobias Schmid, Director of the State Media Authority NRW, and Klaus Müller, President of the Federal Network Agency, think about the national implementation of the Digital Service Act (DSA)? They will talk about this with Prof Wolfgang Schulz online on 22 a...

Journalism under Duress

Launch of the World's Largest Journalism Study in Germany

Hamburg, 30.08.2022. On 1 September, the Leibniz Institute for Media Research will launch the German survey wave of the world's largest journalism study, "Worlds of Journalism". Journalists from all media genres and disciplines will receive a call from the opinion research institute Ip...

Reuters Report Published

News Fatigue in Germany

Hamburg, 15.06.2022. Germans are significantly less interested in news; only 57 per cent of adult internet users are still interested in information about current affairs. That is ten percentage points less than last year. The decline is most visible in the group of 18 to 24 year-olds, in which only...

Project for Stiftung Mercator

New Project "Platform://Democracy"

Hamburg, 04.05.2022. How can platform councils ensure that public interests and democratic values are taken into account when setting and implementing private platform rules? The new co-operation project "Platform://Democracy", comissioned by the Stiftung Mercator, untertakes an inquiry in...

Volkswagen Foundation Funds Joint Project

How Can Algorithmic Systems in Public Communication Be Regulated?

Hamburg, 27.04.2022. Who and what actually determines whether certain messages reach us in digital media? In a project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, the Department of Informatics at the University of Hamburg and the Leibniz Institute for Media Research are developing a new method to shed ligh...

Knowledge for a Safer Internet

Solid Knowledge Base for a Better Internet

Hamburg, 08 February 2022. With the CO:RE Knowledge Base platform, the European project network CO:RE - Children Online: Research and Evidence presents a solid knowledge base for the topic of children and the internet for this year's Safer Internet Day. The recently launched beta version was dev...

We will miss him dearly!

End of an Era at the HBI: Uwe Hasebrink Retired

Hamburg, 30.09.2021. On 1 October 2021, Prof. Dr. Uwe Hasebrink, Director of the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI), will retire early for personal reasons. Having been at the Institute since 1986, and a member of the Board of Directors from 1998, he put the Institute...

News Usage in International Comparison

German Findings of the "Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021" on News Usage in International Comparison Published

Hamburg, 23.06.2021. Almost half of the adult online users in Germany (46%) state that they have seen false or misleading information about Covid-19 within one week. The greatest concerns about encountering false information about the coronavirus are towards Facebook (28%) and messenger apps (14 %)...

New Series of Talks

Private Ordering Perspectives

Hamburg, 01.06.2021. HBI’s Private Ordering Observatory starts "Private Ordering Perspectives", a series of talks on how to create good rules for better private ordering. The series starts on 10 June with the first three dates at lunch time and will continue in July and September. 2...

11th Hamburg Media Symposium

Can Media Law Promote Social Cohesion?

Hamburg, 27.05.2021. The 11th Hamburg Media Symposium took place today under the title "Can Media Law Promote Social Cohesion?” With Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz (Director of the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut) as moderator, experts discussed the effects of digit...

Project Findings

#UseTheNews Study: Young People Often Have No Connection to the Reality of Their Own Lives in Journalistic News

Hamburg, 28.04.2021. A nationwide study by the #UseTheNews project reveals a deep information gap in the upcoming generation: about half of the young people do not consider it important to be informed about news and current events. At the same time, they are significantly less informed than their pe...

New International Project

HBI Sets Up Private Ordering Observatory

Hamburg, 13 January 2021. In order to study how online platforms decide what can be said online, the Leibniz Institute for Media Research sets up a "Private Ordering Observatory". In co-operation with researchers from across the world the observatory will investigate the interaction of pr...

Recommendations for Parents

Recommendations for Action to Handle Child Influences

Cologne/Hamburg, 14.12.2020. Children are more and more active as influencers on social platforms like YouTube, TikTok or Instagram. They present themselves and their everyday life to a large number of people - often completely without reflection regarding the information they reveal about themselve...

Trends in News Usage

Independent Journalism Less Important for Younger People

Hamburg, 16 June 2020. A significant majority of adult onliners in Germany believes that independent journalism is important for the functioning of a society (79%). The differences in opinion among the age groups are striking. While almost 90 percent of those over 55 consider independent journalism...

Local Information on Your Smartphone

News App molo.news Goes Online

Hamburg, 15 June 2020. The innovative news app molo.news for Bremen and the surrounding area goes online today. The free app is a newsfeed for all news and information from local media, associations and other collectives. Its focus is on how people can get involved in the city and what makes the cit...

What Journalists Ought to Do and What They Want to Do

Agreeing on the Tasks of Journalism

Hamburg, 03 June 2020. Reporting objectively, analysing and classifying events. These are the most important tasks of journalism, which both journalists and their audience in Germany agree on. However, tolerance and cultural diversity within society must also be promoted. It is also particularly imp...

Research in Times of Corona

Free Apps for Media Research

Hamburg, 20 April 2020. Two apps are intended to make media and communication research under the conditions of "social distancing" easier. They were developed by ZeMKI, Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research at the University of Bremen in cooperation with the Leibniz Inst...

BMBF Approves 4-Year Main Phase

Research Institute Social Cohesion Can Start the Main Phase

Hamburg, 30 March 2020. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has decided to support the new Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC) for an initial period of four years. Within the framework of the FGZ, the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut will research t...

Study with Children and Young People in 19 Countries

Europe's Children Need More Tips for Safe Surfing

Hamburg, 11 February 2020. The majority of European children and young people between the ages of 9 and 16 use their smartphone "every day" or "almost all the time." This means that both the proportion of smartphone users and the length of time they use the Internet have increase...

Safer Internet Day 2020: Study on Digital Participation

Children and Young People Are Also Interested in Political Information

Hamburg, 11 February 2020. As they grow older, children and young people also use online services that allow them to participate in political discussions and to network strategically. 83 percent of 9 to 17-year-olds have heard of "Fridays for Future". 46 percent of them have looked for fur...

Norms made by Facebook

Setting Communication Rules for 2.7 Billion People: How Facebook Develops its Community Standards

Hamburg, 27 January 2020. For the first time, Facebook has given scientists direct access to its internal decision-making bodies. Researchers from the Hamburg-based Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) have investigated how Facebook develops communication rules for its p...

Book Launch

Busted! The Truth about the 50 Most Common Internet Myths

Hamburg, 27 November 2019. A new anthology clears up misconceptions about the Internet and summarises what we really know about the online world. The editors Matthias C. Kettemann and Stephan Dreyer presented the book on 27 November 2019 at the Internet Governance Forum 2019 in Berlin. How of...

Project Results Published

Kids Online – Risk or Fun?

Hamburg, 19 September 2019: Children and young people use the Internet intensively and in very different ways. In doing so, they are confronted with a variety of risks. However, their risk perception and risk awareness do not always coincide with those of their parents. These are the results of the...

Congratulations

Matthias Kettemann Germany's First Privat Lecturer in Internet Law

Hamburg, 27 June 2019. On 26 June 2019, Matthias C. Kettemann obtained the first lectureship in Internet Law in Germany. His inaugural lecture with the title "Asymmetrische Kommunikation als Herausforderung für das Recht [Asymmetrical Communication as a Challenge for Law]" marked the...

International Study

News Consumption on Social Media Increases

Hamburg, 12.06.2019: More than one third of adult Internet users (34%) rely on social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp or YouTube as their source for news. In the group of 18 to 24 year olds, Instagram has taken the lead. However, only ten percent of all Internet users consider social media to be th...

We Have a New Name

The New Name Is Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI)

Hamburg, 2 January 2019. The Hans-Bredow-Institut has been a member of the renowned Leibniz Association since the beginning of 2019 and shows this with its new name: Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI). The decision to accept the Hans-Bredow-Institut as a new member was...

Successful Acquisition of Third-Party Funds

Hans-Bredow-Institut for Media Research and Universität Bremen Receive Funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG)

Bremen/Hamburg, 06 December 2018. Changes in journalism and the relationship between journalists and the audience are the focus of three research projects that have recently been granted funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The three projects originate from the research project “Co...

Bredow Will Be Leibniz

General Meeting of Leibniz Association Confirms the Admission of the Hans-Bredow-Institut as of 2019

Berlin, 29 November 2018. The Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung becomes a member of the Leibniz Association on 1 January 2019. This was decided by the general meeting at the 24th annual conference of the Leibniz Association on Thursday, 29 November 2018. The Zentrum für Literatur- u...

BMBF Promotes New Institute

Hans-Bredow-Institut Is Part of the "Institut für gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt"

Hamburg, 01 October 2018. The Hans-Bredow-Institut for Media Research has been selected by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to participate in the development of an "Instituts für gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt [Institute for Social Cohesion]" (IfGZ). Eleven insti...

"Leibniz, Here We Come!"

Leibniz Celebration 2018

Hamburg, 25 September 2018. At a reception today, the Hans-Bredow-Institut thanked all those who actively supported the institute's application process for the admission to the Leibniz Association. Addressing about 90 guests from science, politics and business, the Hamburg Senator for Science Ka...

Little Trust in News on Social Media

Hamburg, 14 June 2018. A third of adult Internet users (31 %) use social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp or YouTube as a news source. However, for only 7 per cent it is the most important source, for just under 2 per cent it is the only source. These are the results of the Reuters Institute Digital...

9th Hamburg Media Symposium

Hamburg, 7 June 2018. How can algorithmic recommendation systems be programmed in such a way that they also offer diversity of opinion despite increasing personalization? This was the central question at the 9th Hamburg Media Symposium, which has been organised today by the Hans-Bredow-Institut, the...

Congratulations!

Wiebke Loosen Appointed Professor

Hamburg, 18 April 2018. Wiebke Loosen, Senior Researcher at the Hans-Bredow-Institut for Media Research, has been appointed professor at Universität Hamburg. The certificate of appointment signed by university president Professor Dieter Lenzen was given to the media researcher yesterday by vice...

Hans-Bredow-Institut Will Be Leibniz-Institut

Joint Science Conference Creates Basis for the Admission of Hamburg Media Researchers into the Leibniz Association Hamburg, 13 April 2018. The Joint Science Conference (GWK – Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz) of the Federal Government and the Länder has unanimously decided to accept the...

Statement of the Science Council on the Institute

Opinion of the Science Council on the Hans-Bredow-Institut

Hamburg, 30 January 2018. The Science Council assesses the scientific quality of the Hans-Bredow-Institut and its supra-regional significance as "very good", its structural relevance for the scientific system as "excellent". The Science Council adopted a corresponding opinion at...

Press Release

Results of the Youth Media Protection Index

Hamburg. 07.11.2017. 73 percent of German parents are worried about their child's safety on the Internet. They fear their children might come into contact with strangers online, see images of disturbing violence or pornographic content or become the victims of data theft. As a result, the majori...

Tinder the City

Research institutions from Hamburg and Bremen are currently developing a new and exciting news app, which is based on the Tinder concept: swipe left to read and right to abandon a story. The app will launch in 2019 and is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. ...

New Edition "Social Media": Not a Guidebook but Fundamental Basics

On 5 October 2017, Dr. Jan-Hinrik Schmidt has published the second edition of his book ‘Social Media’ at Springer Fachmedien Verlag. It is not a guidebook but a fundamental scientific book for everyone who wants to understand how digital social media works and how it is used. Hamburg 5 O...

Nachrichtennutzung im internationalen Vergleich

Reuters Digitals News Survey 2017: Results for Germany Published

Hans-Bredow-Institut Publishes German Findings of the "Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2017" about International News Usage Hamburg, 22.06.2017. More than three quarters of adult Internet users in Germany watch the news on television (77%). Television is the most important source for...

Hans-Bredow-Institut Founding Member of the News Integrity Initiative (NII)

Das Hans-Bredow-Institut is founding member of the new „News Integrity Initiative“ (NII). A group of tech industry leaders, academic institutions, non-profits and other organizations are jointly launching a $14 million fund to support the News Integrity Initiative, a global consortium fo...

Erfolgreiche Veranstaltung

AoIR2016 "Internet Rules!"

570 internet researchers from all over the world met at the conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR2016)in Berlin. According to the theme “Internet Rules!”, they discussed regulations of the Internet, how power structures as well as making and breaking rules work onli...

Informationsrepertoires für die politische Meinungsbildung [Information Repertoires for Political Opinion Formation]

Hamburg, 13.06.2012 Television remains the most important source for political opinion formation according to the findings of a study carried out by the Hans-Bredow-Institut, which has been presented today to the Bundestagsausschuss für Kultur und Medien [Committee on Cultural and Media Affai...

Unabhängigkeit der Medienaufsicht

Hamburg, 14.12.2011. The independence of supervisory authorities can barely be calculated “mathematically”. However, there are indicators that can be identified, which can identify risks and dangerous constellations that enable an influence on the impartiality of media supervisory auth...

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