The Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans Bredow Institute (HBI) examines media change and the related structural shifts in public communication.
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Prof. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann, LL.M. (Harvard)
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The academic profile of the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) is characterised by its research programmes.
The Institute focuses on transferring its work to various target groups and various formats in the broadest way possible.
The Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) is engaged in numerous international and national research networks in research and practice.
An overview of all research projects that are carried out during the current research year.
“Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft“ offers a forum for the discussion of media and communication-related issues and for analyses of media development from different perspectives and for all media.
Series "Working Papers of the Hans-Bredow-Institut”
The annual and activity reports document the Institute's work in the areas of research, transfer and service on a yearly basis.
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After a successful test run in Bremen, a science team is researching how the local news and information app "molo.news" can be made available nationwide. The BMBF is funding the project with 1.5 million euros.
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 German science system. The HBI support...
How do people in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania inform themselves about politics and other socially relevant topics in their federal state? And what general attitudes do they have towards politics?
On behalf of the German Cancer Aid, this cooperative project investigates how younger patients with newly diagnosed cancer can be optimally counseled in dealing with fertility issues.
The cooperation project applies two methods developed in computer science to the field of empirical communication science, which enable semi-automated content analyses to examine even huge amounts of data.
For the "Data Portal for Research on Racism and Right-Wing Extremism", the HBI is developing a research data infrastructure for the secure exchange of social media account lists in compliance with data protection regulations.
This comprehensive and compact overview of methodological approaches in Computational Social Science (CSS) seeks to broaden the spectrum of methods in technology assessment.
How could "platform councils" or other institutions for integrating public interests into platform rule-making processes ensure that public interests and democratic values are taken into account? A new project is embarking on a search for global best practice models.
Why do digital media feed us certain messages and not others? Which technical service providers and algorithms play a role when messages reach us? Which of these functions are socially acceptable and which, on the other hand, constitute manipulation? The project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation a...
How do community-based contents on the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia emerge and what procedures are used to negotiate what is regarded as “truth”?
Using the example of user courts from the 2000s of the internet as well as the Wikipedia arbitration court, the Seed Money project investigates how communities on small and niche platforms actively shape the enforcement of rules.
What is the interplay between the diversity of our information exposure online and the polarization of our political opinions towards certain issues or groups over time?
A representative survey of parents and children identifies risks of online use by children and young people as well as ways of dealing with them in order to create an up-to-date, knowledge-based foundation for the further development of youth media protection.
What experiences do older people have with digital health programmes and services, and how can their digital health literacy be improved? As part of a transdisciplinary project, the HBI investigates the experiences with and attitudes towards digital health programmes of over-60-year-olds.
The project compiles a comprehensive history of the German Press Agency from 1949 to the present. To do so, the dpa will be presented in the light of the changing society of the Federal Republic of Germany and the developments in the media landscape. The specific role and significance of the dpa as...
The spread of disinformation through "celebrity" communication in social media increasingly devalues the gatekeeper function of professional journalism. This BMBF-funded cooperation project is looking for underlying mechanisms to better understand the role of celebrities in disinformation...
As part of the project "Security for Children in the Digital World", funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research, the HBI is researching the legal framework concerning online risks for children. It will develop ways of optimally interlinking actors and measures and investigate...
Who owns the media in Europe? The EU-funded project will create a central database for information on media ownership in 15 European union member states.
Various actors negotiate the past and make it relevant for the present in new communicative practices. The Research Lab "Practices of Appropriation" takes a closer look at historical memes and TikTok videos as well as historical Instagram and Twitter accounts.
In the run-up to the 2021 federal election, a team from the HBI collected real-time data on how platforms govern online speech, how laws and local standards interact, and how platform practices changed in the shadow of EU regulation in the heated atmosphere of the run-up to the German federal electi...
In the course of fighting the Corona crisis, new digital infrastructures were developed worldwide, which have numerous other components besides tracing apps. How do individual design decisions affect the effectiveness of such an infrastructure, and what influence do legal frameworks have?
As part of the world's largest journalism study, "Worlds of Journalism", this representative survey examines the profession of journalism and explores the stresses and strains faced by professional journalists in Germany.
Are new platforms – YouTube, Netflix, NewsFeed – making European culture more European or not? The role of media platforms in fostering or dismantling European identity is the key question of the EU-H2020-Project EuMePlat.
TETRIS is a program that aims to enhance researchers’ abilities to measure and increase the impact of their work through a combination of strategic frameworks and hands-on experiences.
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".
Some children and adolescents may experience stressful situations online. In the context of her dissertation project, Kira Thiel investigates how adolescents deal with such online experiences and which coping strategies they use.
After the end of the Pluragraph platform in November 2020, we will make data from the the project further available for research via the MRML.
The Digital Disinformation Hub of the HBI bundles the Institute's research and cooperation activities in the field of digital disinformation.
How do communications change in a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic? What role do actors from science, politics and the media take over? How do they deal with uncertainty from this situation? A project that reviewed existing studies and interviewed experts provided answers to this question.
In a pilot study, the Institute examines the use of journalistic automation tools in Germany and analyses the role of “communicative robots” (ComRobs) in the fulfilment of journalistic activities and functions, from an interdisciplinary perspective of journalism research and law.
In this computational social science project, we will use browser data donations to determine how relevant individual search engines and social media platforms are in journalists’ everyday work.
The legal study commissioned by the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia (LfM) identifies risks for individuals and society that can arise through various forms of disinformation and discusses ways to counter them legally. Expert opinion (PDF, in English) Summary of the expert opinion (P...
This project develops methods for the automatic recognition of arguments or argument components with the help of Natural Language Processing technologies. The goal is to use these methods to enable logical evaluation and content-analytical measurement of the use of arguments in large collections of...
The Global Digital Human Rights Network (GDHRNet) will systematically explore the theoretical and practical challenges posed by the online context to the protection of human rights.
How can digital products and platforms be designed to protect individual freedom and promote social cohesion? The project, which is under the patronage of the German Federal President, developed answers to this question that will serve as a knowledge base for political dialogue in the international...
How do people in Germany keep themselves informed in the digital age - and what does actually stick with them? In a long-term project, the HBI, together with the dpa and other partners from the media, public institutions and civil society, is researching the news literacy of the population under the...
Are public service media legally obliged to create social cohesion? And how is the integration-related performance of these media perceived?
In the light of “fake news” accusations against established media and declining subscription numbers: what does the public expect from journalists, and how do they view their own role in terms of social cohesion?
The (Social) Media Observatory is creating a knowledge base, competency cluster, and data hub for the systematic observation of media-based publics, to support other projects within and beyond the FGZ.
The transfer office “Media and Social Cohesion” is coordinating all transfer and research acitivities of the projects, which the HBI contributes to the “Forschungsinstitut Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt” (FGZ; Research Institute Social Cohesion).
How do people in different social situations use different kind of media? And how do they contribute to the creation of public spheres and social cohesion?
What is the state of the Internet and Germany? Upon a request from the German Commission for UNESCO, the HBI will apply 130 indicators to see how digital policy-making can be improved.
What effects does the corona crisis have on families, children and their use of digital media? The HBI participates with a German partial survey in a European comparative study of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC).
The HBI advises and supports the MDR in a study on the relationship between media use and the perception of social cohesion in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
The institute will provide scientific support for the media conference in the context of Germany's 2020 EU Council Presidency and is analysing in advance the requirements of a modern European information order.
International data on children and online media is extensive, heterogeneous and partly contradictory. The CO:RE project seeks to create a comprehensive pan-European knowledge platform with the participation of international researchers and relevant interest groups, providing an overview of the resea...
How can we develop software that is not only oriented towards business models, but also towards the common good, user interests, and media regulation? Coding Public Value (CPV) translates questions on media law, user orientation, and the integration of political and social stakeholders into approach...
This project aims to gain insights into deletion practices in online communication spaces and creates a taxonomy of deleted postings from the online forums of a large Austrian daily newspaper and a German question-answer portal.
The relationship between journalism and its audience is changing, yielding consequences for what journalists cover and how. The project, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), examines the breadth, depth, and diversity of this re-figuration and its consequences.
The project, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), investigates how journalistic pioneers and pioneer communities envision an ideal future for journalism and, by that, actually shape the future of the field.
How does each individual establish a connection to the public through media and, thus, change the communicative figuration of the public? The project “Public Connection”, financed by the German Research Foundation, seeks to answer these questions as part of the research association &ldqu...
The project investigates various fields of law in the area of conflict between global digital communication and local legal systems.
The social science case study gains access to Facebook's Content Policy Forum for the first time in order to examine how rules for the moderation of content, so-called "community standards", are developed.
This book project, drawn up in the run-up to the Internet Governance Forum organised by Germany in November 2019, clears up misconceptions about the impact and reality of the Internet and explains fact-based, vividly and practically what science knows about Internet-based communication.
The study, commissioned by the EU Commission, examines how the EU strategy Better Internet for Kids (BIK) is being implemented in the individual Member States and draws up a BIK Policy Map III on this basis.
For the first time in history, Facebook grants science access to its data records. As part of the SHARENEWS project, Dr. Cornelius Puschmann is investigating the criteria according to which Facebook users share messages on the platform.
The international cooperation project investigates how the Internet has changed and will continue to change societies in the USA, Europe and China.
A population survey collects representative data for the first time on the tasks assigned to journalists by the German population. These will then be compared with existing data on the self-perception of journalistic roles.
The project investigates the broadcasting activities of the Hamburg author Siegfried Lenz (1926-2014) and explores the development of the cultural value of public service broadcasting.
A representative online survey wants to find out how people inform themselves about weather forecasts, how they understand the information and to what extent they trust the communicated scientific findings.
How can integration services of the media be assessed? The pilot study in cooperation with the ZDF has developed criteria that can be used to describe the performance of public media in the context of society.
The framework project, which is financed from basic funds, bundles research activities of the research programme management in the area of the structural perspective investigation of rule formation in digital communication spaces.
The interdisciplinary basic research project examines the opportunities and limitations of algorithmic decision making systems by using the example of their use in criminal justice systems.
Using the example of the Science Media Center Germany, a new organization at the interface between science and journalism, research is being conducted into how the field of science communication is changing.
How do children and adolescents in Europe use the Internet; which risks do they encounter and how do they handle them? The project EU Kids Online has been dealing with these questions since 2006.
How do scientific findings about journalistic media and social media get into the world? What criteria do science editors use to select topics? And what impact can scientific content have with it?
Eleven German research institutions form the Research Institute Social Cohesion to investigate current social challenges from different perspectives. The HBI examines the role of the media concerning social cohesion.
In several projects, the institute is investigating the new child-specific data protection regulations of the GDPR with regard to children's rights, identifying problem areas and working together with relevant stakeholders to develop solutions.
What role do health-related offers play in the app repertoire of young people? And how are the offers with regard to their health-promoting potential, their possible risks and their quality to be evaluated?
Children and young people use media to establish their position within their respective social groups and contexts. The role their media repertoires and communicative practices play in this and how these change over time is being examined in a qualitative longitudinal study with colleagues from the...
Democracy needs information services that provide relevant topics and debates for society. How is the journalistic quality of such information services in the daily media in Germany, Austria and Switzerland?
Is user-generated content on private communication platforms protected by freedom of expression? In her PhD project, Amélie Heldt focuses on the effect of the fundamental right on freedom of expression on the Internet.
In the digital sphere, children and young people establish relationships towards real life, fictitious and artificial media figures. This entails risks. The project examines to what extent the German regulation on the protection of minors from harmful media contents is still suitable to protect a fr...
To what extent do people with disabilities have access to digital, online devices in care facilities? What opportunities and challenges does this present for the promotion of media literacy? Together with colleagues from TU Dortmund University, the Hans-Bredow-Institut analysed the media literacy in...
If Tinder works for dating, why should it not do so for news? In this project, the intuitive principle of Tinder was applied to journalistic contents. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research promoted the development of an innovative news and information app for the city.
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force on 25 May 2018, gives effect to individual rights to information about using your own data for fully automated ADM systems (algorithmic decision making, in short: ADM) that work without human intervention. However, the individua...
To what extent can algorithmic recommendation systems be part of the own journalistic activity of public service media providers and take the side of (or take the place of) journalistic selection and compilation of information? In a White Paper for the MDR (Central German Broadcasting), the main cha...
The Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) commissioned the Hans-Bredow-Institut with a report on the topic of "Algorithms in Digital Media and Their Influence on Individual Opinion Formation of Users".
The network project looked at the historical and today's role of the media in the Baltic Sea Region in light of current challenges and analysed historical lines of developments of migration processes. In 2017/18, the project was funded by the Landesforschungsförderung Hamburg [Hamburg Resea...
With increasing online use of children, also the topic of E-Health gains importance. The project focuses on a structured overview of health-related apps for the young target group and addresses parents as well as stakeholders like educators and health professionals.
One of the central goals of public media law is to prevent predominating power of opinion. All the more surprising that there is little consensus as to what it means.
In the event of terrorist attacks or natural disasters, timely and reliable information is extremely important for media users. In order to find out what information needs people have in such situations and what media they use, a study design was developed with which empirical data can be collected...
Journalists like to use Twitter if they need an easily accessible “voice from the public.” However, do active tweeters not differentiate themselves in terms of their personality structure from the tweeting population? Does the mood on Twitter have little to do with the overall population...
How can information processing be made transparent and controllable again for individuals and institutions by new technologies?
What does science already know about existing health-related information and the way in which it is used? To answer this question, we analysed available findings.
Within the scope of this project, a discourse analyses on the topics of drug policy and drug consumption in social media will be carried out in an explorative way.
In order to find out what has to be considered for future developments of youth media protection, children and young people, parents and pedagogues were asked for their individual perspectives.
An international network of researchers investigates how journalism is created in unusual places or by actors that previously were not predominantly concerned with news production.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut has written the academic report on the current development of media in Germany for the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien [German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media]. The report provides significant parts to the Federal Governme...
How the sensitive topic cancer was addressed in the entertainment television series “Club der roten Bänder” [Red Band Society]” is the focus of this project.
The time when the child is given his/her own smartphone, a lot changes in the communication and everyday life of the family. In his thesis, Marcel Rechlitz examines what this means for parental media education.
How can we better understand the inner workings of algorithms and their significance for us individually and as a society? The network Algorithmed Public Spheres invites international researchers from different fields to address this question.
The project has analyzed the coordination and communication efforts of right-wing populist movements based on digital trace data.
Free-to-play games, that generate revenue by offering micro-transactions, have to be designed differently compared to other games. Theis phD projekcts looks into how the creative process of free-to-play game development is shaped.
What role do intermediaries like Google, Facebook, YouTube or WhatsApp play when people get informed about social issues or when they form an opinion?
Different services offered by the media satisfy different individual needs, and thus, have an individual value. This report sorts out the different needs and functions for the Public-Value-Study of the ORF [Austrian Broadcasting Corporation].
In support of the political discourse on services like search engines and social networking services, this report provides a structured view on information intermediaries and possible approaches of regulating them.
For people with disabilities, participation in society without media is barely feasible. For the first time ever, this study analyses quantitatively their differing use of media, which barriers they are confronted with and what expectations they have.
Can Media help to integrate migrants? Historically, Germany has seen many periods of emigration and immigration. 12 million Germans who moved to a territorially reduced post-war Germany as a consequence of World War II had a particular huge impact. Radio broadcasting played a central role in the int...
Market participants violate existing rules governing the media sector in order secure a competitive advantage. In his dissertation, Martin Lose examines judicial subjects that interface the breach of law according to § 3a UWG (Act Against Unfair Practices) and the information and communication...
Relationships between media and by media do not stop at borders. The cooperative project with the Macquarie University in Sydney investigates such transnational histories of media.
The City of Hamburg started the campaign “Sleep Well, Baby” to ensure that babies sleep well and safely. However, how do young parents perceive this campaign?
This cumulative dissertation project analysed user behaviour with regard to news on social networking platforms.
Unlike its citizens, the state cannot lean on the basic right of free speech when it comes to its communciation. In his PhD project, Tobias Mast exmaines the legal requirements of the state’s communication with its citizens.
Children and parents consider digital audio pens, like Tiptoi or TING, as toys rather than educational tools. The pens lose their meaning as soon as children learn how to read. Marcel Rechlitz and Claudia Lampert examined the potential of digital audio pens for the reading and language development o...
In which cases is a WiFi provider liable for illegal downloads made by a third party using its internet access? Is YouTube to be held responsible for uploads infringing the copyright? Such questions cannot be answered conclusively by the written law and are a solved by the construction of interferen...
Every app, every website, every search query uses algorithms. In his PhD project, Felix Krupar analyses the legal classification of algorithmic communication.
How can reader comments in news articles be semi-automatically analysed? The SCAN Project will develop a framework that supports journalist to identify and use opinions, topic suggestions or further information in user comments for journalistic purposes.
Health data is recorded and analysed on a large scale nowadays. But what are the risks and potentials?
How children aged up to eight years can be empowered for the media world was analysed by a large-scale EU initiative on Digital Literacy.
What is happening with media pluralism within the EU? How do different countries perform in comparison and what risks can be identified? The comparative study “Media Pluralism Monitor” addressed these questions, as commissioned by the European Commission. It eveluated and compared m...
Audio-visual media, such as television, can play an important role for issues regarding health. In his thesis, Michael Grimm examines the way in which medical issues are displayed in language and images and how patients understand these presentations.
How can the handling of personal data that emerges due to an increasing online communication be regulated legally in an adequate manner?
The Herrenhausen Conference "Society through the Lens of the Digital" explored the role of the social sciences and the humanities in a society saturated with debates on the effects of digitization.
Nowadays, digital media play a significant role in public participation. What features of software systems influence the actions of users and in what way? And what communicative figurations of providers, developers and users decide on the design of these features?
What role does social media play at the 2015 Hamburg state election?
The screen adaption of Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” fascinated people all over the world. This international project analyses how the Hobbit trilogy was perceived in different cultures. The Hans-Bredow-Institut has conducted the survey in the German-speaking countries.
How do public service broadcasting organisations contribute to society? The Hans-Bredow-Institut supports the European Broadcasting Union with developing appropriate evaluation criteria.
The more time people spend online, the more important the code that controls their behaviour on digital platforms will become. This factor especially competes with regulation by law and poses new challenges to it.
Under what conditions do journalists work for public service broadcasters?
This quarterly publication provides an overview of research findings and developments in the areas of youth media protection and media education.
Regulation designed primarily for linear media such as traditional scheduled television services has not adequately kept pace with the growth of non-linear media and the Internet. Even though traditional linear media may still be strong and even in the dominant role regarding overall media consumpti...
Age classifications of media content vary from country to country. Moreover, many age classification labels cannot be processed automatically by computers. The EU-co-funded pilot project MIRACLE intends to digitalise all age classification labels so that all labels speak the same language.
Increasing technical convergence presents media regulation with new challenges and calls into question traditional media law. The report by Winfried Kluth and Wolfgang Schulz gives an overview of problem areas and provides possible solutions, as commissioned by the German states and as a preparation...
Children already use their parents’ tablets and smartphones at a young age; later on, they use their own mobile devices to go online. Parents are able to reach their children faster and easier if need be, but they are worried about the misuse of data, increasing expenses and unsolicited conten...
Why do parents decide for or against technical youth protection programmes? Many parents do not know enough about the functions and possible applications of these programmes, they are insecure about the installation of the software or think that it is better to trust their children than controlling...
Radio content can nowadays be commented on, rated or shared as well. This also changes the way radio organisations work. By using the example of youth radios, this study examined what listeners and journalists expect from each other regarding forms of participation.
How can youth media protection and media education keep up with the current development of the media? The Hans-Bredow-Institut has focused on this question in several subprojects, funded by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. By doing so, it identified important...
In law clinics, students consult real clients and, thus, learn on-the-job. The EU project iLINC connects media law clinics in order to network students early in their study programs with IT start-up companies.
The international research network ‘Entangled Media Histories’ between the universities of Lund (Sweden), Bournemouth (Great Britain) and Hamburg (Germany) is working on a common European history of media.
Together with the University of Hamburg, the Hans-Bredow-Institut has made a successful bid for a “UNESCO Chair on Freedom of Communication and Information”, which is held by Professor Dr. Wolfgang Schulz.
Although they can use their smartphones everywhere, children and young people use mobile devices primarily in their own rooms at home. Claudia Lampert examined the mobile internet use of German teenagers aged nine to sixteen within the framework of the international comparative study “Net Chil...
Traditional forms of protecting children against harmful media content are increasingly reaching its limits. An international comparison shows how 14 countries are coping with regulatory challenges.
Social media is contributing to a change in the structure of the public sphere. It has an effect on how information is distributed or how the private and the public sphere behave to one another. The project, “Social Media and Networked Public Spheres” is uniting numerous publications and...
What effects do the internet and social media have on the organisation of journalism, changing audience relationships and news coverage? This project seeks to answer this question within the framework of the planned research association “Transforming Communications.”
How do people combine the different media and communication services and, thus, put together their personal media repertoire? A comparison of nine European countries shows similarities and differences.
The annual international representative survey on changing news usage conducted by the Reuters Institute (Oxford) shows general trends and national peculiarities of developments. The Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut carries out the German part of this study.
What meaning does the legal term “the public” have in the age of social media and sharehosters, instant messaging and whistleblowing? It’s time for an analysis from a legal perspective.
How are normative structures constructed under the circumstances of increasing mediatisation?
Processes of identity formation in the 20th century in the media cities of Hamburg and Leipzig are the subject of a project proposed by the Research Centre for Media History.
Together with the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet und Society (HIIG), this project has tackled the topic of e-petitions. The object of investigation was the e-petition platform of the German Bundestag.
“Is this advertisement?” Children as well as many adults have more and more problems to recognise advertisement on the internet. An interdisciplinary project examines to what extent children meet advertisement on their favourite websites and what requirements are imposed on primary schoo...
By the end of 2015 and in the context of the programme, „Young People and the Media”, the Swiss federal parliamentwishes to achieve an overall appraisal, of whether there is any need for additional regulation in youth media protection at a federal level and of how youth media protection...
An international research network sought to find out what the participation possibilities of citizens mean for journalism and the media system.
This project was completed in March 2014 and highlights the (regulatory) dialogue between data protection surveillance and firms in the Internet branches during the shift from the classical surveillance activity to a monitoring and control of data processing activity in the interests of those affect...
“Code is law”. With this dictum, the internet jurist Lawrence Lessig already in 1999 got to the point of an essential insight: the behaviour of people today, apart from markets, laws, and social conventions is also powerfully regulated by software, “code”. Like walls in a phy...
In all current social processes for establishing identity, a central component is, in fact, communication about the past. This is something that the current "memory boom” is, not least, demonstrating, as it also makes clear what a large role the mass media play in the negotiation of conce...
In his thesis, Lennart Ziebarth examines the criteria to which data is transported via the internet and to what extent network providers should be allowed to intervene in data transport.
The differentiation criteria for private communication in schools have partly become obsolete due to the prevalence of online communication. In his dissertation project, Florian Seitz seeks to show alternative possibilities of differentiation by comparing the circumstances in Germany with those in t...
How are complementary and alternative medical procedures linked to cancer presented in the media? And how can knowledge of these procedures made available in the best possible way?
This base study outlines the current status of suggestions and thoughts how to optimize the regulatory concept for data protection regulation in national and respective international literature. "Regulatory concept” as a term not only involves legal norms but also the underlying regulato...
How law can and has to react to uncertainty was analysed by Stephan Dreyer in his PhD project, taking the German youth media protection as an example.
To what extent does software influence public participation? Jan-Hinrik Schmidt examines the role of software systems in communicative figurations.
The research association “Transforming Communications” examines the effects of current trends in media landscape on the communicative figurations of various social issues.
What role do sounds play in historical communications processes? The Research Centre Media History looks at the speaking and sound, as well as the listening and perception of the past.
Software for the protection of children is one possibility to make the internet use of children safer. In a short-term study, the Hans-Bredow-Institut examined how many parents use such instruments and what they think about them.
Which norms influence the behaviour of users of social media services, i.e. uploading pictures to Facebook? A German-Israeli research team examines this question in an interdisciplinary project.
Does the Basic Law contain all elements of an internet freedom in the sense of a basic right to internet access? The PhD project examines this question by measuring the constitutional protection of internet-based communication.
Commenting, liking, sharing – the audience increasingly gets involved in journalism. On the internet, especially in social media, readers, listeners and viewers can rate, debate and distribute journalistic articles. They can even publish their own content. If and how they actually make use of...
Players of computer games go through phases of excessive playing during their game. Why can some players quit this phase while others cannot?
Mass media communication is always dependanton certain infrastructural elements acting as an intermediary between communicator and recipient. What influence can be tolerated regarding the constitutional guarantees of article 5 of the German Basic Law?
Whether “Swiss Leaks” or the “Panama Papers” – lately, so-called data(-driven) journalism has become a highly relevant form of reporting. This project investigated how this new form of journalism is developing, based on an analysis of journalistic projects that were nom...
The purpose of these anonymous interviews had been to extract unfiltered feedback, suggestions and criticism directly out of the practical fieldwork while protecting the interview partners from concerns for potential reaction in media for any comment made.
Increasing changes in media environments require some rethinking of media regulation and governance. The collaboration project between the Hans-Bredow-Institut and the Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) in Brisbane, Australia, looked at this issue.
In collaboration with the ZDF (Second German Television Service), the Institute organised a questionnaire of n=750 parents of children between three and 17. The goal was to learn which aspects of the mediascape parents regard, from their perspective, as problematical with respect to their children,...
The change of the public sphere, to which social web services such as networking platforms, weblogs and microblogs contribute, does also affect communication in the event of a crisis or catastrophe. Beforehand, social web applications are mainly relevant an additional channel for general preparatory...
In most families, parents decide how long children are allowed to watch TV or what to do on the internet. A study on media education in the everyday lives of families examined which ideas of media education these rules are based on. Six patterns of media education were identified and show how differ...
New services offered by the media and a changing everyday media lifestyle of minors require a modernisation of youth media protection. However, conflicting rights and interests, along with the limited effect of the law, make this a rather difficult endeavour.
Key figures and metrics as indicators for the development of reach and status of established media providers on social networks
In the course of technical media convergence and growing crossmedia distribution of moving images content the boundaries are blurring between as yet clearly distinguishable media and communication services.
How the information repertoires of the German population constitute themselves was examined by the Hans-Bredow-Institut in a pilot study.
The Open Society Institute with its office in Budapest initiated an international research project on the development of media systems in the light of digitalisation. Therefore comparable reports were compiled for almost 60 countries of all continents in order to examine the latest developments. In...
What can a local media regulator (at all) do against a multinational internet company based abroad whose products and functions do not comply with local law and norms?
Subject of this expert assessment for the State Media Authorities is the question of how service expectations and related burdens for private broadcasters can be linked with grants, so that an incentive evolves for broadcasters to fulfil those expectations.
Some journalists are increasingly turning into media brands of their own – complementing or even competing with the newsrooms and media titles they work for. In his PhD project, Julius Reimer investigates journalists’ personal branding strategies and critically evaluates this current tre...
From 8 to 11 July 2010, business representatives as well as users of browser, client and mobile games met at the second Games Convention Online in Leipzig. In the context of the convention, practice-oriented questions were discussed from different perspectives during business talks.
Many Asian states are undergoing an upheaval on several levels as far as their media structures are concerned. The technical possibilities accompanying digitalization and Internet-based communication are impinging on these countries, as they do on European states. At the same time, political upheava...
With the establishment of the internet as publicly accessible and widely used communication platform the question arises if the internet influences or substitutes the function of press and broadcasting and can fulfil the function of a “key medium” itself in the future. Against this backd...
Does television influence how historical events are remembered? In her PhD-project, Juliane Finger has developed an approach to conceive long-term media effects using the example of the Holocaust presented on German TV.
An international Comparative Analysis within the European Union Post-Doctoral Research Project funded by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development Researcher in charge: Dr. Roberto Suárez Candel Host Institution: Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research (Hamburg –...
Independent media needs an independent media supervision. A study for the European Commission developed indicators for analysing the independence and efficiency of audio-visual supervisory bodies.
Control of media concentration is a major element in protecting pluralism in the area of private broadcasting. It serves the execution of the requirements of constitutional law, which result from the freedom of broadcasting established by the Basic Law (art. 5 par. 1, sent. 2, Basic Law GG) and the...
How do we know whether something is “serious” or “just playing”? What difference does this make for our behaviour and experience? How is this difference accomplished? And what happens if it gets crossed or blurred? For several years now, game studies have tackled these questi...
One of the biggest social changes brought about by the Web 2.0 are the shifting borders between public and private spheres. The "Young Scholars Network on Privacy and Web 2.0" is an international research network funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) between January 2010 until Dec...
A study on the potential of applying game designs to other software applications to enhance user experience
A study on cross-media and convergence from the user's perspective by the Hans-Bredow-Institut.
Which role does the different communication arenas take in building confidence in medical knowledge?
Press release from the Authority of Culture, Sports and Media 05.03.2010 (German) Website of the Innovation Workshop (German) The Hans-Bredow-Institut is collaborating with Queen Mary and Westfield College at the University of London, the University of Amsterdam and the Catholic University of L...
The exchange of knowledge about regulatory approaches and new forms of regulation are the focus of the project "Intellectual Property Rights in the New Media Environment".
New ways of advertising, new funding strategies and their influence on programme content and journalistic quality were the topics of a conference of the Alcatel-Lucent Stiftung, the Hans-Bredow-Institut and the Media Authority Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein in Hamburg on 9 June 2009.
The increasing digitalisation of media environments enables viewers to access audio-visual content anywhere at any time. Uwe Hasebrink investigated why viewers switch from linear to non-linear forms of TV services.
In the context of the Three-Step-Test for its teleservices, the ZDF (second channel of German television broadcasting) has assigned the Hans-Bredow-Institut with an academic expert report on as yet discussed criteria for the determination of public value and the requirements for measuring these crit...
Online content is used transnationally. Is it possible to adjust analogue age classifications that are restricted to individual countries to the current media reality with the help of big data in order to protect minors?
From 8 to 11 July 2010, the second Games Convention Online took place in Leipzig, where the business representatives and users of browser, client and mobile games met. Business talks took place throughout the convention and comment on practice-oriented questions from different perspectives.
The first international dialogue conference on online, browser and mobile games took place in Leipzig from July 31 to August 1, 2009. The Hans-Bredow-Institut designed the conference on status quo and the future of the online and mobile games industry.
The German Cultural Council (Deutscher Kulturrat) has acknowledged computer games as cultural artefacts, and more and more cities and regions appreciate the games industry as an economic location factor.
How do elder people with a migrant background get information on health-related topics? The Hans-Bredow-Institut examined this issue in a qualitative study.
How does media construct our understanding of history? The Research Centre Media History examines this topic in several studies.
Media-specific concentration control and antitrust merger control as processes regulating cross-media concentration
Under the umbrella of the interdisciplinary research association on the cultural history of Hamburg (www.fkghh.uni-hamburg.de), academics from various subject areas comprehensively investigated the Hamburg cultural scene during the Weimar Republic and passed on their results to a wider public in 201...
The initial point for the conference on 4 June 2008 was the proposition that developments in the area of networks and platforms may indeed create new opportunities, but may also prejudice access to content and service quality for users.
The Internet has a profound influence on the way information and issues are generated, filtered and distributed in society. Professional experts (like, for example, librarians or journalists) still provide “gatekeeping” and the filtering of information, but two new mechanisms are gaining...
After the Hans-Bredow-Institut carried out the research-based evaluation of the Protection of Young Persons Act and the Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Human Dignity and the Protection of Minors in Broadcasting and in Telemedia and prepared the content for the roundtable discussion “Jug...
The project devotes itself to several questions of public communication facilitated by the media, focussing mainly on the 1950’s to the 1980’s and with a particular emphasis on programme offerings from the NDR (North German Broadcasting Corporation).
The project concerns the literary programme offerings of the Reichssender [Reich Broadcasting] Hamburg between 1933 and 1939/40 with the aim of comprehensively analysing these in the context of the literary field of Hamburg or respectively the northern German broadcasting area.
The Hamburg Media School (HMS) commissioned the Hans Bredow Institute to undertake an evaluation of its previous work. This is meant, above all, to investigate how far the founding goals of the HMS have been met. A particular point of reference was the “Letter of Intent” of 20 February 2...
Product placements in audiovisual contents are occurring increasingly frequently, among other things because of the increasing reception of contents via on-demand services both in traditional media and in the new media, particularly computer games. The so-called principle of separation is re...
A cooperation project sponsored by the European Commission to analyse instruments for the promotion and security of media user rights
Local and regional television in Eastern Germany was the focus of this study carried out by the Hans-Bredow-Institut in ccoperation with the Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut analyses problems of media concentration as well as general constraints on private broadcasting providers according to broadcasting law.
In a contribution for the European Audiovisual Observatory, the various functional levels of egal concept of “editorial responsibility” are being elucidated as well as criteria for determining when editorial responsibility, in the sense of the European Directive on Audiovisual Media Serv...
The Hans-Bredow-Institut examines the development of digital television services.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut examines changes in the way information is offered, demanded and searched for against the background of media convergence and crossmedia and develops theories for the future of information services provided by German public broadcaster ZDF.
Study on the relevance of personal data for national, international and EU law
Due to the high dynamic of the Internet, the Ministry for Generations, Family, Women and Integration of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia considers it necessary to regularly evaluate its online services and commissioned the Hans-Bredow-Institut to provide a report.
A study on behalf of the State Media Authority North Rhine-Westphalia on the quality of television as perceived by its viewers
Computer games for health promotion sounds appealing but how suitable are these digital entertainment programmes? In this context, Serious Games for Health will be closely examined.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut deals with questions of content regulation in the context of new developments in the media order, such as the new media reform, in Thailand.
.The Hans-Bredow-Institut provides an interdisciplinary and comprehensive overview of online games.
Interdisciplinary European Symposium 16/17 October 2008 in Berlin
On 8 June 2007, the Hans-Bredow-Institut cooperated with the Alcatel Lucent Foundation in organising a conference at Universität Hamburg on new opportunities for the distribution of content and its effect on media and telecommunications law.
An analysis of the deficiencies of video and computer games as well as possible courses of action to counteract them.
Memorial days as a form of political communication
An internaitonal project to determine the cultural understanding of Europeans.
A dissertation project on the copyright classifcation of search engines.
How young people use the "Web 2.0" and how it affects, e.g., their privacy or their attitude towards data protection was examined by the Hans-Bredow-Institut in cooperation with the University of Salzburg.
A study on the consequences of the new regulation of Art. 25 (4) clause 4 RStV for regional television breakout programmes.
Media law-related training and development projects in cooperation with the Faculty of Law at Universität Hamburg.
This PhD-project follows the media and cultural-historical approach and examines the dominant discourses in the media about youth and adolescence during the 1950s and early 60s as well as the context of reporting in the cases of West Germany and Great Britain; the focus singles out radio as the domi...
The Hans-Bredow-Insitut contributes to the amendment of the Protection of Young Persons Act and the Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Human Dignity and the Protection of Minors in Broadcasting and in Telemedia, which is planned for 2010, in the course of the transfer of its research results wit...
Scientific considerations on governmental censorship measures against Internet communication in Germany.
A doctoral thesis project about the challenges of user-generated content for German Internet law.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut develops curricula and course content for the specialist solicitors' programme "Copyright and Media Law".
Young people seek health information for themselves only comparatively rarely, thus they are often difficult to reach with health-promoting or preventative messages. This study examines how minors perceive and evaluate health-related messages in TV entertainment.
The Hans-Breodw-Institut analyses changes in media use caused by the modification of old media and the addition of media.
On behalf of the Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Communications, the Hans-Bredow-Institut conducts an evaluation of the Austrian Television Fund.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut examines changes in the use of television as part of the digitalisation process.
A study on how users perceive and experience the official website of the European Union.
Most people do not learn about political events directly but have them communicated by the information formats of television. In this process, an image of politics arises which is shaped by this medium’s specific strategies for staging it.
Digital games and online worlds are socially relevant in many respects. They offer the opportunity to compete against other people, but also to interact and communicate with them. Increasingly penetrating our everyday life, they influence our perception of reality.
A survey of the dual radio landscape in Schleswig-Holstein.
Study for the European Commision department Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, on fields of application for new instruments of regulation
Empirical approaches to the problems of distinguishing advertisments from programmes
An initiative to connect international experts on media and communication law.
How do other countries react on the cross-media connections like the press and broadcasting? The Hans-Bredow-Institut conducted an analysis for the Commission on Concentration in the Media (KEK).
The Hans-Bredow-Institut surveys the legal framwork for search engines on the Internet.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut examines Hamburg as a possible location for the music industry and questions its role potential on a national scale.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut studies changing legal conditions as part of media convergence on a national and international scope.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut conducted an assessment on behalf of the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers on changing advertising possibilities on Television.
A survey of the attitude of socially-disadvantaged groups towards the European Union.
The games industry develops rapidly in Germany. The study shows what meaning Hamburg has for that industry.
An initiative by the Hans-Bredow-Institut in cooperation with the Universität Hamburg and the Osgood Hall Law School of York University in Toronto for the promotion of supranational and international expertise in the legal analysis of civil and public law issues in telecommunications and media...
The Hans-Bredow-Institut studies the compatibility of financing of public service broadcasting through mandatory user fees with European law.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut examines the interaction and competition of different commercial advertising media.
On behalf of the Federal Government, the Hans-Bredow-Institut authored a comprehensive assessment of the development of media in Germany since 1997. It is meant to serve as a basis for the Federal Government’s Report on Communication and Media 2008.
The International Media Handbook provides an overview of media systems and developments along with comparable data, analyses and current developments in different countries.
News coverage of news coverage: On the possible instrumentalisation of media critique during the Third Gulf War
Television and media users find it difficult to make themselves heard towards media and politics. How are the interests of viewers in Europe preserved nonetheless?
An evaluation of the protection of minors in the media in Germany, as commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
With this reference book, the Hans-Bredow-Institut presents the key terms and topics of the media. Well-founded and intelligible to all.
Statistics on the programming procurement of European television broadcasters are compiled in this project by the Hans-Bredow-Institut.
A network supporting interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of health communication.
In a society in which weltanschauung and ways of experiencing the world are formed by the media, a public media critique is an essential medium of social communication and self-reflection. What do media critiques accomplish for this communication? What can they accomplish?
How do people use modern media? This project analyses with the concept of communication mode from a user’s perspective how people use certain media and communication services.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut examines the discourse on commentaries of German daily newspapers by means of a comprehensive content analysis.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut explored, in cooperation with the NDR [Northern German Broadcasting], WDR [Western German Broadcasting] and Universität Hamburg, the media-historical transformation process of the NWDR [Northwestern German Broadcasting] during the years following the end of World W...
In cooperation with the Faculty of Law at Universität Hamburg, the Hans-Bredow-Institut is working on media law projects for education and further education.
On behalf of the Federal Commision for Culture and Media, the Hans-Bredow-Institut examines the legal mandate and funding of the public broadcaster Deutsche Welle as part of the amended Deutsche Welle Act of 2005.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut examines new forms of media regulation
What meaning do online services have for the formation of public and individual opinion? And to what extent does a purely commercial offering show deficits concerning constitutional law? The Hans-Bredow-Institut explores these questions in this project.
How has television and the public debate about it developed? Christian Pundt analysed these developments in his PhD-project.
Video and computer games as leading products of the media industry
E-Learning has become a popular educational format. The Hans-Bredow-Institut examines copyright and trademark law issues that it brings in its wake.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut cooperates with the Universtität Hamburg for their Research Centre on the role of the media in the course of European unification
Merchandising strategies in children's television
Does television have a future? The Hans-Bredow-Institut addresses this question and provides an overview of present data, assessments and prospects.
Reviving Radio Research in Europe
Alcohol is depicted constantly and ubiquitously. The Hans-Bredow-Institut analysed the meaning of these images for young people, as commissioned by the Federal Centre for Health Education (Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung) and the Hanseatic Academy of New Media (Hamburgische A...
English has become an important part of adolescent life. The Hans-Bredow-Institut examines how media influence English language acquisition and skills.
The Hans-Bredow-Institut published the journal „DocuWatch Digitales Fernsehen – eine Sichtung ausgewählter Dokumente und wissenschaftlicher Studien [Docuwatch Digital Television – a Survey of selected Documents and Research Studies] from 1999 until the end of 2006 .&...
Research often focuses on how people use television at home. But how do people use television in public? In this project, Uwe Hasebrink and Friedrich Krotz analysed the use of television in public places.
The habilitation project of Wolfgang Schulz deals with the utilization of the public sphere in order to achieve goals in governance – for instance, in the form of warnings, but also in more complex regulatory initiatives – and setting out the framework thereof at law. It was completed in...
Economy in focus: An overview on the situation of German broadcasting services
The 12th Amendment of the State Treaty on Changes to Broadcasting (Rundfunkänderungsstaatsvertrag) amends the legal framework for the activities of the broadcasting institutions. The new regulation takes into account the agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Commi...
go to internet presence of the Research Centre of the History of Broadcasting in Northern Germany The Research Centre for the History of Broadcasting in Northern Germany is a cooperative project of the Hans-Bredow-Institute with the University of Hamburg (Department of Languages, Literatu...
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