Prof. Dr. Andreas Jungherr
Andreas Jungherr holds the Chair of Political Science, especially Digital Transformation.
He examines the effects of digital media on politics and society. His research focuses on the digital transformation of society, institutions, and organizations and the use of digital media by people, political elites, media, and organizations.
He is also interested in people’s reactions to technical and social change. Among other things, he investigates attitudes towards artificial intelligence and globalization and the experimental measurement of communication effects, for example in the form of targeted attempts at persuasion in information letters or media coverage by parties and interest groups.
In addition, Jungherr deals with challenges and opportunities of using new data sources (Big Data), artificial intelligence (AI) and computer-based methods in social science (Computational Social Science).
Jungherr is currently leading the interdisciplinary research projects "Communicative Power in Hybrid Media Systems" and "Discursive power in the coverage of Covid-19: An international comparison of hidden structures in contemporary media systems identified with deep learning techniques in text, images, and video". Both projects, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, investigate the connections and mutual influences of political reporting in legacy and online media and public exchange on online platforms in an international comparison using methods of computational social science. The projects are interdisciplinary and connect international researchers in political science and computer science.
Prior to his current position, Jungherr was Professor of Communication Science with a focus on Digitization and the Public Sphere at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (2020-1), Junior Professor of Social Science Data Collection and Analysis at the University of Konstanz (2016-20), Visiting Professor at the University of Zurich (2018-9 ), Post-Doc at the Chair of Political Psychology at the University of Mannheim (2014-6) and Research Assistant at the Chair of Political Sociology at the University of Bamberg (2009-14), where he also defended his PhD in 2014.
Jungherr is a regular discussion partner in international media coverage on the topics of digitization, political communication, and election campaigns. His assessments and reports on his scientific work can be found in contributions by Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), CNN, Deutschlandfunk, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Hessische Rundfunk (HR), Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), The New York Times, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), Südwestrundfunk (SWR), Der Spiegel, Der Tagesspiegel, The Wall Street Journal and Die Welt.