📢 New Publication in @jscicom.bsky.social

Daniel Wiesner@danielwiesner.bsky.social · 3d ago

Ever wondered whether politicians rely more on scientific evidence in their communication over time? We looked at almost 30 years of Austrian parliamentary debates, and the answer is: No. 🔗 Read the full paper here: doi.org/10.22323/385...

📢 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. 👇✨

Computational Communication Science Lab (CCL)@compcommlab.bsky.social · last mo.

📢 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

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

IPKW - Department of Communication@ipkw.bsky.social · last mo.

📢 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 ⬇️

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...

WHAT-IF at ECC2026: Exploring the “Shifting Grounds” of Digital Communication

From 8 to 11 September 2026, hundreds of communication scholars from around the globe gathered in Brno, Czech Republic, for the 11th European Communication Conference (ECC2026). Hosted by Masaryk U…

what-if-horizon.eu

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👇

New publication in Mass Communication and Society!

Congratulations to Mirjana Čirjak, Ahrabhi Kathirgamalingam, Dominika Betakova, K. Pamina Syed Ali, and Hajo Boomgaarden on their new publication!

compcommlab.univie.ac.at

📢 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...

Double Adaptation: Negotiating Closeness and Managing Boundaries in Journalist–Politician Relations

Closeness with politicians is both a professional resource and a potential risk for journalists, as it enables access to information but may compromise autonomy and integrity, particularly within t...

doi.org

📢 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 🥳

WHAT-IF@what-if-horizon.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The Social Simulation Conference (SSC) 2026 is just around the corner! If you're attending the conference at Durham University over the next two days, don't miss the opportunity to check out the WHAT-IF presentations by @aytalina.bsky.social and @maxvandrunen.bsky.social See you there!

💡 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 💻

Melanie Sauter@melinscribe.bsky.social · 3mo ago

On day 4, @fabiennelind.bsky.social had a full day for Introduction to Text-as-Data as well as Word Embeddings.

🎉 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...

Hashtag activism and its enemies: a discursive analysis of suppressing #MahsaAmini on Persian Twitter

This paper examines how the Iranian regime’s online supporters sought to manipulate and suppress the #MahsaAmini movement on Iranian Twitter. Whereas prior work emphasizes the emancipatory potentia...

doi.org

📬 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...

Responsible AI in Higher Education: Perspectives from the YERUN Network - Yerun

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming how universities conduct research, educate students, support their communities and organise their daily activities. From accelerating scientific discove...

yerun.eu

🤖 🔥 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⚙️

Holzleitner, Schütze: Austria set to become a centre for European democracy research

European research infrastructure MEDem included in the ESFRI Roadmap 2026 – headquarters at the University of Vienna

univie.ac.at

📢 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

Computer models explore digital information environments to safeguard democracy

How do social media, algorithms and AI influence democratic discourse? Researchers at the University of Vienna are simulating digital information spaces to investigate ways of safeguarding democracy.

rudolphina.univie.ac.at