💡📄 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

🌟📣 Sharing new #OA studies w/ @solecheler.bsky.social: 1. 📄 Curious on the role search engines play in journalists' info-gathering process? See this rare experiment: doi.org/10.1080/1461... 2. 📄 How do dimensions of VR storytelling affect presence and empathy? Read this: doi.org/10.1080/1751...

Google as Journalists’ Invisible Research Assistant? The Impact of Algorithmically-Driven Search Results in Journalistic Information Gathering Routines

Search engines play an important role in the information-gathering process of journalists. This paper analyzes the possible influence Google has on journalists when consulting, selecting, and evalu...

doi.org

Congratulations to @danielwiesner.bsky.social on getting the Top Student Paper Award from the @polcomm.bsky.social at #ICA2026 🥳🥳 we couldn’t be prouder!

Daniel Wiesner@danielwiesner.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I won something at #ICA 🍾 In case you want to know what for👇

#ICA2026 has come and gone with amazing presentations from our team members and valuable discussions with colleagues from around the world. From content moderation to science communication and censorship, we are proud to share our work with this community and can’t wait to see what’s next! 🥳

🌍 POLCOM is heading to Cape Town for #ICA2026! Our team will present new research from content moderation to misinformation, science communication and political communication. Hope to see you there! Full schedule here: polcom.univie.ac.at/news/news-de...

POLCOM @ ICA2026, Cape Town

Members of the POLCOM team present their latest research at 76th ICA Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

polcom.univie.ac.at

Last week, PhD candidate Lena Pohlmann presented her topic "Towards Sustainable AI" at the #CHI-26 workshop, which brought together researchers to map the grand challenges and opportunities at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction and #AI #sustainability. 👏✨ #DigitalHumanities

📄🥳 New #OA paper by Melanie Haberl, @dominikhokamp.bsky.social, Marína Urbániková, Lenka Císařová, Folker Hanusch & @solecheler.bsky.social discuss "emotional communities" as an integrated lens to analyze the journalism–politics fields & explore new research avenues: 🔗 doi.org/10.1177/1464...

📄📣 New study from PhD candidate @clmron.bsky.social co-authored by @solecheler.bsky.social & POLCOM alumnae Dr. Jana Laura Egelhofer studied how scientists understand & communicate uncertainty about their research through 28 interviews in 🇦🇹. The #OA paper is avaialble w/ @natureportfolio.nature.com.

Claire M. Roney@clmron.bsky.social · 4mo ago

New publication in @natureportfolio.nature.com 📑 🥳 written w/ @solecheler.bsky.social & Dr. Jana Laura Egelhofer. In this first dissertation study, we asked scientists in 🇦🇹 Austria how they understand and communicate uncertainty in science. What did we find? Read it #OA here: doi.org/10.1057/s415...

📣📄 A new #OA study by @hosseinkermani.bsky.social investigates how Iranian Telegram channels coordinated messaging during the 12 day Israel–Iran war, showing how infrastructural and leisure-oriented channels are incorporated into wartime influence operations. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1933...

Repression through anti-repression tools: an analysis of the coordinated campaign of Iranian Telegram channels at times of crisis

This study examines whether and how Iranian Telegram channels coordinated to disseminate propaganda and disinformation during the 12-day Israel – Iran war (13–24 June 2025). Building on digital rep...

doi.org

📄 📣 New #Data-DrivenCampaigning research led by @xiaotongchu.bsky.social w/ contributions from @solecheler.bsky.social & co-authors reviews evidence on effects and outlines a research agenda on message tailoring, voter awareness, cross-national contexts and more. 🔗 academic.oup.com/anncom/advan...

Effects of data-driven campaigning: an integrative framework, literature review, and research agenda

Abstract. The positive and negative consequences of data-driven campaigning (DDC) in the digital era have been hotly debated among policymakers and scholar

academic.oup.com

📄📣 A new study led by @hosseinkermani.bsky.social analyzed 36,255 Persian tweets from the Women, Life, Freedom movement. It found pro-regime users were the most uncivil, while anti-regime incivility functioned as resistance—driven mainly by ideology, not identity. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@hosseinkermani.bsky.social took part in the #LunchtalksSommersemester2026 at the #ParisLodronUniversitätSalzburg about how authoritarian regimes such as in Iran use incivility and false information to suppress online democratic movements. More on the talks here: lnkd.in/ejuyE255 👏📣

📄 📣 @hosseinkermani.bsky.social co-authored a new study in #TheCommunicationReview that analyzed over 78K Farsi tweets after the death of Mahsa Amini to map anti-regime, reformist, and pro-regime dynamics on #Twitter. Read here 🔗 www-tandfonline-com.uaccess.univie.ac.at/doi/full/10....

👏 Shout-out to Lena Pohlmann-PhD in the Vienna Doctoral College on #DigitalHumanism-for her insights at the #CEU debate series “AI vs. Planet: Peril or Opportunity?” tackling how AI shapes planetary futures and sustainability from a humanistic lens. #AI #Planet #DigitalHumanism #CEU

See the 📚Launch: "Twitter Activism in Iran" at #ECPR! Exploring how Iranians use Twitter under restrictions to mobilize, shape discourse & challenge authoritarians. 🗓 13 Feb 2026, 09:00 GMT Presenter: Dr. @hosseinkermani.bsky.social Discussant: Dr. Gi Yeon Koo #SocialMedia #Iran #PoliticalScience

#IPKW welcomed ~80 guests for the alumni #ScienceSlam on “The Future of Truth–How Fact-Checking Must Change in the Age of #AI, #Deepfakes and Social Media.” Great contributions by @gngeorgarakis.bsky.social, Claudia Wilhelm @jamoeberl.bsky.social and more! Looking forward to another event soon!👏🔬

We at the POLCOM team wish you a happy, successful and fulfilling new year! We look forward to new opportunities, growth, exchange, and meaningful collaborations in 2026! ✨ 🥳 ✨

📊 A new @jmcquarterly.bsky.social study by @teresaelena.bsky.social, @jlegelhofer.bsky.social and @solecheler.bsky.social compared how deepfakes, cheapfakes, and decontextualized videos influence perceptions, finding distinct effects. Read the full #OA paper: doi.org/10.1177/1077...

Beyond Credibility: The Effects of Different Forms of Visual Disinformation - Teresa Weikmann, Jana Laura Egelhofer, Sophie Lecheler, 2025

Deepfakes dominate discussions about manipulated videos, but other forms of visual disinformation are more prevalent and less understood. Moreover, deception is...

doi.org

Congratulations to Dr. @andreawiesner.bsky.social, who successfully defended her PhD thesis, “Drawing Lines in Gray Areas: Toward Feasible, Accepted, and Effective Content Moderation” supervised by Professor @solecheler.bsky.social and Assistant Professor Svenja Schäfer. 🤩🥳 Congrats, Dr. Wiesner!

New publication out in #IJPP! 📑 We study how audience expectations of journalism 📰 shifted during COVID-19 in Austria 🇦🇹 – showing both short-term rally effects & longer-term recalibration 🔄. Led by @clmron.bsky.social & @danielwiesner.bsky.social , w/ @andreasriedl.bsky.social & me. 1/n

ONLINE FIRST! This article by Dominika Betakova et al. uses a comparative online experiment to test whether nudges could help with #news avoidance. Available with OPEN ACCESS. ➡️ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

1/ I’m thrilled (and a little proud 🤗) to share my first single-authored publication! It’s now out open access in Information, Communication & Society: 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1369...

Tackling (misleading) incivility online: a user-centric evaluation of different comment moderation strategies

Uncivil online comments, e.g., in the form of insults or misinformation, come with severe consequences for platforms, users, and democratic processes – making effective moderation essential. Howeve...

tandfonline.com

🚫📰 Can we use nudges to mitigate news avoidance? Yes and no — it depends on what nudges we use! Together with @hajoboo.bsky.social & @solecheler.bsky.social I wanted to test whether nudges can reduce news avoidance as limited news consumption—and to do so beyond established Western democracies. 🧵👇

The Role of Choice Architecture in Mitigating News Avoidance

News avoidance has become more common and is associated with negative democratic outcomes. However, only a handful of studies have explored solutions to reduce news avoidance, with nudges offering ...

tandfonline.com

📣👀Early-Career Researchers @ ECREAs PolComm Section Conference 2025! A few last-minute spots for the ‪@yecrea.bsky.social‬ pre-conference workshop just opened. Want to join a great lineup of speakers on early-career profile building, network development, and transience? Just drop us a message! 🙂

🚨📝 New publication: Svenja Schäfer w/ Lea Gorski and PolCom members @hannahgreber.bsky.social + @solecheler.bsky.social explored whether solutions are effective in sustainability communication and examined the attribution of responsibility through an experiment. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1751...

Solutions that Move Us? The Role of Responsibility Framing in Audience Reactions to Sustainability Stories

Research on the effectiveness of solutions journalism in influencing self-efficacy, responsibility perception, and behavioral intentions has produced mixed results. While emotional responses to sol...

doi.org

Today @ #ViennaChildren'sUniversity 🧒 How can YOU stay safe on social media? 🤔 Our @solecheler.bsky.social & @amplanitzer.bsky.social, with @julianeidhardt.bsky.social & @allanhanbury.bsky.social, explored counter speech 🗣️ & algorithmic moderation 🤖 via roleplay, annotation games & a kindness wall 💛

@ipk-univie.bsky.social is wrapping up #ica25 in Denver! From awards to withdrawn presentations, we‘ve had it all this year. Sending warm greetings & thoughts to all colleagues who could not participate 🫶✨

Thanks #ICA25 for a great panel on Science in Political Contexts. It was a pleasure to present our latest findings to such an engaged and insightful audience. w/ @jamoeberl.bsky.social & @solecheler.bsky.social

Another windowless room (but this time way bigger) in which I got to present first preliminary findings on how strategic politicians can *actually* be about their emotions in election campaigns 📷 @amplanitzer.bsky.social

What are the content-level characteristics of selectively avoided news? 🤔 @dbetakova.bsky.social presenting her impressive two-study research using computational text analysis and baysian modelling /w @solecheler.bsky.social & @hajoboo.bsky.social at an engaging #ICA25 panel on news avoidance 👏