The department analyzes ongoing convergence processes from different perspectives. From the user perspective, we analyze media usage, diffusion and adoption of online media, interactive communication services, the interaction with established media and selection and navigation through new intermediaries (e.g. search engines).
Within this strain of research, forms and outcomes of digital transformation processes are also examined concerning the society as a whole. This includes for example the analysis of influences of a fragmented media supply and shrinking audiences on processes of societal integration and the question how the media performance of specific genres are changing (media diversity and media quality). Besides, we analyze selected research questions in the field of changing political communication.
Through the perspective of empirical social sciences with interdisciplinary connections, standardized quantitative as well as qualitative methods are used. The adaption and the enhancement of empirical methods to digital media environments are central.