Prof. Dr. Barbara Pfetsch

Principal Investigator

Prof. Dr. Barbara Pfetsch is Professor of Media and Communication Science at the FU Berlin and head of the Division of Communication Theory and Media Effects Research. Her research and publications focus on international comparative studies of political communications and media, on the contents and structures of online issue networks and debates on the internet, on digital communication spaces and on the transformation of the public sphere due to digital communications. Barbara Pfetsch holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Mannheim and a habilitation from the FU Berlin.

She was previously a senior researcher at the WZB and in 2001 accepted a professorship at the University of Hohenheim. Fellowships and research grants took her to Hebrew University Jerusalem (Israel), the Center for Advanced Studies (CASBS) at Stanford University, the Shorenstein Center and the Minda de Gunzburg Center at Harvard University, and Georgetown University in Washington D.C. (all in the USA).

Contact

Phone: +49 30 838 57530
Email: pfetsch[at]zedat.fu-berlin.de
Web: Portrait FU
Organisation: Freie Universität Berlin (FU), Fachbereich Politik- und Sozialwissenschaften

Positions

Principal Investigator (PI):

Research Group "Digitalisation and the Transnational Public Sphere"
© © David Ausserhofer
Committees and functions
- Professorin der Freien Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Politik- und Sozialwissenschaften
- Professorin an der Fakultät der Berlin Graduate School for Global and Transregional Studies (BGTS)
- Projektleiterin des Projektes B5 „Translokale Netzwerke“, Sonderforschungsbereich 1265 „Re-Figuration von Räumen“ der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Projektleiterin des Projektes „Raumpolitiken in Zeiten der SARS-CoV-2 Pandemie“ im Rahmen der Berlin University Alliance – Sonderausschreibung Pandemieforschung
- Mitglied des Verbundprojektes „Social Cohesion and Civil Society. Interaction Dynamics in Times of Disruption“, Projekt im Rahmen der Grand Challenge Initiative Social Cohesion in der Berlin University Alliance
- Principal Investigator am Einstein Center Digital Future
- Ombudsfrau und Mitglied des wissenschaftlichen Beirats des Leibniz-Instituts für Medienforschung, Hans-Bredow-Institut
- Mitglied des Beirates des Center for Advanced Internet Studies Nordrhein-Westfalen
- Mitglied des Beirates Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy (ab 2021)
- Mitglied der Arbeitsgruppe „Digitalisierung und Demokratie“ der Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften
- Mitglied des Beirats der Antragsinitiative „Research Center for Science Communication in Political Contexts“ der Berlin Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Fields of research
- Medien- und Online-Öffentlichkeit
- Politische Kommunikationsprozesse und -kulturen im internationalen Vergleich
- Digitale Themennetzwerke
- Agenda-Setting
- Europäische Öffentlichkeit
- Methoden der quantitativen Medienforschung

Projects

Auswahl

2014–2017
Political agenda-building under the conditions of a hybrid media system – a comparison across countries and issues (DFG)

2011-2013
The impact of online communication on the political public sphere – comparing agenda-building processes across countries and issue fields, Projekt im Rahmen der Forschungsgruppe Politische Kommunikation in der Online-Welt (DFG)

Publications

Selection

Knüpfer, C. B., Pfetsch, B., & Heft, A. (2020). Demokratischer Wandel, dissonante Öffentlichkeit und die Herausforderungen vernetzter Kommunikationsumgebungen. In M. Oswald & I. Borucki (Eds.), Demokratietheorie und Demokratie im Lichte des digitalen Wandels. Wiesbaden: Springer.

Pfetsch, B., Heft, A., & Knüpfer, C. B. (2019). Transnationale Öffentlichkeiten in der Digitalen Gesellschaft: Konzepte und Forschungsperspektiven. In J. Hofmann, N. Kersting, C. Ritzi, & W. J. Schünemann (Eds.), Politik in der Digitalen Gesellschaft. Zentrale Problemfelder und Forschungsperspektiven (pp. 83–101). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.

Maier, D., Waldherr, A., Miltner, P., Wiedemann, G., Niekler, A., Keinert, A., Pfetsch, B., Heyer, G., Reber, U., Häussler, T., Schimd-Petri, H. & Adam, S. (2018). Applying LDA topic modeling in communication research: Toward a valid and reliable methodology. Communication Methods and Measures, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/19312458.2018.1430754

Mayerhöffer, E., & Pfetsch, B. (2018). Media Elites. In H. Best & J. Higley (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Political Elites (pp. 417–437). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Pfetsch, B. (2018). Dissonant and Disconnected Public Spheres as Challenge for Political Communication Research. Javnost - The Public, 25(1–2), 59–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2018.1423942 also published in S. Splichal (Eds.), The Lique-faction of Publicness Communication, Democracy and the Public Sphere in the Internet Age.

Pfetsch, B., Löblich, M., & Eilders, C. (2018). Dissonante Öffentlichkeiten als Perspektive kommunikationswissenschaftlicher Theoriebildung. Publizistik, 63, 477–495. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11616-018-0441-1

Schmid-Petri, H., Adam, S., Reber, U., Häussler, T., Maier, D., Miltner, S., Pfetsch, B., & Waldherr, A. (2018). Homophily and prestige: An assessment of their relative strength to explain link formation in the online climate change debate. Social Networks, 55, 47–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2018.05.001

Bennett, W. L., & Pfetsch, B. (2017). Rethinking Political Communication in a Time of Disrupted Public Spheres. Journal of Communication.

Maier, D., Waldherr, A., Miltner, P., Jähnichen, P., & Pfetsch, B. (2018). Exploring Issues in a Networked Public Sphere. Social Science Computer Review, 36(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439317690337

Pfetsch, B., Maier, D., Miltner, P., & Waldherr, A. (2016). Challenger Networks of Food Policy on the Internet. A Comparative Study of Structures and Coalitions in Germany, the UK, the US, and Switzerland. International Journal of E-Politics, 7(1), 16–36. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2016010102

Pfetsch, B., Miltner, P., & Maier, D. (2016). Old and New Dynamics of Agenda Building in a Hybrid Media System. In G. Vowe & P. Henn (Eds.), Political Communication in the Online World: Theoretical Approaches and Research Designs (pp. 45–58). New York, NY / Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

Pfetsch, B., & Heft, A. (2015). Theorizing Communication Flows within a European Public Sphere. In T. Risse (Ed.), European Public Spheres. Politics is Back (pp. 29–52). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pfetsch, B., Adam, S., & Bennett, W. L. (2013). The Critical Linkage between Online and Offline Media: An Approach to Researching the Conditions of Issue Spill-Over. Javnost - The Public, 20(3), 9–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2013.11009118

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