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Item Intrastate conflict and transformation of the media system: The case of Afghanistan(2025-09-11) Farag, Tamer; Neuberger, Christoph; Kretzschmar, Sonja; Sehl, Annika; Wiethaus, Linda; Gäng, JanaThis study aims to extend the media system framework to analyse the transformation process of media systems within fragile states that suffer from intrastate conflict. This theoretical goal is achieved through the scrutinization of the transformation of the Afghan media system throughout the Taliban takeover. Through conducting 21 semi-structured interviews with Afghan journalists, the authors examined the Afghan media system before, during and after the intrastate conflict escalation in 2021. The results showed that the media system in Afghanistan was highly fragmented before the Taliban took over. Consequently, the Taliban capitalized on this fragmented structure by optimizing an effective digital propaganda campaign that facilitated their victory in 2021. As a result of this armed victory, the Taliban started their campaign to control the communication sphere, forming an authoritarian proto-state media system. The results help to enhance comparative media systems analysis and to refine dynamic and conflict-related aspects.Item Alternative media in Lebanon: The role of digital platforms in a polarized hybrid media system(2025-08-09) Farag, Tamer; Neuberger, Christoph; Kretzschmar, Sonja; Sehl, Annika; Pies, Judith; Wiethaus, LindaThis article aims to contribute to the literature about the roles and limitations of alternative media activism in different hybrid media systems by scrutinizing the organizational and discursive counter-hegemonic agency of digital alternative platforms in the Lebanese media system that is prone to high political parallelism, elite control, and polarization. To achieve this objective, semi-structured interviews with Lebanese journalists and a qualitative framing analysis for the alternative and mainstream media coverage of the Beirut Port explosion, which took place on the 4 August 2020 and led to the death of hundreds of people, were conducted. Our results show that Lebanese alternative media strive to escape the hegemonic control of sectarian and political groups by trying to achieve editorial and financial independence. Besides, they attempted in their framing of the explosion to develop a different narrative of the political conflict as a meta-sectarian one between the people and the ruling class from all the sects. However, they face the challenge of distinguishing themselves from the mainstream oppositional media that stands against the current regime. These results highlight the challenges and new possibilities opened by digital technologies for alternative media to escape the political hegemony in a polarized hybrid media system.Item D[X]IM—the Dynamic Intermediary Model of communicative transaction on digital platforms in a networked public sphere(2025-10-31) Ohme, Jakob; Mayer, Anna-Theresa; Charlton-Czaplicki, Timothy; Gaisbauer, Felix; Wedel, Lion; Fan, Yangliu; Neuberger, ChristophThis study introduces the Dynamic Intermediary Model (D[X]IM) to address how knowledge processes have evolved with digital platforms by shifting from a dyadic to a triadic communication model of content flow with a potential intermediary. This intermediary, which can be a journalist, influencer, artificial agent, or another platform actor, provides services to the source and recipient of a message, thereby transforming traditional direct communication. It aims to better understand information diffusion in the networked public sphere by recognizing the intermediary’s role in altering source-recipient dynamics. The D[X]IM applies across different communication levels (macro, meso, and micro) and is designed for empirical research using diverse methodologies. It focuses on single instances of platform communication to explore the impact of intermediated communication. The article concludes with a research agenda and examples of how D[X]IM can be applied in empirical research.Item Digital turn without digital methods? Mapping the journey of journalism studies(2025) Fan, Yangliu; Ohme, Jakob; Neuberger, ChristophRecent years have seen a growing diversity in journalism studies, primarily ascribed to digital transformation in the contemporary context. Analyzing 6,770 publications from the five major journalism journals—*Journalism*, *Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly*, *Journalism Practice*, *Journalism Studies*, and *Digital Journalism*—between 1995 and 2022, we find new evidence that the digital turn is highly visible in journalism studies. Using document co-citation analysis, we first have identified distinct and coherent, yet loosely integrated, research clusters that focus on different journalistic topics, i.e., specialties. Second, we find that digital journalism has not only been integrated into the research agendas within the field but has also formed stand-alone and distinct research clusters. We further show that field structure has developed over the years in response to digital transformation. Yet, digital and computational methods remain in the stark minority compared with the more traditional methods. Our results suggest that journalism studies could benefit from novel inter-cluster communications and methodological innovations.Item Agenda formation and prediction of voting tendencies for European parliament election using textual, social and network features(Springer, 2024) Shahi, Gautam Kishore; Basyurt, Ali Sercan; Stieglitz, Stefan; Neuberger, ChristophAs per agenda-setting theory, political agenda is concerned with the government’s agenda, including politicians and political parties. Political actors utilize various channels to set their political agenda, including social media platforms such as Twitter (now X). Political agenda-setting can be influenced by anonymous user-generated content following the Bright Internet. This is why speech acts, experts, users with affiliations and parties through annotated Tweets were analyzed in this study. In doing so, the agenda formation during the 2019 European Parliament Election in Germany based on the agenda-setting theory as our theoretical framework, was analyzed. A prediction model was trained to predict users’ voting tendencies based on three feature categories: social, network, and text. By combining features from all categories logistical regression leads to the best predictions matching the election results. The contribution to theory is an approach to identify agenda formation based on our novel variables. For practice, a novel approach is presented to forecast the winner of events.Item Der russische Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine in den deutschen Medien: Kritik des Maßstabs „ausgewogene Bewertung“ in Inhaltsanalysen(Springer, 2024) Neuberger, Christoph; Hohlfeld, RalfInhaltsanalysen über die Darstellung von Konflikten in den Medien werden häufig durchgeführt, um den Vorwurf der Einseitigkeit empirisch zu überprüfen. Dies wirft die normative Frage auf, wie die Forderung nach einer ausgewogenen Bewertung, d. h. einer Gleichverteilung positiver und negativer Bewertungen zwischen Kontrahenten, als Qualitätsmaßstab rechtfertigt werden kann und wie dies fallbezogen, d. h. kontextabhängig geschehen muss. Diese Frage wird am Beispiel von Inhaltsanalysen zum russischen Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine diskutiert. In einer qualitativen Metastudie von 22 Inhaltsanalysen wurden zunächst induktiv acht Annahmen zur Rechtfertigung der Anwendung des Maßstabs für diesen Fall ermittelt. Vier davon beziehen sich auf das Verhältnis der Medien zu ihrer Umwelt: zur journalistischen Profession, der Medien untereinander sowie zum Publikum und zur Politik. Vier weitere Begründungen sind vom Verhältnis der Medien zum Krieg als Thema abgeleitet: zum normativ „richtigen“ und „falschen“ Handeln der Kontrahenten, zur Antizipation negativer Folgen, zum Framing des Kriegs als Machtkonflikt (statt als Konflikt um Werte) und aus der Position des Werterelativismus. Die Forderung nach einer ausgewogenen Bewertung war in den Studien häufig mit der Kritik an einer angeblich zu negativen Sicht der russischen Seite verknüpft. Die Diskussion der Fundstellen zeigt, dass die Argumente zur Rechtfertigung einer ausgewogenen Bewertung für den vorliegenden Fall nur begrenzt oder gar nicht tauglich sind. Damit kann die Studie zeigen, dass das Problem der „False Balance“ nicht nur im Bereich des Wissens, sondern auch des Wertens zu finden ist. Außerdem ist „False Balance“ damit nicht nur ein Phänomen im Journalismus, sondern auch in der Wissenschaft.Item Journalismus und Journalismusforschung: Nein, das Ende ist nicht nahe – Eine Antwort auf Hektor Haarkötter(Springer, 2024) Neuberger, ChristophHektor Haarkötters Text ist ein Abgesang auf den Online-Journalismus – und obendrein auf die Forschung, die ihm gewidmet ist. Sein pointiertes Urteil: Bevor die Geschichte des Online-Journalismus erzählt worden ist, ist er schon wieder Geschichte. Dass der Journalismus in der Krise steckt, ist keine Neuigkeit, sondern wird seit mehr als zwei Jahrzehnten unentwegt diskutiert und erforscht. Hektor Haarkötter formuliert das, woran in der Tendenz wohl niemand zweifelt, mit besonderer Drastik. Den Text durchzieht eine Todesmetaphorik („Siechtum und Tod“, „Friedhof“, „Finsternis“, „Sargnägel“, „Todeskampf“, „RIP“; Büscher 1996). Während andere nach Auswegen aus der Krise suchen, ist für ihn das Ende des Online-Journalismus besiegelt. Gegen diese Eindeutigkeit und Unausweichlichkeit möchte ich hier argumentieren, weil sie weder dem Forschungsstand entspricht, noch die Lage völlig aussichtlos ist. Ich verstehe Haarkötters Text als provokanten Appell an Kommunikationswissenschaft und Journalismus, sich die Lage schonungslos zu vergegenwärtigen, denn es steht in der Tat viel auf dem Spiel: die Zukunft der liberalen Demokratie (Neuberger 2022a), ebenso die Wissenschaftsfreiheit.Item Epistemic authority in the digital public sphere. An integrative conceptual framework and research agenda(2025) Bartsch, Anne; Neuberger, Christoph; Stark, Birgit; Karnowski, Veronika; Maurer, Marcus; Pentzold, Christian; Quandt, Thorsten; Quiring, Oliver; Schemer, ChristianWe develop an integrative conceptual framework and research agenda for studying epistemic authorities in the digital age. Consulting epistemic authorities (e.g., professional experts, well-informed laypeople, technologies) can be an efficient fast-track to knowledge. To fulfill this functional role, those who claim epistemic authority need to be both subjectively recognized (have a perceived advantage in knowledge) and objectively justified (have an actual advantage in knowledge). In a digital media context, new and unconventional knowledge sources have emerged that can fulfill the functional role of epistemic authorities. But false authorities that disseminate misinformation have emerged as well while other sources with important knowledge remain unrecognized. We further analyze the functional role of epistemic intermediaries that can mitigate such problematic developments by correcting false authorities and by providing endorsement for unrecognized authorities. We conclude with a research agenda to study functional forms of epistemic authorities and epistemic intermediaries in the digital public sphere.Item How journalism adapted the Internet in Germany: Results of six newsroom surveys (1997–2014)(2024) Neuberger, ChristophBased on six newsroom surveys, this article analyzes the history of digital German journalism. The surveys cover a period of 17 years (1997–2014). Periodizing the history of digital journalism into three phases, this article considers the interplay between journalism and journalism research. The results show how journalistic digital media define their role in the relationships between old media and the Internet, digital media and other outlets, and digital media and their audiences. Furthermore, the results substantiate how digital editorial staff define their journalistic identities regarding tasks, rules, and skills. During the first period (surveys conducted in 1997 and 2000), the view from old mass media to the Internet dominated, also in scholarship where the mass media paradigm was extended to the Internet. The second period (surveys conducted in 2006 and 2007) was characterized by clarifying the relationships between journalism and newly emerged outlets. These studies focused on how participative formats (such as Wikipedia and blogs) and search engines could be used for journalistic purposes without compromising quality. These new outlets were not regarded then as much of a threat. This attitude did not change during the third period (surveys conducted in 2010 and 2014). In this phase, too, the studies focused on how editorial staff utilized the ever-increasing number of social media. The six surveys’ different research interests reveal that the reviewed journalism research primarily addressed changing demands in journalistic practice. Therefore, exogenous factors (“the sector”) had a greater impact than endogenous factors (the “scholarship”) on research interests.Item Interview with Christoph Neuberger on “How Digital Technologies are Shaping Our Society and What We Can Do About It”(Springer Fachmedien, 2023) Neuberger, Christoph; Krasnova, HannaInterview with Christoph Neuberger. Christoph Neuberger is a full professor of media and communication science with a focus on “digitalization and participation” at Freie Universität Berlin. He also serves as a Scientific Managing Director at the Weizenbaum-Institut e.V. Prior to this, he taught as a full professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (2011–2019) and Universität Münster (2002–2011). He was also a deputy professor at the University of Leipzig (2001–2002). He is a regular member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). His research focuses on the digital transformation of media, the public sphere, and journalism.