Area C
Citizens, Media, and Politicians
The common ground of projects in area C is their focus on perceptions, preferences, and beliefs of individuals in their role as citizens in a democratic society. Projects study the impact of crises on perceptions, preferences, and beliefs and their implications for and interaction with the incentives of other societal actors such as politicians and media. Perceptions are shaped and reflected by public discourse in the media which are another key actor in the political arena next to citizens and politicians. Therefore, research on the resilience of public discourse in times of crises will yield instructive insights regarding a major influence on citizens’ perceptions. Inter-project collaboration to explain the interactions between citizens, politicians, and media coverage during crises regarding different aspects of political preferences is another building block for understanding societal resilience.
Projects in Area C
| Code | Title | Project Leaders | Field |
|---|---|---|---|
| C01 | Resilient Public Discourse in Shifting Media Environments | Teresa Naab, Simone Ponzetto, Hartmut Wessler | Media and Communication Studies, Computer Science |
| C02 | Anxiety and Extremist Attitudes in Times of Crisis | Georg Alpers, Marc Helbling | Psychology, Sociology |
| C03 | Do Crises Promote the Rise of Authoritarian Leaders? Dynamics between Voters’ Preferences for Politicians’ Personality Traits and Politicians’ Self-Presentations | Clemens Lechner, Indira Sen | Computer Science, Psychology |
| C04 | Democratic Resilience? How Citizens Respond to (Multiple) Crises | Harald Schoen, Richard Traunmüller | Political Science |
| C05 | Capture of Crises as Political Opportunity | Thomas Bräuninger, Marc Debus, Thomas Gschwend | Political Science |