Credit: Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden Württemberg
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 | Matthias Kohring, Simone Ponzetto, Hartmut Wessler | Media and Communication Studies, Computer Science |
| C02 | Fear and Extremist Attitudes in Times of Crisis | Georg Alpers, Marc Helbling | Psychology, Sociology |
| C03 | The Rise of the “Strongmen”: Dynamics between Voters’ Preferences for Politicians’ Personality Traits and Politicians’ Strategic Self-Presentations | Matthias Bluemke, Clemens Lechner | Psychology |
| C04 | Democratic Resilience? How Citizens Adapt to and Learn from Multiple Crises | Harald Schoen, Richard Traunmüller | Political Science |
| C05 | Capture of Crises as Political Opportunity | Thomas Bräuninger, Marc Debus, Thomas Gschwend | Political Science |