Employment

04/2024 - now
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
Section of Media Studies
University of Copenhagen, Denmark

10/2020 - 04/2024
Assistant Professor (tenure track)
Department of Communication
Section of Media Studies
University of Copenhagen, Denmark

11/2018 – 09/2020
Assistant Professor (Akademischer Rat a. Z.)
Department of Media and Communication (IfKW)
Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), Munich, Germany

11/2011 – 11/2018
Research Assistant & Ph.D.
Department of Media, Knowledge and Communication (imwk)
University of Augsburg, Germany

04/2011 – 07/2011
Research Assistant
Department of Reading and Media Research at the Reading Foundation, Mainz, Germany

Education

01/2013 - 10/2017
Dissertation project at the Department of Media, Knowledge and Communication (imwk), University of Augsburg, Germany

10/2004 – 02/2011
Magister Artium (M.A.) in Media and Communication & Political Science
Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg, Germany

Dissertation (German):

Mediennostalgie in digitalen Öffentlichkeiten. Zum kollektiven Umgang mit Medien- und Gesellschaftswandel [Media nostalgia in digital public spheres. On collective coping with media and social change]

As a media and communication scholar, I am interested in the role of media and mediated communication in shaping cultures, societies and citizens' everyday lives. These themes resonate in my research and publications on the conditions of "the digital", especially regarding the emergence of new digital public spheres, memory cultures and media-related practices. In my work, I investigate how citizens, journalists, politicians and other stakeholders maneuver and engage in digital communication. Insights from my research add to our understanding of how the doings and sayings of societal actors affect public discourses and media content in today´s digital cultures. To grasp the complexity of media and social change, I strive for the contextualization of digital media in the structures and histories of societies that are informing ongoing change and the ways in which societies cope with it. I use and combine a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods in my studies to be able to address my research questions from different empirical angles.

In my courses, I teach on a broad variety of media and communication topics. This includes theory, qualitative and quantitative methods as well as practical work. Hence, students also often get the chance to conduct empirical research or do media production hands-on. Courses cover basics of the field as well as in-depth topics on developments in digital communication and society, social media, memory culture, politics and journalism.

PastForward: The Political Uses of the Past in Digital Discourses about Nordic Futures (2023-2026)

Team: Manuel Menke (PI), Karoline A. Ihlebæk, Samuel Merrill & Katarina Pettersson
NOS-HS Project funded by NordForsk

PastForward analyzes which collective memories and histories political parties in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland refer to in their social media communication and campaign materials during elections and how they embed the past in their visions for the future to connect to potential voters. The project also inquires how audiences encountering such party communication on social media relate to the references to the past and promised futures by negotiating, approving, or contesting them.

EXPOSING: The Public Value of Socio-Mediated Scandals in the Digital Age (2024-2028)

Team: Nete Nørgaard Kristensen (PI), Anne Jerslev & Manuel Menke
DFF2 Project funded by Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond (DFF)

EXPOSING examines how scandals emerge and progress over time and across media as citizens today take an active role by posting their opinions online and becoming a driving force in exposing and judging moral transgressions. The project aims to show how citizens’ engagement in digital publics affects the ways in which scandals develop, and how scandals, as a result of being increasingly citizen-driven, become sites for public communication of concern, which have the potential to create public value.

• Social Media, Digital Culture and Digital Publics
• Emotion and Affect on Social Media
• Political Uses of the Past and Populist Communication
• Media Nostalgia, Collective Memory and Mnemonic Practices
• Media Change and the Everyday Life
• Change and Well-being in Journalism