The Journalism and Democracy research group (JourDem) is an interdisciplinary and internationally oriented research group focused on the transformation of journalism and its implications for democracy.

In well-functioning democracies, members of the public have to maintain a connection to the wider organization of society. We study the role played by journalism and media in facilitating this role, examining news production, news use, and news content as well as the development of the media technologies for news and journalism.

JourDem provides a vibrant and interdisciplinary community for junior and senior scholars that conduct research on (news) media and journalism. In our research, we touch on different fields of research across the social sciences and humanities, including media and communication studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, cultural studies, and data science. 

We focus on both the users and producers of news-media content in a broad sense and explore the changing boundaries of the journalistic field. The many areas that we research include: newsroom studies, media history, media sociology, political communication, news use and audience practices, media discourse, media events, media scandals, press ethics, gender and journalism, media system research, alternative media, polarization and misinformation, digitalization and datafication, media infrastructures, news media publics, and social media research. 

We draw on a wide array of research methods, from (auto)ethnographic and interview studies, document analysis, qualitative and quantitative content analysis, survey, and network analysis to the large-scale analysis of big data with computational methods. 

We collaborate with the media industry and other relevant stakeholders in many of our research projects. We strive to make our research accessible to the wider public by serving as experts in the media and by publishing our research also beyond traditional academic formats. Moreover, we organize internal feedback seminars, guest lectures, and conferences, and we host international scholars for research stays, talks, and workshops. 

Research group leader: Aske Kammer