Welcome to the Department of Communication (IfK) at the University of Münster.

As concerns of fake news continue to rise in the digital age, more attention has been placed on how this issue might be addressed by actions of the community or the state. In a guest lecture on Wednesday, May 5, Dr Shangyuan Wu from the National University of Singapore evaluates the effectiveness of civic and legislative interventions for decreasing the spread of fake news.

The threat of communicative violence online runs through all segments of society: Potentially, anyone can become a target of hate speech, trolling, or cyberstalking, which can carry severe consequences for those affected. In a new three-year research project led by Prof. Dr. Nina Springer and assisted by Hannah Ötting M.A., M.Sc., one of the primary questions being addressed is how individuals can be pedagogically prepared to handle communicative violence online.

Together with the European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS), the Department of Communication (IfK) will host this year's MISDOOM conference from September 2 to September 4, 2024. This international and interdisciplinary conference not only brings together perspectives from communication and computer science, but also offers a networking platform for practitioners from journalism and fact-checking, as well as experts from the business sector.

Dr. Bernadette Uth is now part of the new spokesperson team of the Journalism Studies/Journalism Research Section of the German Association for Journalism and Communication Studies (DGPuK). The results of the election for the spokesperson team were announced last week. 91 percent of participants voted for the team of spokespersons. Uth will lead the specialist group together with Dr. Valerie Hase and Prof. Dr. Jonas Schützeneder (Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences).

Former student and doctoral candidate at the Department of Communication, Dr. Matthias Potthoff, was granted the venia legendi for the field of communication science by the Faculty Council 06 at the University of Münster on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. This marks the successful completion of his postdoctoral qualification process initiated in October 2023, which included a cumulative dissertation and a postdoctoral lecture with a colloquium.