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

This year's annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) is centered around the theme "Communication and Global Human Rights" and will take place from June 20-24 in Gold Coast, Australia. Researchers from the Department of Communication at the University of Münster are also represented at this internationally relevant conference, where scholars from around the world gather annually to discuss current topics in the field.

Justas Kažys, PhD, is currently a guest researcher at the Department of Communication in Münster. Justas Kažys teaches and researches at the Institute of Geosciences at Vilnius University in Lithuania as an associate professor in the field of climate science. He focuses on climate change processes and their representation in public communication.

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).