Dr. Rainer Freudenthaleris an academic staff member at the MZES. After studying Media Economics at the Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart and getting his master’s degree in Media and Communication Studies at the University of Mannheim he finished his dissertation on the public debate concerning Germany’s refugee policy within online media in 2021.
His research focusses on the pre-conditions of democratic public spheres, with a special focus on online publics, as well es the contributions of established and alternative media outlets. In the project “Implicit and Explicit Racism in News and Social Media” he joins Prof. Wessler, Dr. Müller, Dr. Chan and Katharina Ludwig to assess group-related bias in the news concerning ethnic, cultural and religious minority groups. His methodological research focus is on methods for automated content analysis.
Publications
- Jakob, J., Dobbrick, T., Freudenthaler, R., Haffner, P. & Wessler, H. (2023). Is constructive engagement online a lost cause? Toxic outrage in online user comments across democratic political systems and discussion arenas. Communication Research, 50(4), 508–531. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502211062773
- Müller, P., Chan, C.-., Ludwig, K., Freudenthaler, R. & Wessler, H. (2023). Differential racism in the news: Using semi-supervised machine learning to distinguish explicit and implicit stigmatization of ethnic and religious groups in journalistic discourse. Political Communication, 40(4: Race and ethnicity as foundational forces in political communication), 396–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2023.2193146
- Freudenthaler, R. & Wessler, H. (2022). How alternative are alternative media? Analyzing speaker and topic diversity in mainstream and alternative online outlets. Digital Journalism, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2117715
- Freudenthaler, R. & Wessler, H. (2022). Mapping emerging and legacy outlets online by their democratic functions – agonistic, deliberative, or corrosive?
The International Journal of Press/
Politics, 27(2), 417–438. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612211015077 - Müller, P. & Freudenthaler, R. (2022). Right-wing, populist, controlled by foreign powers? Topic diversification and partisanship in the content structures of German-language alternative media. Digital Journalism, 10(8), 1363–1386. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2058972
- Freudenthaler, R. (2020). Which online counter-publics on Facebook are fostering agonistic respect? An assessment of counter-publics debating Germany’s refugee policy. Javnost – The Public, 27(3), 247–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2020.1804121
- Mai, L. M., Freudenthaler, R., Schneider, F. M. & Vorderer, P. (2015). “I know you've seen it!” Individual and social factors for users' chatting behavior on Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 296–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.01.074
- Wessler, H., Freudenthaler, R., Haffner, P. & Jakob, J. (2020). Öffentlichkeitstheorien. In I. Borucki (eds.), Handbuch Politische Kommunikation (S. 1–16). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26242-6_3–1
- Jakob, J., Dobbrick, T., Freudenthaler, R., Haffner, P. & Wessler, H. (2021). The end of constructive engagement online? Toxic outrage in user-generated debates across political systems and online discussion arenas. ICA 2021 – 71th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Preconference: Comparative Perspectives on Negativity, Incivility, and Toxic Talk, Online.
- Freudenthaler, R. (2020). Assessing the debate on refugee policy within German online publics: Do counter-publics enhance the debate? 70th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Online.
- Freudenthaler, R. (2019). Civility & politeness in the online outlets concerning refugee policy. 69th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Washington, DC.
- Freudenthaler, R. & Wessler, H. (2018). Accomodating pluralistic conflict in online (counter-) publics – a multiperspectival normative assessment approach. The Internet, Policy & Politics Conference IPP2018, Oxford, UK.
- Freudenthaler, R. (2017). German refugee policy on facebook – Investigating the role of traditional and alternative media within the online public sphere. ICA Political Communication PhD Student Preconference, San Diego, CA.
- Halfmann, A., Winkler, J. R. & Freudenthaler, R. (2017). Backlash-Effekte in Online-Diskussionen: Auswirkungen von (nicht-)geschlechterstereotypem Diskussionsverhalten auf die Bewertung von Überzeugungsfähigkeit und Sympathie. Jahrestagung der Fachgruppe Rezeptions- und Wirkungsforschung in der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Publizistik und Kommunikationswissenschaft (DGPuK), Erfurt, Germany.
- Winkler, J. R., Halfmann, A. & Freudenthaler, R. (2017). Backlash effects in online discussions: Effects of gender and counter-stereotypical communication on persuasiveness and likeability. 67th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), San Diego, CA.
- Freudenthaler, R. (2016). Identifying factors influencing user incivility in polarized online debates. 66th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA): Communicating with Power, Fukuoka, Japan.
- Wessler, H. & Freudenthaler, R. (2018). Public sphere. In , (S. 1). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199756841-0030