Dr. Rainer Freudenthaler

Rainer Freudenthaler
Project Staff
rfreuden [at] mail.uni-mannheim.de
Phone: 
+49-621-181-2853
Fax: 
+49-621-181-2803
Phone: 
+49-621-181-2842
Postal Address
University of Mannheim, MZES
68131  Mannheim
Germany
Visiting Address
University of Mannheim, MZES
A5, 6 Building A
Room:A 216
68159  Mannheim

Profile/Career

Since April 2022 Dr. Rainer Freudenthaler has been working as an academic staff member at the MZES, research dept. B. After completing his bachelor’s studies in media economics at the University of Applied Science Stuttgart and his master’s studies in media and communication at the University of Mannheim, he received his doctorate from the University of Mannheim with a 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 as 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.

Projects

B1 Conditions of Democratic Governance: Behaviour and Orientations of Citizens

B1.2204
Implicit and Explicit Racism in News and Social Media: Extent and Effects

Publications

Journal Articles

Freudenthaler, Rainer, and Hartmut Wessler (In Press): How alternative are alternative media? Analyzing source and topic diversity in mainstream and alternative online outlets. Digital Journalism, (publ. online before print). more
Freudenthaler, Rainer, and Hartmut Wessler (In Press): How Alternative Are Alternative Media? Analyzing Speaker and Topic Diversity in Mainstream and Alternative Online Outlets. Digital Journalism, (publ. online before print). more
Jakob, Julia, Timo Dobbrick, Rainer Freudenthaler, Patrik Haffner and Hartmut Wessler (In Press): Is Constructive Engagement Online a Lost Cause? Toxic Outrage in Online User Comments Across Democratic Political Systems and Discussion Arenas. Communication Research, (publ. online before print). more
Freudenthaler, Rainer, and Hartmut Wessler (2022): Mapping emerging and legacy outlets online by their democratic functions – agonistic, deliberative or corrosive?. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 27, issue 2, pp. 417-438. more

Book Chapters

Wessler, Hartmut, Rainer Freudenthaler, Julia Jakob and Patrik Haffner Öffentlichkeitstheorien. (publ. online before print). Isabelle Borucki, Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw, Stefan Marschall, Thomas Zerback (Eds.) Handbuch Politische Kommunikation. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. more

Web Publications

Wessler, Hartmut, and Rainer Freudenthaler (2018): Public Sphere, Oxford Bibliographies in Communication (11 January 2018) more

Conference Presentations

Müller, Philipp, Chung-hong Chan, Katharina Ludwig, Rainer Freudenthaler and Hartmut Wessler (2022): Differential Racism in the News: Using Semi-Supervised Machine Learning to Distinguish Explicit and Implicit Stigmatization of Ethnic and Religious Groups in Journalistic Coverage. [72nd Annual International Communication Association Conference, Paris, May 26th to May 30th, 2022] more
Müller, Philipp, Katharina Ludwig, Chung-hong Chan, Rainer Freudenthaler and Hartmut Wessler (2022): Gruppenbezogener Rassismus im politischen Journalismus? Eine automatisierte Analyse expliziter und impliziter Stigmatisierungen ethnischer und religiöser Gruppen in der medialen Öffentlichkeit Deutschlands. [Jahrestagung der DGPuK-Fachgruppen "Journalistik/Journalismusforschung" und "Kommunikation und Politik", Trier, September 29th to September 30th, 2022] more
Jakob, Julia, Timo Dobbrick, Rainer Freudenthaler, Patrik Haffner and Hartmut Wessler (2021): The End of Constructive Engagement Online? Toxic Outrage in User-Generated Debates Across Political Systems and Online Discussion Arenas. [71th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Preconference: Comparative Perspectives on Negativity, Incivility, and Toxic Talk, (virtual conference), May 27th, 2021] more