Research Projects Informed by Influencers? (INDI) ActiveResearch project Informed by Influencers (INDI)Duration: 2024 – 2027Project lead: Prof. Dr. Cornelius PuschmannProject collaboration: Patrick Zerrer, Paul Pressmann Student assistant: Karima Küster The Internet and social media are essential to contemporary public communication, particularly for younger citizens. The digital media change introduces the transformation of science communication by bringing various challenges for science, politics, and the media such as fragmented information landscapes, the rise of alternative communicators, etc. Audio-visual platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are becoming increasingly important for knowledge transfer, yet the visibility of content is dependent on algorithm-driven non-transparent criteria. As climate change globally rises as a fundamental scientific issue, distinctive communication aspects are required to address the topic effectively. The discussion around climate change is profoundly attached to the social and economic consequences of the process. Subsequently, this creates instrumentalization and politicization of the topic which populist actors know how to use strategically. In this context, science communication has the potential to overcome challenges through accessibility, clarity, and public participation. New media breaks the existing structure and increases participation in traditional science journalism. On the other hand, the diversity of communicators and their increasing algorithmization based on social media engagement raise substantial questions concerning disinformation. In addition, there are particularly fundamental changes in usage habits for younger target groups regarding news and information. Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok not only provide entertainment but are also important sources of news on socio-political topics. Although traditional mass media still plays an important role in social media due to their popularity, user-generated content, and influential communicators are vital sources of information for younger audiences. Nevertheless, they receive only a little research attention as mediators of political information. Particularly, research through tracking methods is lacking in the literature. The research project Informed by Influencers? (INDI) addresses these gaps. The project will systematically and quantitatively examine the digital media use of young people between the ages of 18 and 30 in Germany on the topic of climate change with a particular focus on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. The project uses a number of innovative computational data collection methods and surveys, mainly digital behavior tracking and computational analysis of audio-visual content. The approach of the study is expected to shed light on the connection between media use on the topic of climate change and the factors of knowledge, attitude, and intention of the users by addressing the phenomena such as growing audio-visual platforms as a source of information, increasing relevance of non-traditional communicative actors, lack of transparency in algorithmic interventions, imprecise methods based on incomplete recording of user-behavior data through surveys. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Persons Patrick ZerrerPaul PressmannProf. Dr. Cornelius Puschmann Labs Lab Digital Communication and Information DiversityLab Media Change and Long-Term Transformation Processes