Prof. Dr. Christian Schwarzenegger
Vita
Christian Schwarzenegger is Professor of Communication and Media Studies with a focus on media change at the University of Bremen. From April 2023 to September 2023 he held the professorship for communication and media studies with a focus on media society at the ZeMKI of the University of Bremen and from October 2023 to March 2024 the professorship for communication and media studies with a focus on media change.
He is on leave from his position as Academic Senior Councillor at the Department for Media, Knowledge and Communication at the University of Augsburg. There, he is currently leading the DFG-funded research project “Alternative Media – Alternative Public Spheres – Alternative Realities? Users and uses of system-critical alternative media and their significance in the media repertoire over time” (2021-2024). Christian Schwarzenegger completed his doctorate in Augsburg in 2015 with a thesis on the mediatization of the everyday world using the example of transnational communication in mediatized spaces. The dissertation is published as “Transnationale Lebenswelten. Europa als Kommunikationsraum” (2017) published in book form by Herbert von Halem Verlag. In 2022, he was awarded the Venia Legendi for Communication Studies at the University of Augsburg for his cumulative habilitation thesis on the interplay of media change and digital transformation with changing individual communication repertoires and public participation.
Prior to his time in Bremen and Augsburg, Christian Schwarzenegger also worked as a research assistant at RWTH Aachen University at the Institute of Linguistics and Communication Studies, Department of Communication Theory (2010-2012) and as a scholarship holder of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and lecturer at the Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Vienna (2008-2009), where he also studied. He has also spent time teaching and researching at Södertörn University Stockholm (2018), in Lisbon (2016) and St. Gallen (2021) and as a visiting professor for communication theory and public spheres at the University of Salzburg (2020-2021).
Christian Schwarzenegger is currently spokesperson of the DGPuK Communication History Section and Chair of the ECREA Communication History Section. Previously, he was also Chair of the ECREA Young Scholars Network. Christian Schwarzenegger was a member of the DFG-funded network “Kommunikationswissenschaftliche Erinnerungsforschung” and currently heads a CAIS working group on the sustainable research of the emergence of digital cultures together with Erik Koenen. He is also Associate Editor of the journal “Memory, Mind and Media”.
Research Areas
Media, public and social change in the face of digitalization
- Public sphere research, in particular digital and alternative public spheres
- Emergence, transformation and disappearance of media cultures
- Digital Gaming and media change
- Theory and history of (digital) media/ history of digitalization
- (Qualitative) methods of communication and media research in digital contexts
Memberships
- International Communication Association (ICA)
- International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR)
- European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)
- German Communication Association (DGPuK)
Most recent publications (Source: ORCID)
- From emancipation to disinformation: Public dissent and its evaluation in change. Publizistik
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11616-025-00894-7 - Beyond Play: Researching the Transformative Power of Digital Gaming in Deeply Mediatized Societies. Media and Communication
https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.8800 - Historical figures on Instagram: A typology of themes and modes of representation. New Media & Society
https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241237496 - Media persistence: Theories, approaches, categorization. Studies in Communication Sciences
https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2023.03.4620 - Editorial: Data, archives, and tools: Introducing new publication formats on infrastructures and resources for communication and media research. Publizistik
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11616-023-00806-7 - Historizing international organizations and their communication – institutions, practices, changes. Studies in Communication Sciences
https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2023.01.4119 - Understanding the Users of Alternative News Media—Media Epistemologies, News Consumption, and Media Practices. Digital Journalism
https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.2000454 - Recordings of digital media life: Advancing (qualitative) media diaries as a method. Studies in Communication Sciences
https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2022.01.3066 - Christian Schwarzenegger and Christine Lohmeier (2021). Creating opportunities for temporary disconnection: How tourism professionals provide alternatives to being permanently online. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 135485652110333. SAGE Publications
https://doi.org/10.1177%2F13548565211033385 - Communities of Darkness? Users and Uses of Anti-System Alternative Media between Audience and Community. Media and Communication
https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i1.3418
