Prof. Dr. Christian Schwarzenegger
Vita
Christian Schwarzenegger is Professor of Communication and Media Studies with a focus on media change at the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen. He heads the Lab “Media Change and Long-Term Transformation Processes” and serves as programme director of the B.A. in Communication and Media Studies.
His research sits at the intersection of communication and media history with the analysis of present and future media transformations. He is interested in how media emerge, change, and disappear – and what these processes mean for society, culture, and our understanding of publicness. Key concerns include the transformation of public communication in the context of digitalisation, alternative media and counter-publics, pro-democratic and anti-democratic activism in digital media environments, cultures of media memory and futurity, and qualitative-interpretive approaches to studying mediatised lifeworlds. He is particularly interested in personal epistemologies of the media – how people develop situated orientations toward the credibility and authority of different media, and what happens when communicative AI enters the picture as a new epistemic authority.
Christian Schwarzenegger studied Communication Studies, Sociology, and Philosophy at the University of Vienna (MA with distinction, 2006). He completed his doctorate at the University of Augsburg in 2015 and his habilitation there in 2021 (venia legendi in Communication Studies). Before joining the University of Bremen, he served as Akademischer Rat a.Z. (senior research and teaching associate) at the University of Augsburg. Research and teaching stays have taken him to Södertörn University Stockholm (2018), Lisbon (2016), St. Gallen (2021), and the University of Salzburg, where he served as visiting professor for communication theory and public spheres (2020–2021).
Christian Schwarzenegger currently serves as Secretary of the ICA Activist Communication and Social Justice Division. He previously served as Chair of the ECREA Communication History Section and as Chair of ECREA’s Young Scholars Network. He was a member of the DFG-funded network “Communication Studies and Memory Research” and Spokesperson of the Communication History Section within the DGPuK. He led 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) and served as PI in the Bavarian “Research Unit for Contemporary Analysis, Remembrance Practice and Counter-Strategies to Far-Right Extremism in Bavaria” (2024–2027).
His co-authored article “Gegenöffentlichkeit als Gefühl?” (Publizistik, 2025, with Katharina Schöppl) was awarded the DGPuK Article of the Year Prize 2026 (2nd place).
Christian Schwarzenegger regularly engages in science communication, including “Science goes PUBlic” (science pub talks), “Wissen um 11” at the Haus der Wissenschaft Bremen, and the Growmorrow future festival.
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)
- Digitale Tagebücher zur Erforschung von Medien- und Datenpraktiken
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-49434-6_5 - 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
