Welcome to the Department of Communication (IfK) at the University of Münster.

How and where do we feel pressure? From academic pressure during college and challenges in the workplace to a political shift to the right, 15 students from the IfK explored the many different facets of pressure. This led to the creation of the magazine of the same name, “Druck,” during the summer semester of 2026.

How are new journalistic practices adopted by journalists and the public, and how do they become the norm over the long term? This is the question addressed by the new research project “From Novelty to Norm: The Habitualization and Internalization of Footnote Journalism as an Example of an Innovative Transparency Practice in Journalism.” Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the project is led by Dr. Lars-Ole Wehden of the University of Münster and Dr. Bernadette Uth of the University of Vienna.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding a new Research Unit investigating the role of contradicting in democratic societies and the conditions under which it enables or constrains participation. The Research Unit “Media Practices of Contradicting in Networked Publics” (FOR 6017) comprises seven subprojects. As part of the Research Unit, Prof Dr Sigrid Kannengießer will lead the subproject “Media Practices of Contradicting in Platform Capitalism: Discursive Critique and Alternative Infrastructures” at the Department of Communication.

The 11th European Communication Conference (ECC) of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) will take place from September 8 to 11, 2026, in Brno, Czech Republic. Under the theme “Shifting Grounds: Paths, Connections, and Futures,” the international conference brings together communication and media scholars from Europe and beyond. Researchers from the IfK will also be presenting several papers at the conference.

Since the 2024/25 winter semester, IfK students have been supporting the prison magazine “Popshop” at the Herford Correctional Facility. As part of a working group at the Center for Media Practice, they design the layout of the magazine, which is published three times a year and gives adolescents and young adults in custody a voice of their own.