75th Annual Meeting of the ICA in the USA: IfK researchers represented with several contributions

(12.06.2025) This year's annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) is focusing on ‘Disrupting and Consolidating Communication Research’ and will take place from 12-16 June in Denver, Colorado, USA. Researchers from the IfK Münster will also be represented at the internationally relevant conference, which brings together communication researchers from all over the world to discuss current specialist topics.

In view of the ICA's 75th anniversary, the conference theme 2025 is an invitation to reflect critically on communication studies as a discipline and the ICA as an actor and place of disciplinary development. The themed sessions will take stock of the past, critically review current developments and identify future directions for communication research. The focus will be on contributions that deal with the following three aspects: Communication Studies as a transformative and stabilising force in society, as a research practice that can be both revolutionary and consolidating, and Communication Studies as a discipline disrupted and resilient by external influences. In all these contexts, elements of disruption and consolidation are not necessarily antithetical, but can be productively framed as a dialectical relationship.

The conference will take place from 12-16 June and the programme will be framed by a variety of pre- and post-conferences. Among the accepted contributions for this year's ICA conference are 23 papers in which IfK researchers are involved:

Pre-Conferences

Boon or Bane? The Role of Digital Media in Disease Prevention and Management. Crossing Boundaries – An Analysis of German Media Coverage of Digital Disease Self-Management. Franca Singh; Julia Metag

Conferences

Political Communication Poster Session. Public Opinion as Discursive Process in a Digital Media Ecosystem: A Conceptual Framework.
Christian Baden; Anna Baczkowska; Aukse Balčytiene; Marc Jungblut; Neta Kligler-Vilenchik; Artur Lipinski; Aleksandra Krstić; Susana Salgado; Nina Springer; Asta Zelenkauskaite

Journalists in the Digital Environment: Opportunities and Risks. Deepfakes and Journalism. Normative Considerations and Implications.
Patric Raemy; Daniel Bendahan Bitton; Hannah Ötting; Christian P. Hoffmann; Alexander Godulla; Manuel Puppis

Journalism as a Profession: Tradition and Change. Quoting Advocate Scientists? Reflections on Scientific Sources’ Objectivity and Its Influence on Journalistic Sourcing Practices.
Lea von den Driesch; Lena Zils

25 Years of Shaping the Field: Critical Reflections on the Anniversaries of Journalism and Journalism Studies. Shaping the Field: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Role of Journalism and Journalism Studies.
Said Unger; Thorsten Quandt

InfoSys: Science Communication and Persuasion. The Science of Disinformation and Intervention Strategies: Revealing the Potential for Interdisciplinary Perspectives on a Rising Research Field.
Johanna Klapproth; Saïd Unger; Thorsten Quandt

Mis-/Disinformation 1: Its Consumption and Impact on Conspiracy Beliefs. Who Is Exposed to Deceptive Information? The Role of Media Consumption and Potential Moderators.
Lena Zils; Florian Wintterlin; Julia Metag

Trust in the News: The Interplay Between Journalistic Norms and Audience Perceptions. Exploring New Means of Source Transparency: Footnote Journalism's Effects on Credibility and News Engagement.
Lars-Ole Wehden; Bernadette S. Uth; Lea von den Driesch; Katherine M. Engelke; Nina Springer

Mis-/Disinformation 2: Perceptions and Interventions. Coping with Science-Related Disinformation: Prevalence and Predictors of Avoidance, Resilience, and Counteraction.
Marlis Stubenvoll; Niels G. Mede; Mike S. Schäfer; Julia Metag

InfoSys: Understanding Social Media. Gods of Telegram: A Mixed Methods Exploration of Patchwork Religious Groups on Telegram.
Anna Davydova; Saïd Unger; Thorsten Quandt

Journalistic Work: An Evolving Paradigm. Fading Away and Strengthening at the Same Time: Foreign and Local News Beats in the Comparative Perspective.
Lenka Waschkova Cisarova; Sarah Van Leuven; Milda Malling; Dominique Marchetti; Archana Kumari; Zvi Reich; Rubén Gonzalez; Sergio Splendore; Lada T. Price; Mark A. Coddington; Claudia Mellado; Florian Wintterlin; Pantelis Vatikiotis; Avshalom Ginosar; Antoine Faure; Leticia Hernández

HIGH-DENSITY: Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation. Segments of Belief in Conspiracy Theories and Their Media Use: A Survey of the German Population.
Julia Metag; Florian Wintterlin

Not Dead Yet: Reports of the Death of Gatekeeping Are Greatly Exaggerated. News Pollution and the Evolution of Post-Publication Gatekeeping.
Alfred Hermida; Thorsten Quandt; Karin Wahl-Jorgensen

Covering Activism and Protests: Actors, Frames and Audiences. Journalists as Social Issue Influencers: Negotiating (Blurred) Distinction Lines Between Journalistic and Activistic Roles in Social Media Discourses: A Qualitative Interview Study.
Sofie Beisemann; Svenja Boberg; Thorsten Quandt

Investigative Reporting and Sourcing: Evolving Journalistic Practices. Professors in the Media: Dynamics of Reputation, Cumulative Advantage, and Gender.
Raphael H. Heiberger; Bas Hofstra; Saïd Unger

What, So What, What Now?! Consolidating Local Energy Discourses With a Global Vision of Transformation. Communicating the Energy Transition in Germany: Enablers and Barriers at Local and National Level.
Helena Stehle; Sigrid Kannengiesser; Julia Lührmann; Bernadette S. Uth; Stephan Goerland

The Labor of Journalism: Burdens, Precarity, and Skills. Comparing News Beat Structures Across 13 Countries: From Geographic to Topical and Sub-Specialised Division of Labour.
Mark A. Coddington; Zvi Reich; Lada T. Price; Claudia Mellado; Milda Malling; Lenka Waschkova Cisarova; Avshalom Ginosar; Rubén Gonzalez; Antoine Faure; Leticia Hernández; Archana Kumari; Dominique Marchetti; Sergio Splendore; Sarah Van Leuven; Pantelis Vatikiotis; Florian Wintterlin

Comparative Approaches to Political Communication. A Comparative Analysis of Misinformation and Conspiracy Beliefs: Antecedents and Consequences.
Florian Wintterlin

Retrospectives on 30 Years of Digital Transformation in the Journalism Industry and Media Policy. Germany: Keeping Distance in Close Encounters.
Thorsten Quandt

Human-Machine Communication: AI Imaginaries, Ecological Bias, Ethics. The Material Condition: A Practice Theory Approach to the Ethics of Human–AI Communication.
Anne Mollen; Sigrid Kannengiesser

Open Science and Data Access. Gaslight, Gather, Gatekeep?: Comparing Access Strategies for Research on TikTok Data.
Saïd Unger; Johannes B. Gruber; Svenja Boberg; Johanna Klapproth; Thorsten Quandt

Journalism and the Public Sphere. Debate Spaces Audiences Actually Want? A Case Study of the Public Spaces Incubator.
Bernadette S. Uth; Hannah Ötting; Henning Eichler; Vanessa Kokoschka

Evolving Organizational Communication Constructs. Illuminating Informal Communication in Organizations: A Scoping Review.
Franca Singh; Nora Denner

The International Communication Association (ICA) was founded in 1950 and has been associated with the United Nations (UN) as a non-governmental organisation (NGO) since 2003. As a professional association headquartered in Washington D.C., the ICA is one of the most important scientific exchange platforms in the field of media and communication research and now has more than 5,000 members from over 80 countries. The next annual conference will take place from 4-8 June 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa.

Contact person public relations:
Dr. Stephan Völlmicke
Telefon: +49 251 83-23006
Telefax: +49 251 83-21310 (Geschäftszimmer IfK)