IfK researchers Daniela Stoltenberg and Annie Waldherr receive award at ICA 2018

(04.06.2018) Faculty members Daniela Stoltenberg and Jun. Prof. Annie Waldherr have received a best paper award by the Computational Methods interest group at the annual convention of the International Communication Association (ICA) in the end of May 2018 in Prague. Together with their colleague Daniel Maier (Freie Universität Berlin) they were honored for their paper “Community Detection in Online Networks of Civil Society: Theoretical Guide and Empirical Assessment”.

In the paper, the team developed a theoretically grounded scheme of the methodological decisions required in the detection of communities in online networks. To this end, they systematized what theoretical concepts may underlie such tightly connected groups of online actors. They proceeded to discuss how these concepts might best be operationalized. Finally, they conducted a case study to illustrate how the chosen method influences the results.

The paper was chosen by a committee of experienced computational social scientists from a selection of the most highly reviewed submissions. They commended the paper for the comprehensive overview of theoretical concepts and empirical choices it provides and for the tangible workflow for communication researchers aiming to select the most appropriate community detection procedure in empirical studies. Two papers received the interest group’s award this year.

The International Communication Association is the world’s largest professional association for communication scholars. During their yearly conference, several thousand members gather to present and discuss their work. The Department of Communication contributed 21 presentations this year.

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