Prof. Julia Metag: New Professor for Communication Studies at the Münster Department of Communication (IfK)
(11.03.2019) As of September 1. 2019, Julia Metag will fill the vacant Professorship for Communication Studies and thereby succeed Prof. Frank Marcinkowski, who followed a call to the University of Düsseldorf in the Winter Semester 2017. With her expertise, especially in the fields of political and science communication and media effects, Julia Metag will strengthen both research and teaching at the IfK in these crucial areas.
In her research, Julia Metag intensively investigates the interaction of public communication with science and politics as societal fields of action. In noteworthy research projects and numerous international publications, she addresses the questions how social media change politicians communication and the political formation of opinion, why the flood of information can result in topic-related lethargy in digital public spheres audiences, or which determinants influence the search for information on scientific topics in different audience segments.
Up until her appointment to the professorship at the University of Münster, the 35-year-old will lead the field of Communication Research at the Department for Communication and Media Research at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland).
But the Münster Department of Communication (IfK) is not unfamiliar to Julia Metag: From 2009 to 2013, she worked here as a research assistant and did her doctorate on the topic „Politische Kommunikation und direkte Demokratie. Eine vergleichende Analyse der Meinungsbildungsprozesse in lokalen und nationalen Öffentlichkeiten.“ Also, she was an active member of the department’s executive board and of the faculty council of the faculty of educational and social sciences. Although she was born in Dortmund, Julia Metag’s scientific roots lie in Thüringen. At the University of Jena, she studied media studies, American literature and geography.