Digital communication shapes how people interact, process information, negotiate topics, and organize social life. The Online Communication Lab (OCL) at the Department of Communication at the University of Münster, led by Prof. Thorsten Quandt, explores these developments and their impact on individuals, groups, and society.
Our goal is to make digital communication processes visible and understandable - for researchers, students, societal stakeholders, and the wider public.
In a newly published article, Shangyuan Wu, Saïd Unger, and Thorsten Quandt analyze how alternative media are understood, practiced, and used in different social and political contexts beyond dominant Western perspectives.
A new book chapter by Thorsten Quandt, Johanna Klapproth, Saïd Unger, and Svenja Boberg examines the growing role of Generative AI in disinformation and public communication through the lens of the five dimensions of Dark Participation.
Prof. Axel Bruns (Queensland University of Technology) visited the OCL. The program included an internal workshop on “Practice Mapping” and a guest talk titled “Revisiting ‘the’ Public Sphere and Its Algorithmically Shaped Publics.”
Last week, the Online Communication Lab (OCL) and the Department of Communication at the University of Münster welcomed Mathias Felipe de Lima Santos who gave a guest talk on “AI to Empower Media, Politics, and Democracy in the Global South?”.
From March 18 to 20, 2026, the 71st Annual Conference of the German Communication Association (DGPuK) took place at the Institute of Journalism at TU Dortmund University. The program also featured several contributions from the Online Communication Lab.
In February 2026, a team from the Online Communication Lab (OCL) followed the invitation of the Bridge Research Consortium and visited the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Find out more about our stay.
