Andreas Jungherr

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Andreas Jungherr
Born	1981 (age 42–43) Frankfurt am Main, Germany
🏳️ Nationality	German
🎓 Alma mater	University of Mainz (MA) University of Bamberg (Phd)
💼 Occupation

Andreas Jungherr (born 1981 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German political scientist and communication scientist. He is Professor of Political Science, with special focus on the Governance of Complex and Innovative Technological Systems at the University of Bamberg. Jungherr's work deals with the effects of digital media on politics and society. Topics he has published on include: new dynamics and power relations in discourses, digital transformation of the public sphere, political participation, political communication and election campaigns. Jungherr uses methods from computational social science, and discusses their potentials and limitations for the social sciences.

Biography

Andreas Jungherr was born in Frankfurt am Main, but grew up in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, where he graduated from the Kaiserin-Friedrich-Gymnasium in 2001. Between 2001 and 2009, Jungherr studied political science, American studies, and history at the University of Mainz. In 2014, Jungherr received his doctorate at the University of Bamberg with his thesis The Use of Twitter in the Analysis of Political Phenomena. This work received the dissertation prize of the Information Technology and Politics section of the American Political Science Association in 2015 and was published by Springer in 2015 under the title Analyzing Political Communication with Digital Trace Data.

From 2009 to 2014, Jungherr worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Political Science, with special focus on Political Sociology at the University of Bamberg. From 2014 to 2016 he worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Political Science, Political Psychology at the University of Mannheim. From 2016 to 2020, Jungherr was Assistant Professor for Social Science Data Collection and Analysis at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz. From 2018 to 2019, Jungherr was a visiting professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Zurich.

From 2020 to 2021, Jungherr worked as Professor of Communication Science with special focus on Digital Transformation and the Public Sphere at the University of Jena. Since 2021 he has been Professor of Political Science, with special focus on the Governance of Complex and Innovative Technological Systems at the University of Bamberg.

Works

Computational Social Science

Jungherr uses methods of computational social science and critically discusses their application in the social sciences. He and Yannis Theocharis define computational social science as

(...) an interdisciplinary scientific field in which contributions develop and test theories or provide systematic descriptions of human, organizational, and institutional behavior through the use of computational methods and practices. On the most basic level, this can mean the use of standardized computational methods on well-structured datasets (e.g., applying an off-the-shelf dictionary to calculate how often specific words are used in hundreds of political speeches), or at more advanced levels the development or extensive modification of specific software solutions dedicated to solving analytically intensive problems (e.g., from developing dedicated software solutions for the automated collection and preparation of large unstructured datasets to writing code for performing simulations).

— Yannis Theocharis, Andreas Jungherr, "Computational Social Science and the Study of Political Communication" (2021)

Jungherr has shown the research potential of computational social science for different areas of political science and communication studies. But his work also raises relevant questions in the use of digital trace data in the social sciences more general.

Digital trace data document human behavior on digital platforms. This provides social scientists objective information about this behavior, which can be used in the study of different social phenomena. At the same time, the respective data-generating process of the services through which trace data is collected leads to different phenomena or aspects becoming visible, while others remain invisible. When working with digital traces, according to Jungherr, it is therefore important that the interpretation of findings based on digital trace data takes into account their respective data-generating process.

Two examples are the study of public opinion and the prediction of elections with the help of Twitter data. According to Jungherr, Twitter's data-generating process results in the attention and interests of politically vocal Twitter users becoming visible on the platform. These interests can sometimes, but not always, coincide with the political attitudes of the population as a whole. Twitter data is therefore suitable for investigating the interests and shifts in attention of active Twitter users, but not as diagnostic or prognostic tools for general political opinion or election results. According to Jungherr, the valid use of digital trace data in social science thus depends on whether research goals are explicitly formulated in the context of the data-generating processes of the respective source of digital trace data and appear plausible.

Digital media in politics and society

Retooling Politics: How Digital Media are Shaping Democracy

In Retooling Politics: How Digital Media are Shaping Democracy (2020), Jungherr and his co-authors Gonzalo Rivero and Daniel Gayo-Avello discuss the impact of digital media on politics. They focus on several areas: structure of information spaces and information flow, opportunities for political actors to reach people, the effect of information exposure and communicative interventions, political coordination for activism or protest, political organizations, data in politics, and effects of digital media on democracy in general. According to the authors

(...) digital media do not necessarily lead to transformative change, fundamentally changing the nature of politics or its power dynamics. Instead, we witness gradual change in various aspects of politics, such as the practices of individuals and organizations, the structures of organizations, and the emergence of new actors.

— Andreas Jungherr, Gonzalo Rivero, Daniel Gayo-Avello, "Retooling Politics: How Digital Media are Shaping Democracy" (2020), p. 28.

The book has been well reviewed in scientific journals. In her review in the International Journal of Press/Politics, Regina Lawrence sums her reaction up:

Overall, Retooling Politics offers a simple and effective model for thinking systematically and cautiously about the effects of digital media on contemporary politics. It would be an excellent addition to advanced seminars in political communication. And it effectively primes the kinds of future research the authors want to see more of: That the fields of communication and political science combined "develop a sustained interest in communicative institutions, organizations, and practices" (p. 67) deeply grounded in decades of previous research from both fields and guided by a common sense and contingent model of the impacts of digital media.

— Regina Lawrence, "Book Review: Retooling Politics" (2022).

Digital Transformations of the Public Arena

In Digital Transformations of the Public Arena (2022), Andreas Jungherr and Ralph Schroeder discuss the structural changes in the public sphere triggered by digital media. They understand the public arena as the media infrastructures that enable and restrict the publication, dissemination, reception and challenge of information. These infrastructures mediate the relationship between citizens or civil society on the one hand and political elites or the state on the other. In the book, the authors show how digital media are changing media infrastructures in China, Germany and the USA and thus influencing the forms and dynamics of discourse and political competition.

Published works (Selection)

Monographs

• Andreas Jungherr and Ralph Schroeder. 2022. Digital Transformations of the Public Arena. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009064484.
• Andreas Jungherr, Gonzalo Rivero, and Daniel Gayo-Avello. 2020. Retooling Politics: How Digital Media are Shaping Democracy. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108297820.
• Andreas Jungherr. 2015. Analyzing Political Communication with Digital Trace Data: The Role of Twitter Messages in Social Science Research. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-20319-5.

Journal articles

• Andreas Jungherr and Damien Schlarb. 2022. The extended reach of game engine companies: How companies like Epic Games and Unity Technologies provide platforms for extended reality applications and the metaverse. Social Media + Society 8(2): 1-12. doi:10.1177/20563051221107641.
• Andreas Jungherr, Alexander Wuttke, Matthias Mader, and Harald Schoen. 2021. A source like any other? Field and survey experiment evidence on how interest groups shape public opinion. Journal of Communication 71(2): 276-304. doi:10.1093/joc/jqab005.
• Yannis Theocharis and Andreas Jungherr. 2021. Computational Social Science and the Study of Political Communication. Political Communication 38(1-2): 1-22. doi:10.1080/10584609.2020.1833121.
• Andreas Jungherr and Ralph Schroeder. 2021. Disinformation and the Structural Transformations of the Public Arena: Addressing the Actual Challenges to Democracy. Social Media + Society 7(1): 1-13. doi:10.1177/2056305121988928.
• Andreas Jungherr, Ralph Schroeder, and Sebastian Stier. 2019. Digital Media and the Surge of Political Outsiders: Explaining the Success of Political Challengers in the US, Germany and China. Social Media + Society 5(3): 1-12. doi:10.1177/2056305119875439.
• Andreas Jungherr, Oliver Posegga, and Jisun An. 2019. Discursive Power in Contemporary Media Systems: A Comparative Framework. The International Journal of Press/Politics 24(4): 404-425. doi:10.1177/1940161219841543.
• Andreas Jungherr, Harald Schoen, Oliver Posegga, and Pascal Jürgens. 2017. Digital Trace Data in the Study of Public Opinion: An Indicator of Attention Toward Politics Rather Than Political Support. Social Science Computer Review 35(3): 336-356. doi:10.1177/0894439316631043.
• Andreas Jungherr. 2016. Four Functions of Digital Tools in Election Campaigns: The German Case. The International Journal of Press/Politics 21(3): 358-377. doi:10.1177/1940161216642597.
• Andreas Jungherr. 2016. Twitter Use in Election Campaigns: A Systematic Literature Review. Journal of Information Technology & Politics 13(1): 72-91. doi:10.1080/19331681.2015.1132401.
• Andreas Jungherr, Harald Schoen, and Pascal Jürgens. 2016. The mediation of politics through Twitter: An analysis of messages posted during the campaign for the German federal election 2013. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 21(1): 50-68. doi:10.1111/jcc4.12143.
• Andreas Jungherr. 2014. The logic of political coverage on Twitter: Temporal dynamics and content. Journal of Communication 64(2): 239-259. doi:10.1111/jcom.12087.
• Andreas Jungherr and Pascal Jürgens. 2014. Through a glass, darkly: tactical support and symbolic association in Twitter messages commenting on Stuttgart 21. Social Science Computer Review 32(1): 74-89. doi:10.1177/0894439313500022.
• Andreas Jungherr, Pascal Jürgens, and Harald Schoen. 2012. Why the Pirate Party won the German election of 2009 or the trouble with predictions: a response to Tumasjan, A., Sprenger, T.O., Sander, P.G. & Welpe, I.M. 'Predicting elections with Twitter: what 140 characters reveal about political sentiment'. Social Science Computer Review 30(2): 229-234. doi:10.1177/0894439311404119.
• Andreas Jungherr and Pascal Jürgens. 2010. The political click: political participation through e-petitions in Germany. Policy & Internet 2(4) Article 6: 131-165. doi:10.2202/1944-2866.1084.

Weblinks

• Andreas Jungherr (University of Bamberg)
• Andreas Jungherr (Google Scholar Profile)

References

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