Vita 

PD Dr. habil. Christian Schwarzenegger is currently serving as a temporary professor in Communication and Media Studies with a focus on Media Society at the Center for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) at the University of Bremen. During his time as interim professor, Christian Schwarzenegger is on leave from his position as Akademischer Oberrat at the Department of Media, Knowledge and Communication at the University of Augsburg. He currently leads the DFG-funded research project "Alternative Media - Alternative Publics - Alternative Realities? Users and usage patterns of system-critical alternative media and their significance in the media repertoire over time" (2021-2024). In 2015, he received his doctorate with a thesis on the mediatization of everyday life using the example of transnational communication in mediated spaces from Augsburg University. The dissertation was published in book form as "Transnational Lebenswelten. Europa als Kommunikationsraum" (2017) by Herbert von Halem Verlag. In 2022, Christian Schwarzenegger was granted the Venia Legendi for the field of Communication Studies at the University of Augsburg for his cumulative habilitation thesis on the interaction of media change and digital transformation with changing individual communication repertoires and societal participation.

Prior to his time in Bremen and Augsburg, Christian Schwarzenegger also worked as a research assistant at RWTH Aachen at the Institute for Language and Communication Science (2010-2012), and as a fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and lecturer at the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna (2008-2009), where he also studied. He also completed teaching and research stays at Södertörn University Stockholm (2018), Lisbon (2016), and St. Gallen (2021), and served as a guest professor for Communication Theories and Public Spheres at the University of Salzburg (2020-2021).

Christian Schwarzenegger is currently Chair for the DGPuK Communication History Division and Chair of the ECREA Communication History Section. Previously, he was also Chair of the Young Scholars Network at ECREA. Christian Schwarzenegger was a member of the DFG-funded network "Communication Studies Memory Research" and currently co-leads a CAIS working group on the sustainable study of the emergence of digital cultures together with Erik Koenen. He is also an associate editor of the journal "Memory, Mind and Media."

Research Interests

• Change in Media, Culture and Society

• Public sphere research, particularly digital and alternative publics

• Digital inequality and digital literacy: forms of participation, usage and appropriation, as well as inclusion and exclusion mechanisms in digital society

• Theory and history of (digital) media/history of digitalization

• (Qualitative) methods of communication and media research in digital contexts.

Memberships

• International Communication Association (ICA)

• International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR)

• European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)

• German Communication Association (DGPuK)

Publications

Journal Articles (Selection)

Schwarzenegger, C. & Wagner, A. (2023). Commemorative populism in the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategic (ab)use of memory in anti-corona protest communication on Telegram. International Journal of Communication 

Wassmer, M. & Schwarzenegger C. (2022). Neither friend, nor device – the role of personal epistemologies in communication with smart speakers. Publizistik. doi:10.1007/s11616-022-00761-9

Schwarzenegger, C. (2022). Understanding the users of alternative news media—Media epistemologies, news consumption, and media practices. Digital Journalism, advance online publication. doi:10.1080/21670811.2021.2000454

Schwarzenegger, C., & Lohmeier, C. (2021). Creating opportunities for temporary disconnection: How tourism professionals provide alternatives to being permanently online. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 27(6), 1631–1647. doi:10.1177/13548565211033385

Schwarzenegger, C. (2021). Communities of darkness? Users and uses of anti-system alternative media between audience and community. Media and Communication, 9(1), 99–109. doi:10.17645/mac.v9i1.3418

Schwarzenegger, C. (2020). Personal epistemologies of the media: Selective criticality, pragmatic trust, and competence–confidence in navigating media repertoires in the digital age. New Media & Society, 22(2), 361–377. doi:10.1177/1461444819856919

Schwarzenegger, C. & Wagner, A. J. M. (2018). Can it be hate, if it is fun? Discursive ensembles of hatred and laughter in extreme right satire on Facebook. SCM Studies in Communication and Media, 7(4), 473–498. doi:10.5771/2192-4007-2018-4-473

Edited Volumes (Selection):

Schwarzenegger, C., Koenen, E., Pentzold, C., Birkner, T. & Katzenbach, C. (Hrsg.) (2022). Digitale Kommunikation und Kommunikationsgeschichte. Perspektiven, Potentiale, Problemfelder. Berlin:Digital Communication Research.

Ribeiro, N. & Schwarzenegger, C. (Hrsg.) (2021). Media and the Dissemination of Fear. Pandemics, Wars and Political Intimidation. IAMCR Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research Series. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Balbi, G., Ribeiro, N., Schafer, V. & Schwarzenegger, C. (Hrsg.) (2021). Digital Roots. Historicizing Media and Communication Concepts of the Digital Age. Studies in digital history and hermeneutics series. Berlin: DeGruyter.