Guest lecture by Professor Christian von Sikorski

Professor Christian von Sikorski from Freie Universität Berlin will visit the EXPOSING research project on audience engagement in scandal

Christian von Sikorski will give a talk on the topic “In the Eye of the Beholder? How Scandal Coverage and the Communication of Political Actors Shape Citizens' Responses to Political Norm Transgressions” and we hope that many of you will join his talk

Political scandals are a recurring feature of electoral politics, with (alleged) norm violations regularly surfacing in media coverage ahead of elections. Yet the consequences of such coverage remain far from uniform: while some scandals inflict lasting reputational damage on political actors, others prove ineffective, affect only segments of the electorate, or even mobilize a candidate's existing base of support. This talk addresses the question of why scandal coverage produces such divergent effects. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from political communication, political psychology, and media effects research it examines the conditions under which scandals matter and when they do not. In addition to media-side factors and individual differences, the talk pays particular attention to the strategic communication of implicated political actors themselves, including the deployment of victimhood claims, and how such responses shape citizen reactions to scandal. Empirical findings from recent research are discussed to illustrate these dynamics.

Bio

Dr. Christian von Sikorski is Professor of Communication with a focus on media effects and political communication research at the Department of Communication, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, where he directs the Media Effects Research Unit and the Berlin Media Effects Lab. His research focuses on digital media effects, media psychology, and political communication. In particular, his work examines political polarization processes, the political communication of actors such as social media influencers in digital media environments, the role of misinformation and disinformation in political communication processes, political scandal coverage, and the role of artificial intelligence (communicative AI) in (political) communication processes.  He is the Director of the master’s program in Media and Political Communication at Freie Universität Berlin and also serves as an Associate Editor of the journal Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.