The Institute of Media and Communication at TU Dresden has reason to celebrate – it was founded 30 years ago alongside the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science. Today, we are taking the opportunity to look back on its remarkable history. On July 6th, the institute will celebrate its anniversary with the slogan, “Communication Research at TU Dresden: Past | Presence | Future.“ The event will feature a scientific symposium followed by a summer festival.

The institute was established in 1993 with Wolfgang Donsbach as founding director. It quickly gained a reputation as an excellent research institute, shedding light on topics relevant to current affairs and sharing these with the wider public in discussions outside of the university.

Today, the institute consists of eleven researchers at three Chairs. Director of the institute Prof. Lutz Hagen holds the Chair of Media and Communication / Economic and Political Communication, and Prof. Sven Engesser focuses on Science and Technology Communication. Junior Professor Dr. Anna Kümpel investigates digital media and methods of researching them. As a result, the institute is active in a wide range of subject areas highly relevant to research and society – whether this is public broadcasting, news consumption in social media, human-machine communication, privacy in the age of digital networks, health communication or media literacy.

Some of the institutes's current interdisciplinary research projects include Dipcy, which researches the role of privacy in interaction with voice assistants in collaboration with other disciplines, and Mi-EOCRC, which is developing a campaign for colorectal cancer prevention with medical professionals. Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden, for which Lutz Hagen is the Speaker, conducts interdisciplinary research on artificial intelligence as a factor and consequence of societal change.

Connections with the wider local community have also always played an important role for the institute – not least through the institute's association, which organizes public events on current media issues and enjoys the support of numerous (media) companies and individuals based in the region.

The anniversary celebrations will kick off with a scientific symposium. At the event, institute members such as Prof. Gerd Vowe and Prof. Olaf Jandura will look back on the institute’s past, And the audience will be given fascinating insights into today’s most pressing questions on big data (Prof. Christian Pentzold, Uni Leipzig), mobile news consumption (Mareike Wieland, Gesis), and modern science communication (Dr. Andreas Scheu, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities). The symposium will conclude with an open panel discussion on the future of communication sciences.

Over 100 guests are expected to attend the anniversary event, including experts in the field, representatives of the university and, of course, students. Moreover, Prof. Christian Prunitsch, Chairperson of the School, and Prof. Heike Greschke, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science, will pay tribute to the institute in a welcome address. There are only a few spaces still available for the event. To register, please send an email to the institute at .

Contact

Prof. Lutz M. Hagen
Tel.: +49 351 463-33412
Email: