Media Communication

Modern societies are hardly conceivable without the media. More and more tasks are carried out with technical information and communication media. Possible fields of activity can be identified in both socially and economically relevant areas, such as entertainment and information, education and advertising, product development and production, and robotics. Media communication is an interdisciplinary course. The different disciplines offer different perspectives on an exciting variety of subject areas.

Media psychology teaches students how people perceive and process media content and formats as well as what effects media can have. The focus is, for example, on the entertainment experience and emotional processes in Hollywood blockbusters, but also socio-emotional processes in dealing with games or robots. Effects and consequences of communication in Web 2.0 (social media, such as Facebook) or internal communication in organizations are also considered.

Media and business communication also tries to see these processes in a broader social and market economy context. The contents of the study are e.g. the effect of advertising or music, but also the German media system or the functioning of the advertising market.

The Chair of Communication Psychology and New Media deals with the psychology of online and mobile communication. The focus here is on the use and impact of digital media. Here, students learn, for example, the means by which social network sites (e.g. Instagram or Facebook) succeed in attracting users to themselves. Current topics such as fake news, conspiracy theories on the Internet or 'cell phone use and life satisfaction' are taught in a scientifically sound manner.

As a fourth discipline, media informatics teaches the technical background of digital media and teaches their digitization, storage and processing. One focus of media informatics is on intelligent virtual agents and on interaction with social robots. In addition to the basics of media informatics, students gain an insight into the conception and programming of new types of interactive media. How do I animate virtual agents? How do I interact in virtual worlds? How are social robots designed emotionally?

Overall, the course is characterized by a strong psychological and social science-oriented training, which is supplemented by the IT component of the media.