Prof. Dr. Stefanie Walter
Professorin für Science and Crisis Communication
Science and Crisis Communication
Stefanie Walter is an Assistant Professor for Science and Crisis Communication at the Technical University of Munich’s School of Social Science and Technology since 2024. At TUM, she also leads the Emmy Noether Research Group “The Media Portrayal of Majority and Minority Groups”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), a position she has held since 2021.
Her research focuses on public understanding of science and technology, crisis and risk communication, climate change, and political communication. Methodologically, she specializes in computational social science, quantitative methods, automated text and image analysis, and mixed-method approaches.
Before joining TUM, she was as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bremen’s Centre for Media, Communication, and Information Research (2018–2020) and at the University of Hamburg’s Institute of Journalism and Communication (2015–2018). She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Mannheim, where she was also worked at the Mannheim Center for European Social Research. She studied Political Communication at Cardiff University and Social Sciences at the University of Düsseldorf.
Science and Crisis Communication
Scientific and crisis communication play a crucial role in shaping public understanding of pressing global challenges. This research focus explores how scientific information is disseminated and perceived, particularly in times of crisis such as climate change, pandemics, or political upheavals.
Media Portrayal of Minoritized Groups
Media representations shape societal narratives and influence social cohesion. This research examines how majority and minority groups are depicted in the media, how these portrayals evolve over time, and their implications for political communication and society more broadly. Using a combination of computational and qualitative methods, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of inclusion, exclusion, and media‘s role of in amplifying or mitigating biases.
Computational Approaches to Communication
The increasing digitization of communication requires new methodological approaches to study the political landscape. This research integrates computational social science, automated text and image analysis, and network analysis to examine scientific and political debates, public engagement, and media effects. By leveraging interdisciplinary approaches, it provides insights into how messages spread and influence democratic processes.
- The Media Coverage of Majority and Minority Groups (DFG)
- Climate Visions: The use of automated image analysis for understanding reactions and emotions of images about climate change on social media (BMBF & EU)
Monographs
Walter, S. (2017). EU Citizens in the European Public Sphere: An Analysis of EU News in 27 EU Member States. Wiesbaden: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-14486-9
Peer-reviewed journal articles
Bravo, I., Silva Luna, D., & Walter, S. (forthcoming). An Image is Worth A Thousand Words: Understanding the Virality of Climate Change Images on Social Media. Visual Communication.
Beazer, A., Walter, S., Eldridge, S. A., & Palicki, S. K. (online-first). On the Margins: Exploring Minority News Media Representations of Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Digital Journalism, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2023.2206039
Walter, S., & Glas, S. (2025). The Political Representation of Minoritized Groups in Times of Crisis: Covid-19 and Beyond. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 48(2), 229-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2024.2362318
Beazer, A., Palicki, S., Walter, S., & Eldridge, S. A. (2025). Intersectional Solidarity, Empathy, or Pity? Exploring Representations of Migrant Women in German and British Newspapers during the Pandemic. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 48(2), 318-345. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2024.2362456
Walter, S., Kinski, L., & Boda, Z. (2023). Who Talks to Whom? Using Social Network Models to Understand Debate Networks in the European Parliament. European Union Politics, 24(2), 410-423. https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165221137994
Walter, S., & Fazekas, Z. (2023). Similar Citizen Portrayals? Converging Media-based Othering in Tabloids and Broadsheets. Journalism, 24(11), 2514-2532. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849221116204
Palicki, S. K., Walter, S., van Atteveldt, W., Beazer, A., & Bravo, I. (2023). Selecting Relevant Documents for Multilingual Content Analysis: An Evaluation of Keyword and Semantic Similarity Search Approaches. Computational Communication Research, 5(2), 1-54. https://doi.org/10.5117/CCR2023.2.5.PALI
Walter, S., & Brüggemann, M. (2020). Opportunity Makes Opinion Leaders: Analyzing the Role of First-Hand Information in Opinion Leadership in Social Media Networks. Information, Communication & Society, 23(2), 267-287. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1500622
Walter, S., Görlach, J., & Brüggemann, M. (2020). Climate Feedback: Wissenschaft kommentiert Journalismus und entwickelt Mehrsystemkompetenz [Climate Feedback: Science Comments on Journalism and Develops Multi-System Competence]. Publizistik, 65, 567–589. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11616-020-00602-7
Brüggemann, M., Elgesem, D., Bienzeisler, N., Dedecek Gertz, H., & Walter, S. (2020). Mutual Group Polarization in the Blogosphere: Tracking the Hoax Discourse on Climate Change. International Journal of Communication, 14, 1025- 1048. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/download/11806/2975
Brüggemann, M., Lörcher, I., & Walter, S. (2020). Post-Normal Science Com- munication: Exploring the Blurring Boundaries of Science and Journalism. Journal of Science Communication, 19(03), A02. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.19030202
Walter, S. (2019). Better off Without You? How the British Media Portrayed EU Citizens in Brexit News. International Journal of Press/Politics, 24(2), 210-232. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161218821509
Walter, A., Lörcher, I., & Brüggemann, M. (2019). Scientific Networks on Twitter: Analyzing Scientists’ Interactions in the Climate Change Debate. Public Understanding of Science, 28(6), 696-712. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662519844131
Walter, S., Brüggemann, M., & Engesser, S. (2018). Echo Chambers of Denial: Explaining User Comments on Climate Change. Environmental Communication, 12(2), 204- 217. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2017.1394893
Walter, S., De Silva-Schmidt, F., & Brüggemann, M. (2017). How Twitter Turns Scientists into Journalists: Scientists’ Use of Twitter in the COP21 Climate Change Conference. International Journal of Communication, 11, 570–591. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/6016/2254
Walter, S. (2017). Three Models of the European Public Sphere: An Analysis of the Actor Structure of EU News in Light of Normative Public Sphere Theories. Journalism Studies, 18(6), 749-770. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2015.1087815
Walter, S. (2017). Explaining the Visibility of EU Citizens: A Multi-Level Analysis of EU News During the 2009 European Parliament Elections. European Political Science Review, 9(2), 233-253. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773915000363
Walter, S. (2016). A Network Perspective on European Union News: Explaining Relationships of Horizontal Reporting Across EU Member States. Mass Communication & Society, 19(6), 715-737. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2016.1167914
Book chapters
Crisan, D. & Walter, S.(forthcoming). Sentiment Analysis of User Comments on Climate Change Visuals. In: Bernauer, J. & Wohlmann, A. (Eds). Quantitative Text Analysis using R: Scraping, Preparing, Visualising and Modelling Data. London: Sage.
Lörcher, I, Brüggemann, M., & Walter, S. (2024). Redefining the Norms of Science and Journalism: An Analysis of Meta-discourses in Climate Change Blogs. In: Carvalho, A., & Peterson, T. (Eds). Handbook of Environmental Communication. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 191-213.
Partheymüller, Julia & Walter, Stefanie (2023). Voting for the Populist Radical-Right in Austria and Germany: A Comparative Analysis. In: Faas, T., Huber, S. Krewel, M., & Roßteutscher, S. (Eds.). Informationsflüsse, Wahlen und Demokratie [Information flows, elections and Democracy]. Baden-Baden: Nomus, 533-558.
Brüggemann, M., Neverla, I., Hoppe, I., & Walter, S. (2018). Klimawandel in den Medien. [Climate Change in the Media]. In: von Storch, H., Meinke, I., & Claußen, M. (Eds.). Hamburger Klimabericht: Wissen über Klima, Klimawandel und Auswirkungen in Hamburg und Norddeutschland [Hamburg Climate Report: Knowledge About Climate, Climate Change, and Effects in Hamburg and Northern Germany]. Wiesbaden: Springer,243-254.
Theocharis, Y., & Walter, S. (2017). Solidarity or Antagonism? An Analysis of German News Media Reporting on Anti-Austerity Protests in Greece. In: Papaioanou, T., & Gupta, S. (Eds.). Grievances, Identities and Agency: Media Representations of Antiausterity Protests in the EU. New York: Routledge, 95-116.
Schnaudt, C., Walter, S., & Popa, S. A. (2016). Sub-National and National Territorial Identification. In: Westle, B. & Segatti, P. (Eds.). European Identity in the Context of National Identity: Questions of Identity in 16 European Countries on the Wake of the Financial Crisis 2007 and 2009. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 63-92.
Krewel, M, Schmidt, S., & Walter, S. (2016). Wahlkampf im Mehrebenensystem: Ich und mein Land? Ein Vergleich der Plakatwerbung in den Bundestags- und Europawahlkämpfen von 2009 und 2013/14 [Me and my Country? A Comparison of Campaign Posters in the Federal and European Election Campaigns in 2009 and 2013/14]. In: Tenscher, J., & Rußmann, U. (Eds.). Vergleichende Wahlkampfforschung: Studien anlässlich der Bundestags- und Europawahlen 2013 und 2014 [Comparative Electoral Campaign Research: Studies on the Occasion of the Federals and European Elections in 2013 and 2014]. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 101-128.
Summer Term 2025
Winter term 2024/25
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- Emmy Noether Fellow (2021-2027)