Professor Martin Löffelholz, Director of the International Crisis Communication Research Group and Head of the Department of Media Studies at Ilmenau University of Technology, has been presented with the Bridge Award for Excellence in Networking Research and Practice at this year's International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference held from March 11 to 13 at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, USA. The award was presented by the President of the International Crisis and Risk Communication Association, Timothy Sellnow, in recognition of Löffelholz's many years of commitment to international crisis communication research and his relevance to crisis communication by authorities and journalists.
TU Ilmenau/Andreas Schwarz
Members of the DECIPHER consortium at the International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference in Orlando (from left to right: Andreas Schwarz, Martin Löffelholz, Yi Xu, Deanna Sellnow, Audra Diers-Lawson, Bengt Johansson, Timothy Sellnow)
The Ilmenau Institute for Media and Communication Studies (IfMK) gave a total of six presentations at the conference, which brings together prominent practitioners and researchers in the field of crisis communication every year. Dr. Andreas Schwarz, Co-Director of the International Crisis Communication Research Group and Coordinator of the Department of Public Relations and Technical Communication at Ilmenau University of Technology, spoke with a team of international co-authors about the challenges, experiences and strategies of acquiring third-party funding for risk and crisis communication research. He also reported on new findings on German media coverage of autonomous driving in local public transport. The study is part of the project “KREATÖR - Radio and vehicle technologies for automated passenger transport in public spaces” at the Thuringian Innovation Center for Mobility (ThIMo), which is funded by the Thuringian Ministry of Economics, Science and Digital Society (TMWWDG) and accompanied by the TU Ilmenau with communication science analyses of risk perception and acceptance of the technology in the population and in the media.
Martin Löffelholz, Andreas Schwarz and Dr. Yi Xu, research associate in the Department of Media Studies, also gave four further presentations on findings on risk communication by authorities and (social) media during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show, among other things, how local authorities dealt with coordination challenges with the federal and state governments, what strategies different countries used on Instagram and how the news media in seven countries assessed the actions of authorities and science. The findings emerged from the ongoing research projects on optimizing risk and crisis communication by governments, authorities and health security organizations DECIPHER, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and MIRKKOMM, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which are largely carried out at the Ilmenau University of Technology and the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR).
These activities are the result of many years of research, extensive funding of currently around five million euros and the TU Ilmenau's international institutional commitment to the subject, such as the founding of the Risk and Crisis Communication specialist groups in the ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association by Andreas Schwarz. This makes the TU Ilmenau the most important player in risk and crisis communication research in Germany.
About the person:
Prof. Martin Löffelholz is Head of the Department of Media Studies at Ilmenau University of Technology, where he heads the International Crisis Communication Research Group, which he founded in 2002. In his more than 400 scientific publications, including 21 books, he deals primarily with war and crisis communication, political communication, journalism, organizational communication as well as intercultural and international aspects.
Background information/lectures at the ICRCC:
The Future of Risk and Crisis Communication Research: Global Experts’ Insights on Best and Worst Practices for Securing External Funding
Brooke Fisher Liu – University of Maryland (USA), Yan Jin – University of Georgia (USA), Wenqing Zhao – University of Georgia (USA), Andreas Schwarz – Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany), Olivia Truman – University of Maryland (USA), & Matthew Seeger – Wayne State University (USA)
Municipal Risk and Crisis Communication in Germany: Results of a Representative Multi-Method Study
Martin Löffelholz – Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany), Kathrin Schleicher – Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany), & Johanna Radechovsky – Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany)
Multimodal Crisis Messaging in Times of Pandemic: Comparing Instagram Posts Published by Governments and Public Health Institutions in Germany, Türkiye, the UK, and the USA
Yi Xu - Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany) & Martin Löffelholz - Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany)
Government Communication in Protracted Crises: A Comparative Long-Term Analysis of Press Releases from Six European Countries and the USA on Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020-2022)
Martin Löffelholz - Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany), Yi Xu - Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany), & Pauline Gidget Estella - Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany)
The Mediated Instructional Effectiveness and Institutional Trust during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of the Crisis News Coverage in Europe and the US from a Risk Communication Perspective
Andreas Schwarz - Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany), Francis Alpers - Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany), & Audra Diers-Lawson – Kristiania University College (Norway)
The Mediated Risks of Autonomous Driving and Public Transportation: A Media Framing Analysis of Science and Technology in Germany
Andreas Schwarz - Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany) & Tatjana Faj - Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany)
Kontakt:
Prof. Martin Löffelholz
Direktor Internationale Forschungsgruppe Krisenkommunikation
und Fachgebietsleiter Medienwissenschaft
+49 3677 69-4652
martin.loeffelholz@tu-ilmenau.de
