Profile

Professional career

• since 10/2019
  Vice Dean Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy
• 04/2019 - 04/2021
  Executive Director Institute of Communication and Media Studies
• since 04/2016
  Chair for Communication Studies, Institute of Communication and Media Studies, Leipzig University
• 10/2009 - 03/2016
  Chair for Communication Studies, Institute of Political Science and Communication Studies, University of Greifswald
• 09/2008 - 09/2009
  Assistant Professor (Political Communication), Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich
• 04/2008 - 07/2008
  Substitute Professor, Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
• 03/2005 - 09/2005
  Visiting Professor, Institute for Media and Communication Studies, University of Vienna
• 10/2004 - 02/2005
  Visiting lecturer, Department of Communication Studies, University of Vienna
• 04/1998 - 08/2008
  Assistant / Senior Assistent (since 2001), Institute for Media and Communikation Studies, University of Zurich
• 04/1996 - 03/1998
  Research Assistant, Hans-Bredow-Institut. University of Hamburg
• 05/1995 - 03/1996
  Research Assistant, Institute for Journalism Studies, University of Hamburg

Education

• 10/1990 - 05/1995
  Diploma in Political Science and Journalism, University of Hamburg
• 09/2001
  Ph.D. in Communication Studies, University of Zurich
• 10/2007
  Habilitation in Communication Studies, University of Zurich

In my research, I work on the focus of the institute - change in communication, media and society - from a structural and process-related perspective. Issues in research are the structural conditions, institutional rules and social consequences of communication with varying degrees of publicity and by means of various media. The main research interests are political communication, media structures and their political design, as well as the communication of and in groups and organizations.

• Specialized Media and Publics in Political Communication

  Donges, Patrick

  Duration: 10/2015 – 10/2019

  Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Kommunikationswissenschaft
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• Establishment of the research field "development communication" in communication studies and journalism

  Hamidi, Kefa

  Duration: 12/2018 – 11/2021

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Kommunikationswissenschaft
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• Handbook series on corporate communications

  Zerfaß, Ansgar

  Duration: 06/2017 – 03/2022

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Strategische Kommunikation; Kommunikationswissenschaft; Kommunikationsmanagement
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more projects

• Donges, P.; Jarren, O.

  Politische Kommunikation in der Mediengesellschaft. Eine Einführung (5. Auflage)

  Wiesbaden: Springer VS. 2022.

  ISBN: 978-3-658-37079-4
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• Donges, P.; Hoffmann, C. P.; Pentzold, C.

  Modes of Recognition and the Persistence of Center-Periphery Constellations in the Digital Public Sphere

  International Journal of Communication. 2024.
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• Donges, P.

  Digitalisierung der politischen Kommunikation. Folgen der automatisiert algorithmischen Vermittlung auf die Sichtbarkeit und Zurechenbarkeit des Politischen

  Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. 2022. 74 (Suppl 1). pp. 209–230.

  DOI: 10.1007/s11577-022-00834-7
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• Donges, P.

  Fachjournalismus, -medien und -öffentlichkeiten: von der Selbstbeobachtung zur Selbstorganisation

  Communicatio Socialis. 2021. pp. 23–32.
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more publications

For a research-based career orientation, as the Institute for Communication and Media Science offers in teaching, the sentence attributed to Kurt Lewin is still relevant "nothing is as practical as a good theory". Good theories make things that appear familiar strange, create new perspectives and help to differentiate hives from lasting changes. Only those who know (institutionalized) rules of communication can successfully try to shape them.

Courses are offered on the topics

• Introduction to the theories of communication science with a focus on basic concepts, actors, structures and processes
• Theories of the public
• Communication and media structures in Germany and other countries
• Group and organizational communication
• Political communication
• Communication and media ethics

• Lecture Theories of Communication Studies

• Lecture The Media System in Germany

• Seminar Communication and Media Ethics

• Seminar Group and Organizational Communication

• Seminar Theories of the Public Sphere

• Seminar Political Organizations