general science

What is ‘item sampling’ and why is it useful? Or how can we can measure person characteristics with large item pools?

I guess every social scientist at one point has been confronted with a quite common dilemma: We know that we would need a quite large number of items to assess a certain latent concept comprehensively and validly, but we do not have enough space in our questionnaire to use the entire long scale or even inventory. More often than not, we then choose the “best” items (e.g., with the highest factor loadings). However, by reducing… Read More »What is ‘item sampling’ and why is it useful? Or how can we can measure person characteristics with large item pools?

What is statistical power? And how to conduct power analysis in R?

“The power of a statistical test is the probability that it will yield statistically significant results. Since statistical significance is so earnestly sought and devoutly wished for by behavioral scientists, one would think that the a priori probability of its accomplishment would be routinely determined and well understood. Quite surprisingly, this is not the case. Instead, if we take as evidence the research literature, we find evidence that statistical power is frequently not understood and,… Read More »What is statistical power? And how to conduct power analysis in R?

Launch of the Digital Media and Behavior Lab

I am excited to announce that I am the new managing director of the Digital Media and Behavior Lab, which was officially launched this Monday, the 12th February 2024! Embedded in the faculty of social sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the DM&B lab serves as an incubator for collaborative research aimed at shaping a positive future for our increasingly digital society. Shifting from an information-driven society to a digital one, it becomes evident that… Read More »Launch of the Digital Media and Behavior Lab

Book published: The Routledge Handbook of Privacy and Social Media

Over the last two decades, privacy has been a staple topic in communication science and other disciplines. Particularly since the advent of social media, privacy and self-disclosure processes have been central to many empirical investigations. By now, thousands of studies have been published, diverse theoretical accounts emerged, and heterogeneous – at times contradictory findings – paint a granular, but complex picture of the privacy research landscape. At this point in time, Sabine Trepte and I… Read More »Book published: The Routledge Handbook of Privacy and Social Media

How to make most of your PhD

From my personal point of view, becoming a researcher and succeeding in a PhD program can be one of the most rewarding experiences you will have in your life. You will have a lot of freedom in deciding who you want become, what you want to learn and what exactly you want to investigate. At the same time, it can be stressful, a lot of work, and – at times – be outright frustrating. Yet,… Read More »How to make most of your PhD

ICA Preconference on “Comparative Privacy and the Literacies of a Networked Age”

The comparative privacy research network is organizing a preconference before the annual conference of the International Communication Association on May, 25th (9:30 to 17:00). Drawing on previous and ongoing conversations and collaborations, this preconference aims to attend to privacy literacy’s critical comparative nature by bringing together scholars that examine the cultural, political, and otherwise contextualized aspects of privacy literacy. The ultimate goal is to enhance conversation in communication studies about the ways in which systematic comparative cross-cultural… Read More »ICA Preconference on “Comparative Privacy and the Literacies of a Networked Age”

Communication journals that adopted open science principles

With more and more communication scholars adopting open science principles (e.g., preregistration, sharing of data, material, and code), also more and more media and communication journals adopt open science features and take first steps in adopting the TOP guidelines. I just quickly would like to point your attention to a very useful resource in this regard. Moritz Büchi and Tobias Dienlin started a list with peer-reviewed journals that a) focus on media and communication generally or… Read More »Communication journals that adopted open science principles

New Publication: An Agenda for Open Science in Communication

In the last 10 years, many canonical findings in the social sciences appear unreliable. This so-called “replication crisis” has spurred calls for open science practices, which aim to increase the reproducibility, replicability, and generalizability of findings. Communication research is subject to many of the same challenges that have caused low replicability in other fields. As a result, I recently wrote a paper with more than 30 authors in which we propose an agenda for adopting… Read More »New Publication: An Agenda for Open Science in Communication

I started a post-doc position at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

I am excited to share with you that I started a post-doc position at the Department of Communication at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Moving back to Mainz is exciting and a bit nostalgic too since I started my academic career (as a young student, of course) at this very university and I have good memories of living and studying in this city. I will be working in the Dynamics of Society and Communication… Read More »I started a post-doc position at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

What I read, heard and watched in 2018

When a year comes to an end, many blogger seem to have this urge to do one of these “Best of 2018” posts. The blogosphere is full of lists, thoughts, personal accomplishments and idiosyncratic meditations and resolutions. It is almost too much. Yet, I have to admit that I quite like to scroll through at least some of them, thereby realizing someone’s personal taste and likes as well as finding common themes and topics in… Read More »What I read, heard and watched in 2018