The BMBF-funded project “Copy and Paste in (Digital) Science Communication (CoPaDiSC)” has been launched!
The project “Copy and Paste in (Digital) Science Communication: Practices of Churnalism and Attributions of Responsibility (CoPaDiSC)”, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), has been launched at the Department of Media and Communication at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU). The research team – consisting of Prof. Dr. Lars Guenther, Dr. Charlotte Knorr and Janise Brück, M.A. – will jointly work on the project and will take an in-depth look at (digital) science journalism.
05.12.2023
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Science Communication and science journalism in particular are of crucial relevance in making scientific information accessible to a broad audience. However, science journalism faces major challenges in the digital age. One of these challenges is Churnalism, a journalistic practice where journalists rely on external material (e.g., contributions from public relations, news agencies, other media, or social media) and use it with little or no editorial input to generate news in a cost-effective and continuous manner. Previous research has rarely dealt with Churnalism in a systematic, empirical and comparative way. CoPaDiSc aims to fill this gap.
The CoPaDiSC project will investigate the following questions: (1) How prevalent is Churnalism in the field of science PR and journalism? (2) Which factors make the occurrence of Churnalism more likely? (3) How do actors from science, PR, and journalism evaluate and assess Churnalism? How do they explain its emergence, and what solutions do they see for dealing with Churnalism?
To examine these questions, the research design of the project consists of a total of eight work packages. It encompasses a variety of perspectives and combines basic research with transdisciplinary insights at the intersection of science communication research and practice. Using a mix method framework, both manual and automated content analyses, as well as interviews.
Hereby, CoPaDiSC brings together international university research partners and practice partners from (non-)university research institutions and private research, including the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel, ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal, and Stellenbosch University, South Africa. In addition to the research activities, the project will be complemented by measures of external science communication to make the results accessible to a broad audience.
The project will be funded for a period of three years and will end in October 2026. For further information and inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact the CoPaDiSC team. The primary contact person is Charlotte Knorr (Email: charlotte.knorr@ifkw.lmu.de).
About CoPaDiSc:
The project “Copy and Paste in (Digital) Science Communication: Practices of Churnalism and Attributions of Responsibility (CoPaDiSC)” is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The aim of the project is to examine the influence of Churnalism on science journalism and analyze attributions of responsibility in this field.
Contact:
Charlotte Knorr (PhD)
Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
Department of Media and Communication
Email: charlotte.knorr@ifkw.lmu.de
Phone: +49 89 2180-7340
Janise Brück (M.A.)
Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
Department of Media and Communication
Email: janise.brueck@ifkw.lmu.de
Phone: +49 89 2180-9416
Prof. Lars Guenther (PhD)
Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
Department of Media and Communication
Email: lars.guenther@ifkw.lmu.de
Phone: +49 89 2180-73411