Background and activities
Photo: Christof Mattes, © JGU Mainz
Research Interests
Political communication; Media Sociology; Comparative Research; Media Performance; Online Communication; Media Systems and Media Structures; Media Policy
Currculum Vitae
Melanie Magin (M.A., Dr. phil.) is an Associate Professor in Media Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Political Science at NTNU in Trondheim. At NTNU, Melanie belongs to the research groups on "Elections, Values and Political Communication (EVPOC)" and "Digitalization and Social Life". She is cooperation partner in the international project “Media Performance and Democracy” (funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)) and member of the Scientific Network “Values and norms as research objects and guiding principles in communication research. An integrative research approach” (funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)).
Before joining NTNU in 2017, she was a research associate (2005-2006; 2011-2012) and an assistant professor (2012-2017) at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) as well as a research associate (2006-2011) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Melanie earned her PhD from the JGU in 2011 with a thesis on an empirical long-term comparison of campaign coverage in Germany and Austria (1949-2006). She finished her studies in communication science, sociology and book science at the JGU in 2005 with a master thesis on the portrayal of families in daily soap operas on German television. Since 2016, she is Vice Chair of the Political Communication Section of ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association). From 2011 to 2015, she was early-career scholars’ representative at the German Communication Association (DGPuK).
Her research focuses on the societal role and importance of traditional and new mass media. In particular, she investigates how structural circumstances (e.g., in media systems and political systems) influence communication (e.g., in media coverage or on social media) as well as how media and communication influence the society as a whole. This includes research on algorithm-based information intermediaries like Google and Facebook, their societal impact and the chances and risks associated with them.
For further information, please visit my personal website.
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Magin, M. & Geiß, S. (accepted). Beyond Time and Space: The Impact of Autonomy from Politics and Commercialization Pressure on Mediatization in German and Austrian Newspapers - a Multilevel Approach. Political Communication.
Jürgens, P., Stark, B. & Magin, M. (2019). Two Half-Truths Make a Whole? On Bias in Self-reports and Tracking Data. Social Science Computer Review. Published online ahead of print. DOI:10.1177/0894439319831643
Steiner, M., Magin, M. & Stark, B. (2019). Uneasy Bedfellows. Comparing the diversity of German public service news on television and on Facebook. Digital Journalism 7(1), 100-123. DOI:10.1080/21670811.2017.1412800
Geiß, S., Magin, M., Stark, B. & Jürgens, P. (2018). “Common meeting ground” in Gefahr? Selektionslogiken politischer Informationsquellen und ihr Einfluss auf die Fragmentierung individueller Themenhorizonte. [Endangered Common Meeting Ground? Selection Logics of Political Information Sources and their Influence on the Fragmentation of Individual Issue Horizons.] Medien und Kommunikationswissenschaft 66(4), 502-525. DOI:10.5771/1615-634X-2018-4-502
Magin, M. (2017). Attention, please! Structural Influences on Tabloidization of Campaign Coverage in German and Austrian Elite Newspapers (1949-2009). Journalism. Published online ahead of print. DOI:10.1177/1464884917707843
Magin, M., Podschuweit, N., Haßler, J. & Rußmann, U. (2017). Campaigning in the Fourth Age of Political Communication. A Multi-Method Study on the Use of Facebook by German and Austrian Parties in the 2013 National Election Campaigns. Information, Communication & Society 29(11), 1698-1719. DOI:10.1080/1369118X.2016.1254269
Zillich, A., Riesmeyer, C., Magin, M., Müller, K., Pfaff-Rüdiger, S., Rothenberger, L. & Sehl, A. (2016). Werte und Normen als Sollensvorstellungen in der Kommunikationswissenschaft – ein Operationalisierungsvorschlag. [Values and norms as ought-statements in communication studies. A proposal for operationalization.] Publizistik 61(4), 393-411. DOI:10.1007/s11616-016-0286-4
Magin, M. (2015). Shades of Mediatization. Components of Media Logic in German and Austrian Elite Newspapers (1949-2009). The International Journal of Press/Politics 20(4), 415-437. DOI:
Magin, M. & Stark, B. (2015). Explaining National Differences of Tabloidisation between Germany and Austria: Structure, Conduct and Performance. Journalism Studies 16(4), 577-595. DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2014.921398
Magin, M., Steiner, M., Heinbach, D., Bosold, S., Pieper, A., Felka, E.-M. & Stark, B. (2015). Suchmaschinen auf dem Prüfstand – eine vergleichende Inhaltsanalyse der Qualität von Trefferlisten. [Search engines at the ‘test rig’ – a comparative content analysis of the quality of search engine result pages.] Medien und Kommunikationswissenschaft 63(4), 495-516. DOI:10.5771/1615-634X-2015-4-495
Engesser, S. & Magin, M. (2014). Die Arbeitszufriedenheit des kommunikations- und medienwissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses. [Job satisfaction of young scholars in Communication and Media Studies.] Publizistik 59(3), 307-334. DOI:10.1007/s11616-014-0210-8
Magin, M. & Stark, B. (2010). Mediale Geschlechterstereotype. Eine ländervergleichende Untersuchung von Tageszeitungen. [Gender stereotypes in the mass media. An international comparison of newspapers.] Publizistik 55(4), 383-404. DOI:10.1007/s11616-010-0097-y
Books and Edited Volumes
Stark, B., Magin, M. & Jürgens, P. (2017). Ganz meine Meinung? Informationsintermediäre und Meinungsbildung – eine Mehrmethodenstudie am Beispiel von Facebook. [I second that!? Information intermediaries and opinion formation – a mixed-methods study taking the example of Facebook.] Düsseldorf: LfM.
Magin, M. (2012). Wahlkampf in Deutschland und Österreich. Ein Langzeitvergleich der Presseberichterstattung (1949-2006). [Election campaigns in Germany and Austria. A long-term comparison of press coverage (1949-2006).] Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau.
Stark, B., Magin, M., Jandura, O., & Maurer, M. (eds.) (2012). Methodische Herausforderungen komparativer Forschungsansätze. [Methodological challenges of comparative research.] Cologne: Halem.
Stark, B., & Magin, M. (eds.) (2009). Die österreichische Medienlandschaft im Umbruch. [The changing Austrian media landscape.] Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press.
Magin, M. (2006). Familien in Daily Soaps. Eine Inhaltsanalyse von 'Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten' und 'Marienhof' [Families in daily soaps. A content analysis of 'Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten' and 'Marienhof']. Munich: R. Fischer.
Entries in Encyclopedias and Handbooks
Magin, M. (forthcoming). Wahlkampfberichterstattung. [Election campaign coverage.] In M. Prinzing & R. Blum (eds.), Handbuch politischer Journalismus [Handbook political journalism]. Köln: Halem.
Magin, M. (2019). Elite versus popular press. In T. P. Vos, F. Hanusch, D. Dimitrakopoulou, M. Geertsema-Sligh & A. Sehl (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies. Chichester: Wiley. DOI:10.1002/9781118841570.iejs0226
Magin, M. & Maurer, P. (2019). Beat Reporting. In H. Ornebring & H. Wasserman (eds.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.905
Magin, M. & Oggolder, C. (2016). Quellen historischer Forschung [Sources of research on communication history]. In S. Averbeck-Lietz & M. Meyen (eds.), Handbuch nicht standardisierte Methoden in der Kommunikationswissenschaft [Handbook of non-standardized methods in communication studies] (pp. 319-334). Wiesbaden: VS.
Stark, B. & Magin, M. (2013). Komparative Forschungsansätze: Theoretische Grundlagen und methodische Verfahrensweisen [Comparative research: theoretical background and methodological approaches]. In W. Möhring & D. Schlütz (eds.), Handbuch standardisierte Erhebungsverfahren in der Kommunikationswissenschaft [Handbook of standardized methods in communication studies] (pp. 145-164). Wiesbaden: VS.