Katharina Esau
Biographic Data
| ID | 316740 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Katharina Esau |
| GIVEN NAMES | Katharina |
| FAMILY NAME | Esau |
| SIGNATURE | ESAU K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Queensland University of Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7450-6010 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 19 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Social Media in Elections: Evidence From the United States, Germany, and Australia
The year 2024 was marked by an unprecedented confluence of elections around the world, with more than 50% of the world’s population called upon to vote on the future of their governments; perhaps most important of these was the presidential election in the United States in November 2024, which saw Donald Trump returned to the Presidency – an outcome whose immense consequences are already being felt strongly around the world, mere months into the …
Ruptures in Climate Discourse: Digital Publics, Polarisation, and Environmental Conflict in Australia and Brazil
Australia and Brazil are on the frontlines of climate crises. Both have experienced significant warming, including intense heatwaves. Both have experienced changes in rainfall patterns, with increases in some regions and decreases in others, affecting biodiversity, agriculture, and infrastructure. Floods and largely destructive bushfires have been major events both countries dealt with in the last decade. The frequency and intensity of such extre…
Transformations in the public sphere: An introduction
Transformative Tools, Emerging Challenges: Empirical and Practical Experiences With Large Language Models for Text Classification and Annotation in Communication Studies
Advancements in Large Language Models have been showing important research opportunities within the field of communication studies. It offers the capacity to conduct large-scale content classification and annotation with low computational expertise and reduced manual coding efforts, potentially allowing more possibilities for researchers in social sciences to explore understudied topics (Bail, 2023; Chang et al., 2024). Because of its functioning…
Analysing News Polarisation: From Production to Engagement and Beyond
Political polarisation – at the level of individual issues or broader ideologies, and expressed through differences of opinion on policies, divergent affective attachments, contrary interpretations of available information, or distinct patterns of interaction with other partisans – is necessarily always closely related to the information that individuals and groups engage with as they form and reinforce their own opinions about a given issue or t…
Amplifying the News: An Analysis of the Factors Driving Republication and Facebook Engagement with News
Division, not reconciliation: Mapping news media polarisation during Australia's indigenous voice to parliament referendum
Concerns about rising social and political polarisation are widespread, with blame often attributed to partisan or biased news coverage despite limited empirical evidence. Previous studies have focussed on audiences, either their political leanings or polarised responses to news, offering limited insight into patterns of viewpoint diversity within news content. This study introduces an approach to measuring news media polarisation beyond the left…
Polarised media framing of climate movements: A comparative mixed-methods analysis of Australia and Germany
This study investigates the media framing of climate movements in Australia and Germany. Media frames are powerful tools for shaping public perceptions of social issues. While previous research has focused on activists' framing strategies, this study analyses how climate movements themselves are portrayed by news media outlets. Using a mixed-methods approach - combining qualitative and computational content analysis - it pioneers a dual-language …
The Quality of Connections: Deliberative Reciprocity and Inclusive Listening as Antidote to Destructive Polarization Online
Conflict and disagreement are integral to healthy democracies, but the extreme polarization observed on many social media platforms poses a serious risk to the core functions of public communication. This theoretical article draws on the concept of connective democracy, further theorizing it to bridge the gap between empirical online deliberation and polarization research. It introduces and refines the concept of destructive polarization and its …
Revisiting Key Concepts in Digital Media Research: Influence, Populism, Partisanship, Polarisation
Recent scholarship on the intersections between digital media and political debate has taken on a decidedly pessimistic, even dystopian tone, and not without reason: from the effective use of social media platforms by populists and demagogues like Donald Trump to the expression of deepening ideological divides in online public debate, and from the emergence of partisan online communities and platforms to the intensification and exploitation of su…
For Deliberation Sake, Show Some Constructive Emotion! How Different Types of Emotions Affect the Deliberative Quality of Interactive User Comments
Deliberation is classically understood as a communication process where equal participants justify their positions in a respectful, reciprocal, argumentative manner. However, critical scholars have argued for a concept of deliberation that incorporates other forms of communication beyond argumentation, for example, expressions of emotions. While previous research focused on differences between positive and negative emotions, we introduce a distin…
BRAT Rapid Annotation Tool
Im Kontext interdisziplinärer Zusammenarbeit insbesondere mit Kolleg*innen aus der Informatik wird die Kommunikations- und Medienforschung seit geraumer Zeit mit einer großen Bandbreite an Forschungssoftware konfrontiert, mit der sie bislang nur wenig Erfahrungen hat. Neben Programmiersprachen wie Python oder R sind dies etwa spezifische Tools zur Textanalyse, die eine Alternative zu bisherigen Varianten der computergestützten Inhaltsanalyse dars…
What Creates Listening Online? Exploring Reciprocity in Online Political Discussions with Relational Content Analysis
Democratic governments frequently use online tools to include large numbers of citizens in participation processes. Against the backdrop of deliberative theories, such initiatives are subject to normative needs. This article examines the equality of participation. Previous research has mainly focused on equality in terms of access to, and voice within, deliberation processes. However, much less is known about the factors that influence the distri…
Different Arenas, Different Deliberative Quality? Using a Systemic Framework to Evaluate Online Deliberation on Immigration Policy in Germany
One major strand of contemporary research on political participation addresses online deliberation. Over time, online deliberation has become increasingly pluralistic. Our study applies a framework derived from systemic deliberative theory to evaluate different online deliberation processes on German immigration policy. A crucial premise of the systemic deliberative theory is that the quality of deliberation varies systematically between differen…
Capturing Citizens’ Values: On the Role of Narratives and Emotions in Digital Participation
This paper argues that social and political problems currently addressed by local governments through new forms of digital participation can be considered wicked problems, because they cannot be tackled through factual information alone. Addressing such problems means connecting diverse citizens’ values to empirically based and logically based arguments. The paper addresses the question of which role citizens’ personal narratives and emotions pla…
Framing the Ukraine crisis: A comparison between talk show debates in Russian and German television
This article examines the framing of the Ukraine crisis in German and Russian television political talk shows. Informed by peace journalism and constructive journalism, it investigates how Russian and German shows frame the Ukraine crisis and to what extent constructive and destructive frames are used. Qualitative content analysis of 20 shows (10 Russian and 10 German) enables examination of frame content and their constructive or destructive cha…
Framing the Ukraine crisis: A comparison between talk show debates in Russian and German television
This article examines the framing of the Ukraine crisis in German and Russian television political talk shows. Informed by peace journalism and constructive journalism, it investigates how Russian and German shows frame the Ukraine crisis and to what extent constructive and destructive frames are used. Qualitative content analysis of 20 shows (10 Russian and 10 German) enables examination of frame content and their constructive or destructive cha…
Polarised media framing of climate movements: A comparative mixed-methods analysis of Australia and Germany
This study investigates the media framing of climate movements in Australia and Germany. Media frames are powerful tools for shaping public perceptions of social issues. While previous research has focused on activists' framing strategies, this study analyses how climate movements themselves are portrayed by news media outlets. Using a mixed-methods approach - combining qualitative and computational content analysis - it pioneers a dual-language …
The Quality of Connections: Deliberative Reciprocity and Inclusive Listening as Antidote to Destructive Polarization Online
Conflict and disagreement are integral to healthy democracies, but the extreme polarization observed on many social media platforms poses a serious risk to the core functions of public communication. This theoretical article draws on the concept of connective democracy, further theorizing it to bridge the gap between empirical online deliberation and polarization research. It introduces and refines the concept of destructive polarization and its …
Capturing Citizens’ Values: On the Role of Narratives and Emotions in Digital Participation
This paper argues that social and political problems currently addressed by local governments through new forms of digital participation can be considered wicked problems, because they cannot be tackled through factual information alone. Addressing such problems means connecting diverse citizens’ values to empirically based and logically based arguments. The paper addresses the question of which role citizens’ personal narratives and emotions pla…
Framing the Ukraine crisis: A comparison between talk show debates in Russian and German television
This article examines the framing of the Ukraine crisis in German and Russian television political talk shows. Informed by peace journalism and constructive journalism, it investigates how Russian and German shows frame the Ukraine crisis and to what extent constructive and destructive frames are used. Qualitative content analysis of 20 shows (10 Russian and 10 German) enables examination of frame content and their constructive or destructive cha…
Different Arenas, Different Deliberative Quality? Using a Systemic Framework to Evaluate Online Deliberation on Immigration Policy in Germany
One major strand of contemporary research on political participation addresses online deliberation. Over time, online deliberation has become increasingly pluralistic. Our study applies a framework derived from systemic deliberative theory to evaluate different online deliberation processes on German immigration policy. A crucial premise of the systemic deliberative theory is that the quality of deliberation varies systematically between differen…
BRAT Rapid Annotation Tool
Im Kontext interdisziplinärer Zusammenarbeit insbesondere mit Kolleg*innen aus der Informatik wird die Kommunikations- und Medienforschung seit geraumer Zeit mit einer großen Bandbreite an Forschungssoftware konfrontiert, mit der sie bislang nur wenig Erfahrungen hat. Neben Programmiersprachen wie Python oder R sind dies etwa spezifische Tools zur Textanalyse, die eine Alternative zu bisherigen Varianten der computergestützten Inhaltsanalyse dars…
What Creates Listening Online? Exploring Reciprocity in Online Political Discussions with Relational Content Analysis
Democratic governments frequently use online tools to include large numbers of citizens in participation processes. Against the backdrop of deliberative theories, such initiatives are subject to normative needs. This article examines the equality of participation. Previous research has mainly focused on equality in terms of access to, and voice within, deliberation processes. However, much less is known about the factors that influence the distri…
Revisiting Key Concepts in Digital Media Research: Influence, Populism, Partisanship, Polarisation
Recent scholarship on the intersections between digital media and political debate has taken on a decidedly pessimistic, even dystopian tone, and not without reason: from the effective use of social media platforms by populists and demagogues like Donald Trump to the expression of deepening ideological divides in online public debate, and from the emergence of partisan online communities and platforms to the intensification and exploitation of su…
For Deliberation Sake, Show Some Constructive Emotion! How Different Types of Emotions Affect the Deliberative Quality of Interactive User Comments
Deliberation is classically understood as a communication process where equal participants justify their positions in a respectful, reciprocal, argumentative manner. However, critical scholars have argued for a concept of deliberation that incorporates other forms of communication beyond argumentation, for example, expressions of emotions. While previous research focused on differences between positive and negative emotions, we introduce a distin…
Transformative Tools, Emerging Challenges: Empirical and Practical Experiences With Large Language Models for Text Classification and Annotation in Communication Studies
Advancements in Large Language Models have been showing important research opportunities within the field of communication studies. It offers the capacity to conduct large-scale content classification and annotation with low computational expertise and reduced manual coding efforts, potentially allowing more possibilities for researchers in social sciences to explore understudied topics (Bail, 2023; Chang et al., 2024). Because of its functioning…
Analysing News Polarisation: From Production to Engagement and Beyond
Political polarisation – at the level of individual issues or broader ideologies, and expressed through differences of opinion on policies, divergent affective attachments, contrary interpretations of available information, or distinct patterns of interaction with other partisans – is necessarily always closely related to the information that individuals and groups engage with as they form and reinforce their own opinions about a given issue or t…
Amplifying the News: An Analysis of the Factors Driving Republication and Facebook Engagement with News
Division, not reconciliation: Mapping news media polarisation during Australia's indigenous voice to parliament referendum
Concerns about rising social and political polarisation are widespread, with blame often attributed to partisan or biased news coverage despite limited empirical evidence. Previous studies have focussed on audiences, either their political leanings or polarised responses to news, offering limited insight into patterns of viewpoint diversity within news content. This study introduces an approach to measuring news media polarisation beyond the left…
Polarised media framing of climate movements: A comparative mixed-methods analysis of Australia and Germany
This study investigates the media framing of climate movements in Australia and Germany. Media frames are powerful tools for shaping public perceptions of social issues. While previous research has focused on activists' framing strategies, this study analyses how climate movements themselves are portrayed by news media outlets. Using a mixed-methods approach - combining qualitative and computational content analysis - it pioneers a dual-language …
The Quality of Connections: Deliberative Reciprocity and Inclusive Listening as Antidote to Destructive Polarization Online
Conflict and disagreement are integral to healthy democracies, but the extreme polarization observed on many social media platforms poses a serious risk to the core functions of public communication. This theoretical article draws on the concept of connective democracy, further theorizing it to bridge the gap between empirical online deliberation and polarization research. It introduces and refines the concept of destructive polarization and its …
Social Media in Elections: Evidence From the United States, Germany, and Australia
The year 2024 was marked by an unprecedented confluence of elections around the world, with more than 50% of the world’s population called upon to vote on the future of their governments; perhaps most important of these was the presidential election in the United States in November 2024, which saw Donald Trump returned to the Presidency – an outcome whose immense consequences are already being felt strongly around the world, mere months into the …
Ruptures in Climate Discourse: Digital Publics, Polarisation, and Environmental Conflict in Australia and Brazil
Australia and Brazil are on the frontlines of climate crises. Both have experienced significant warming, including intense heatwaves. Both have experienced changes in rainfall patterns, with increases in some regions and decreases in others, affecting biodiversity, agriculture, and infrastructure. Floods and largely destructive bushfires have been major events both countries dealt with in the last decade. The frequency and intensity of such extre…
Transformations in the public sphere: An introduction
Social Media and Politics (11 works) · Political science (10 works) · Politics (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Media Studies and Communication (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Law (4 works) · Communication (3 works) · Content analysis (3 works)