Kasper Welbers

Kasper Welbers is an Associate Professor at the Department of Communication Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He holds additional appointments at the Network Institute and the Communication Choices, Content and Consequences (CCCC) research group. He is co-Director of The Societal Analytics Lab, Vice Chair of the Computational Methods Division at the International Communication Association (ICA), and a scientific representative of the OPINION COST Action network. His research focuses on computational communication science, journalism, and political communication, particularly exploring how news spreads and the role of gatekeepers in media systems. He develops open-source tools for research and advocates for reproducible computational methods.

Education and Academic Background: While formal education details are not explicitly provided, his academic trajectory is evident through his faculty role and publications.

Research Interests: Welbers combines methodological innovations with substantive research on news diffusion, media gatekeeping, and computational text analysis. His work addresses topics like dark platforms' agenda-setting roles, automated content analysis techniques, and the impact of platform policies on data donation studies. He emphasizes ethical research practices and open-source infrastructure development.

Grants and Awards: He received the Faculty of Social Sciences Dissertation Award (2017) and Teacher Talent Award (2019), highlighting both research and pedagogical excellence.

Labs and Collaborations: His work is anchored in The Societal Analytics Lab, fostering interdisciplinary research on societal challenges through computational methods. Collaborations span global networks like the OPINION COST Action, addressing cross-cultural media dynamics.

Teaching: He teaches courses such as Computational Analysis of Digital Communication and contributes to curriculum development in AI ethics and data science for societal issues.