Anne Bartsch

Anne Bartsch serves as Professor of Empirical Communication and Media Research at the University of Leipzig's Institute of Communication and Media Studies since 2017. She currently acts as spokesperson for the German Research Foundation's Social Sciences Review Board (2024-present) and leads research on epistemic authority in digital environments.

Education:

• Habilitation in Media and Communication Studies (2011, Martin Luther University Halle)
• Doctorate in Media and Communication Studies (2004, Martin Luther University Halle)
• Master's in Media and Communication Studies, German Studies, and Gallo-Romance Studies (1999, Martin Luther University Halle)

Professor Bartsch's research centers on media entertainment and its multifaceted societal impacts. Her work examines political communication through entertainment media, knowledge transfer via entertainment formats, and emotional media effects. A significant portion of her recent scholarship investigates epistemic authority in digital public spheres - analyzing credibility assessment mechanisms in online environments. She also explores media's role in reducing stigma and discrimination, demonstrating how entertainment content can reshape social attitudes. Her methodological expertise in empirical research methods underpins all investigations, with particular focus on experimental and survey approaches to media effects.

Recent publications reveal a strong trend toward integrating epistemological frameworks with communication theory, examining how audiences verify knowledge from fictional entertainment sources. Her work consistently bridges entertainment effects with civic engagement, demonstrating how eudaimonic media experiences influence political information processing. The research shows increasing emphasis on digital communication environments and their unique credibility challenges.

Professor Bartsch has secured multiple Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grants, including projects on audiovisual narratives' impact on prosocial behavior (2018-2022), political communication at the entertainment-information interface (2017-2021), and developing scales for measuring prosocial thought content (2015-2016). She co-organizes the Center for Quantitative Empirical Social Research Leipzig (QuanteL), hosting methodological conferences on statistical approaches to language and social research.

Her laboratory work centers around the Empirical Communication and Media Research unit, which focuses on experimental investigations of media reception processes. She collaborates extensively through the QuanteL research center, fostering interdisciplinary approaches to media effects measurement. Current team efforts concentrate on developing frameworks for understanding knowledge verification practices in digital environments and examining how entertainment media can serve educational and social integration purposes.