Jan-Hinrik Schmidt

PD Dr. Jan-Hinrik Schmidt is a Senior Researcher for Digital Interactive Media and Political Communication at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) in Hamburg, where he has worked since November 2007. Since 2019, he has headed the Hamburg section of the Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC), focusing on the role of media in social cohesion. He habilitated at Universität Hamburg in June 2020 with a thesis on 'Practices and Social Order of the Social Web.'

His educational background includes sociology studies at Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg and West Virginia University Morgantown, USA. His doctoral work focused on the institutionalization of local online offerings (2004), followed by postdoctoral research on online networking practices.

Dr. Schmidt's research primarily examines social media's impact on information circulation, opinion formation, and science communication. His work explores how digital platforms transform public discourse, with particular interest in social cohesion, public service media, and the societal implications of algorithmic curation. Recent projects include the Social Media Observatory database and research on public perceptions of ZDF's educational function.

His scholarly output shows a clear trajectory from early work on Web 2.0 developments toward contemporary research on AI in social media, fake news, and the contribution of public service media to social cohesion. The publications reveal an interdisciplinary approach combining communication sociology, political science, and media studies to understand digital transformation's societal impacts.

At HBI, he contributes to multiple research initiatives including the Social Media Observatory, which provides systematic observation of the media-based public sphere, and projects examining public service media's integration-related functions. His work often involves collaborative research with colleagues like Uwe Hasebrink and Dieter Storll.