Quirin Ryffel

Quirin Ryffel is a Researcher and PhD student at the Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ) and the University of Zurich. He is affiliated with Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and the Research Center Public and Society (fög). His work focuses on political information behavior, perceived viewpoint diversity, media diversity, and issue-specific polarization in climate change and immigration policy contexts. Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), his dissertation examines perceived exposure to diverse political perspectives in Spain, Germany, and the U.S. regarding climate change mitigation.

Education:

• PhD Candidate in Communication and Media Research (since 2023)
• MA in Political Communication and Governance (2022)
• BA in Communication Science and Political Science (2020)

Research Interests:

• Behavioral effects of political information exposure
• Perceived media diversity and freedom of expression
• Climate change communication and policy debates
• AI in journalism and news production

Key Contributions: Ryffel has published on AI’s role in journalism, mobile news consumption, and structural media diversity. His work bridges empirical communication research with policy-relevant insights on polarization and media governance.