معرفی
Professor Silke Adam serves as the Director of the Institute of Communication and Media Studies (IKMB) at the University of Bern, Switzerland. The institute operates within the Department of Social Sciences and focuses on political communication in digital environments. Professor Adam leads research examining how digitization transforms political communication, the influence of algorithms and artificial intelligence, and comparative analyses of communication in democratic and authoritarian contexts.
Her primary research interests include political communication in digital environments, conspiracy theories, online information behavior, and right-wing populism. Professor Adam has pioneered research on how conspiracy theories spread during crises, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work combines web tracking, survey research, and experimental methods to understand media effects on belief formation. She has made significant contributions to understanding how mainstream media can effectively debunk conspiracy theories without inadvertently reinforcing them.
Professor Adam's research portfolio demonstrates a strong focus on methodological innovation in digital communication research, particularly in web tracking and computational content analysis. Her recent publications reveal increasing attention to algorithmic influences on information exposure, the spread of misinformation, and the relationship between political attitudes and selective information consumption. She has developed sophisticated approaches to studying online behavior through combined tracking, survey, and automated text classification methods.
- ICA Top Faculty-Award of the Mass Communication Division for 'Tracing Knowledge Gaps: Investigating the Influence of Education on News Exposure and Knowledge using Digital Trace Data'
Professor Adam actively bridges academic research and practical journalism through workshops connecting media professionals with communication scholars. She has secured funding from the Multidisciplinary Center for Infectious Diseases for pandemic-related communication research. Her work emphasizes the importance of empirical evidence in guiding journalistic practices, particularly regarding how to address conspiracy theories without amplifying them. She supervises research projects examining political communication in digital environments and has mentored numerous researchers in the field.
The Institute of Communication and Media Studies under Professor Adam's leadership maintains strong connections with the Multidisciplinary Center for Infectious Diseases and collaborates with media professionals through regular workshops. Her research team employs innovative methodologies including web tracking, algorithmic content analysis, and experimental designs to investigate contemporary challenges in political communication. The institute actively contributes to academic discourse through publications, conferences, and direct engagement with media practitioners to improve evidence-based journalism.
