Im März habe ich mit Kai Hafez, @reinemann.bsky.social und @mandytroeger.bsky.social über das Schweigen der deutschen Kommunikationswissenschaft zum Gaza-Krieg gesprochen. Das Global Media Journal hat nun eine Dokumentation dieses Gesprächs veröffentlicht: globalmediajournal.de/index.php/gm...

Peter Neumann: „Man muss es klar sagen: Der Vorwurf, Omri Boehm relativiere oder instrumentalisiere den Holocaust, ist absurd.“ www.zeit.de/kultur/2025-...

Shocked, but gratified to see that 90 law professors at Harvard signed this letter denouncing the lawlessness of Trump’s attacks on equal protection and freedom of speech and affirming commitment to the rule of law (especially after its dean did not join in the prior letter stating similar things)

“It really is quite chilling,” one of the scientists said. “They are controlling information, causing chaos, disrupting everyone, keeping us off-balance.” “Whatever people are reading in newspapers, it’s 10 times worse,” the scientist added. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/h...

“There are 13 million legal foreign residents (green card holders) in the US. If the administration can deport Khalil, it means those 13 million people must live in fear if they dare speak up or publish something that runs afoul of government views.” journalism.columbia.edu/news/cjs-fac...

The New York Times is the first to put out comprehensive estimates on the cost of a year without U.S.A.I.D. and they’re higher than I thought: - 1.65 million deaths from AIDS - 500,000 from lack of vaccines - 550,000 from lack of food aid - 290,000 from malaria - 310,000 from TB

Former President of my current University. I’ve never felt so much fear in University spaces in my 25 year career. As an 80s kid, it feels at least a little bit like how I imagined people might feel (and behave) in Soviet Russia.

„Der Abstieg Deutschlands hänge u.a. mit der Fördergeldaffäre im Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung zusammen […] Zudem sei »sehr kontrovers« über den Umgang »mit propalästinensischen Protesten an den Universitäten diskutiert worden« […] Das habe möglicherweise zu Verunsicherungen geführt.“

“American universities did not cause the onslaught that the second Trump administration is unleashing upon them,” Nicholas B. Dirks writes. But they'd “be in a much stronger position today if they had made a proactive case to the public for their own importance.”

"This attempt to restrict #AcademicFreedom and #FreedomofSpeech has now reached Finland. The University of Helsinki has already been issued demands to remove terms like ‘climate change’ and ‘egalitarian society’ from Fulbright scholarship announcements" www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...

“This is the greatest pressure put on intellectual life since the McCarthy era. And I think it’ll be seen in the future, as that time was seen, as a time when people either stood up for their values or ran in fear of the federal government.”

As President Trump seeks to purge the federal government of “woke” initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid. An analysis by The New York Times reveals how these words are being removed from government websites. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

BREAKING: The Trump administration announced it's immediately pulling about $400 million in federal grants and contracts from Columbia University.

Unimaginable a few weeks ago. But here we are. French university offering refuge to US scholars. “It targets, but is not limited to, climate and environment, health, and human and social sciences.” www.404media.co/french-unive...

Am Sonntag, 2. März, um 14 Uhr auf dem Münchner Marienplatz Spontandemo „Europa steht zusammen - Stärke zeigen für Frieden und Freiheit“. #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦

Ukraine is Europe! We stand by Ukraine. We will step up our support to Ukraine so that they can continue to fight back the agressor. Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.

Dear Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone.

Zelensky is a wartime leader watching his people suffer and die under Russian attacks every day. To be lectured and lied to by Trump and Vance, as they defend the war criminal dictator committing these atrocities, is unimaginable agony. An everlasting shame for America.

Trump berates Zelensky, the leader of a democratic country courageously fighting Russian imperialism, while he allies himself with Putin, a dictator who started the bloodiest European war in 80 years. Sorry, President Trump. We believe in democracy, not authoritarianism.

Trump and Vance are part of the tiny percentage of Americans who sympathize more with Russia (4%) than Ukraine (62%) and who view Putin more favorably (75% unfavorable) than Zelensky (28% unfavorable) today.yougov.com/politics/art...

The European Federation of Academies of Sciences has issued a statement in response to developments in 🇺🇸 "Censorship and political suppression of language, research topics, and methodologies— fundamentally compromise the integrity of scientific and scholarly endeavours" allea.org/wp-content/u...

Over 650 political scientists who have dedicated our lives to the study of democracy & government, have signed this letter enumerating our deep concerns about this administration’s actions that undermine the Constitution and the rule of law. Please share. urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=htt...

Shameless. The National Science Foundation fired nearly 170 workers in a Zoom call on Tuesday morning, @kimzetter.bsky.social reports. The terminated workers were told their employment would end at 5 pm EST today 👇 www.wired.com/story/nation... @wired.com

Quick remark on #Vance speech at #MSC2025 regarding #freespeech : Several studies put many #EU countries incl. #Germany ahead of the #USA regarding civil liberties, political rights and #pressfreedom. See, for example, the latest from @freedomhouse.bsky.social ... freedomhouse.org/explore-the-...

How dare he, indeed

Gutes Zeitfragen-Feature vom @deutschlandfunk.de.web.brid.gy: USA – Der Aufstieg des rechten Talkradios share.deutschlandradio.de/dlf-audiothe...

If you haven't read them yet, read them now and share widely

Auf Linkedin habe ich ein paar Gedanken zur Absage des Vortrags von Francesca Albanese durch die LMU notiert. www.linkedin.com/pulse/sind-d...

I have had a TON of people asking how they can help...here is what would help us the most right now: SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE! Tell us why you #standupforscience2025! Send flyers to your colleagues and labs! Change your bluesky banner! Tell your professional orgs and departments!

This is a super helpful explainer for folks outside of the academy, OR who are in the academy, but who (like me) didn’t fully grasp the role of “indirect costs” in sustaining research enterprises in higher ed more generally. The damage to land grant unis (yes in red states too) will be massive.

Showtime! Berlin court rules that X must comply with data access request. Now. In a timely manner. Ahead of the 🇩🇪 elections.

“Common sense” is often celebrated as a virtue, but research shows it can be steeped in bias and lead us astray. A political scientist explores how populist leaders use #commonsense as an ideological weapon: https://buff.ly/4aQE9Ei (@dannagal.bsky.social @udelaware.bsky.social) #polisky

Between 2019 and 2023, researchers paid $8.968 billion to make papers open access. Imagine what else could be done with this money if it wasnt paid to for profit publishing companies... 👉 arxiv.org/abs/2407.16551

Die Medien und Corona. Dazu ein (ziemlich ausführliches) Gespräch mit dem Journalisten Georg Mascolo, Kathrin Kühn von DLF-Wissenschaft und mir beim Deutschlandfunk... www.deutschlandfunk.de/fuenf-jahre-...

In ihrer Rede gestern lobte AfD-Chefin Alice Weidel explizit „NIUS“, abends gab sie dem extrem rechten Portal dann ein Interview, genau wie anderen rechtsextremen Portalen. Klassische TV-Sender bekamen entgegen Absprachen keine. Versteckt wird hier nichts mehr. #Riesa #rie1101

Instead of listing my publications, as the year draws to an end, I want to shine the spotlight on the commonplace assumption that productivity must always increase. Good research is disruptive and thinking time is central to high quality scholarship and necessary for disruptive research.

New paper out with Marcus Maurer, @meinungsfuehrer.bsky.social und Pablo Jost. How did 13 German mainstream and 2 alternative media cover the #COVID19 pandemic 2020-2021? tinyurl.com/ytvs2x46

Für Twitter habe ich keine Hoffnung, aber ich empfehle jedem Journalisten und Politiker, sich wissenschaftlich beraten zu lassen, falls Formulierung in den RKI Protokollen irritieren. Abwägungen mit Pro und Contra Argumenten im Nachhinein zu skandalisieren ist schlicht unlauter.

🥇Sophia Rothut mit Anna-Luisa Sacher, Rebecca Strohmeier & @reinemann.bsky.social zur Wahrnehmung von Meinungsfreiheit in Deutschland: doi.org/10.5771/2192...

Looking for recent (Jan/Feb) comparative or national polling in Europe on October 7 and Gaza war. Suggestions beyond yougov.co.uk/politics/art... and January Politbarometer (Germany) much appreciated.

Hört auch Ihr Kind "“Hoss und Hopf“? Eine Mutter entdeckt, warum ihr Sohn plötzlich AfD-Sprüche klopft. Ursache ist ein Podcast, der nach eigenen Angaben mehr als zwei Millionen Menschen im Monat erreicht www.stern.de/gesellschaft...

Am 11. Februar um 18.00 Uhr bilden wir ein Meer aus Licht gegen das Dunkel von Hass und Hetze, Rassismus und Antisemitismus! ‼️ Bitte nemmt aus Sicherheitsgründen kein Feuer mit #lichtermeerfürdemokratie #gemeinsamgegenrechts

Höhrenswert! www.deutschlandfunk.de/interview-mi...