Successful acquisition of third-party funding for a project on the topic of ‘polarisation’The Volkswagen Foundation is supporting a multi-year, international project

24 January 2025

Increasing political polarization poses major challenges, even for stable democracies. Media coverage is often seen as a contributing factor to increased polarization. However, research on these relationships remains scarce and there is a lack of evidence-based recommendations for journalism to avoid fuelling polarization.

In the year-long pilot project "Political Polarization and Journalistic Practices: Adding Fuel to the Fire?" and the three-year main project "Media and Polarization in Europe: How Journalism can Support Democratic Debates", funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, we are investigating how European newsrooms report on polarization and what impact the coverage may have on readers.

Further Information on the project can be found via this link.