Dr. Matthias Revers

Dr. Matthias Revers vertritt die Professur für Kommunikationswissenschaft, insbes. Klima- und Wissenschaftskommunikation zwischen April 2023 und Oktober 2024 Vollzeit und seither Teilzeit. Er ist Associate Professor of Political Communication an der University of Leeds und außerdem Faculty Fellow am Center for Cultural Sociology der Yale University.

Seine derzeitigen Forschungsinteressen liegen im Bereich der politischen Polarisierung in/durch Kommunikation, einschließlich der moralischen Grenzen freier Rede (insbesondere an der Hochschule), den Bedingungen der Depolarisierung von Gesprächen und der Beziehung zwischen dem öffentlichen (performative polarization) und zwischenmenschlichen (micropolarization) Drama politischen Antagonismus. Seine Arbeiten umfassen auch Studien zur vergleichenden Medien- und Journalismusforschung (USA-Deutschland) und dem digitalen Wandel im Journalismus. Methodisch arbeitet Revers ethnographisch, mit qualitativen Interviews, Umfragen, Diskursanalyse und computergestützten Verfahren (insbesondere Topic Modeling).

I. Monographien / Monographs

• Revers, Matthias. 2017. Contemporary Journalism in the US and Germany: Agents of Accountability. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Aberer, Matthias,  Korom, Philipp, Postl, Eva, Reischl, Daniela, Revers, Matthias, and Barbara Schantl. 2006. Wo bleibt heute die Zeitung? Arbeits- und Lebensbedingungen von ZeitungsausträgerInnen. Innsbruck: Studienverlag.

II. Aufsätze in Zeitschriften /Journal Articles

• Revers, Matthias, and Coleman, Stephen. 2025. Micropolarization: performances of antagonism and struggles for recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic. Americal Journal of Cultural Sociology.
• Revers, Matthias. 2023. Performative polarization: The interactional and cultural drivers of political antagonism. Cultural Sociology.
• Villa, Paula-Irene, Traunmüller, Richard, and Revers, Matthias. 2021. Lässt sich ‘Cancel Culture’ empirisch belegen? Impulse für eine pluralistische Fachdebatte.  Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte.
• Traunmüller, Richard, and Revers, Matthias. 2021. Meinungsfreiheit an der Universität: Unschärfen und Strohmänner (Antwort auf Lars Meier). KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. 73(1), pp. 137–146.
• Revers, Matthias, and Traunmüller, Richard. 2020. Is Free Speech in Danger on University Campus? Some Preliminary Evidence from a Most Likely Case. KZfSS Koelner Zeitschrift fuer Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. 72(3), pp. 471-497.
• Anderson, CW, and Revers, Matthias. 2018. From Counter-Power to Counter-Pepe: The Vagaries of Participatory Epistemology in a Digital Age. Media and Communication. 6(4), pp. 24-35.
• Revers, Matthias, and Brienza, Casey. 2018. How Not to Establish a Subfield: Media Sociology in the United States. The American Sociologist. 49(3), pp. 352-368.
• Revers, Matthias. 2016. The Role of Events in ICT Adoption: Same-Sex Marriage and Twitter. Information, Communication & Society 20(10), pp. 1554-1570.
• Brienza, Casey, and Revers, Matthias. 2016. The Field of American Media Sociology: Origins, Resurrection, and Consolidation. Sociology Compass, 10(7), pp. 539–552.
• Revers, Matthias. 2015. The Augmented Newsbeat: Spatiality in a Twitterized News Ecosystem. Media, Culture & Society 37(1), 3-18.
• Revers, Matthias. 2014. The Twitterization of News Making: Transparency and Journalistic Professionalism. Journal of Communication 64(5), pp. 806-826.
• Revers, Matthias. 2014. Journalistic professionalism as performance and boundary work: Source relations at the state house. Journalism 15(1), pp. 37-52.
• Revers, Matthias. 2009. Sociologists in the Press. The American Sociologist40(4), pp. 272-288.

III. Beiträge in Sammelbänden / Chapters

• Revers, Matthias. 2019. Die Neue Kultursoziologie. In: Fleck, Christian, and Daye, Christian (eds.) Meilensteine der Soziologie. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, pp. 611-619.
• Revers, Matthias. 2019. Habitus. In: Fleck, Christian, and Daye, Christian (eds.) Meilensteine der Soziologie. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, pp. 574-584.
• Revers, Matthias. 2019. Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit. In: Fleck, Christian, and Daye, Christian (eds.) Meilensteine der Soziologie. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, pp. 477-482.
• *Belair-Gagnon, Valerie and Revers, Matthias. 2018. Sociology of Journalism. In Vos, Tim P. (ed.) Journalism. Berlin, Boston: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 257-280.
• Revers, Matthias. 2016. Digital Media and the Diversification of Professionalism: A US-German Comparison of Journalism Cultures. In Alexander, Jeffrey C., Elizabeth Breese, María Luengo (eds.) The Crisis of Journalism Reconsidered: Democratic Culture, Professional Codes, Digital Future. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Revers, Matthias. 2015. Cultural Sociology, history of. International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Edition, Vol 5. Oxford: Elsevier. pp. 498–503.

IV. Buchrezensionen / Book reviews

• Revers, Matthias. 2017. Book review: The Media Syndrome, by David L. Altheide. Contemporary Sociology, 46(6), 650-651.
• Revers, Matthias. 2016. Book review: Silvio Waisbord (ed) Media sociology: A reappraisal. Journalism 17(5), 671-673.
• Revers, Matthias. 2009. Book review: Telling About Society by Howard S. Becker. Acta Sociologica 52(2), 188-189.

 V. Andere Veröffentlichungen / Other Publications

• Gerber, Alison and Matthias Revers. 2012. The Library of Affecting Social Science. Contexts, 11(1), 76-77
• Revers, Matthias. 2011. Media Systems and Media Cultures: News Coverage of Deportation in the US and Austria. Research Report (67p.), Spectro GmbH, Vienna, Austria.

VI. Vorträge / Talks and Presentations

Eingeladen / Invited talks

• Ist die Meinungsfreiheit an der Universität in Gefahr? (with Richard Traunmüller), IHF Bayerisches Staatsinstitut für Hochschulforschung und Hochschulplanung, March 9, 2021.
• Ist die Meinungsfreiheit an der Universität in Gefahr? (with Richard Traunmüller), Union Stiftung, March 9, 2021.
• Who Can Say What, About Whom, and How? The Informal Regulation and Politics of Speech. Religion & Theology Research Seminar, University of Manchester, November 22, 2018.
• Flucht, Öffentliches Räsonnement und Engagement: Der Fall Zogaj und danach. Symposion: (Mediale) Repräsentation von Migration / Flucht / Asyl, University of Graz, April 29, 2016.
• The Twitterization of News Making: Transparency and Journalistic Professionalism. Workshop in Cultural Sociology, Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University, April 5, 2013.

Konferenzvorträge / Conference presentsations

• Performative polarization: The interactional, medial, and cultural drivers of political antagonism. Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Los Angeles, 5. – 9. August, 2022
• What Are We Allowed To Say? A Survey Experiment on the Regulation of Free Speech. (with Richard Traunmüller) Annual conference of the European Political Science Association, Vienna, June 21-23, 2018.
• The Populist Journalism Challenge: A Comparative Analysis of Right-Wing Media Sites in the USA, Germany, and Austria.” (with Lea Hellmüller) ICA preconference on “Global Perspectives on Populism and the Media” in Budapest, 22 May, 2018.
• The Polarization is Mediatized. DGS/DGPuK conference on Medien- und Kommunikationssoziologie, Friedrichshafen, 11-13 October, 2017.
• The Role of Events in ICT Adoption: Same-Sex Marriage and Twitter. Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Seattle, August 20-23, 2016.
• How not to Establish a Specialty: Media sociology in the US. (with Casey Brienza) Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Seattle, August 20-23, 2016.
• Participatory Journalism and Transformative Events: Covering the Same-Sex Marriage Debate on Twitter. Communication Across the Life Span, Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 21-25, 2015.
• Digital Media and the Diversification of Professionalism: A US­-German Comparison of Journalism Cultures. Communication Across the Life Span, Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 21-25, 2015.
• Journalistic professionalism and social media: A US-German comparison. Changing Media – Changing Democracy? Exploring the Democratic Potential of Social Media, 20th Anniversary Conference of the Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies, Austrian Academy of Science, Vienna, Austria, November 7, 2014.
• Political Embeddedness: Boundary Processes in US and German News Reporting. Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, August 16-19, 2014.
• The Augmented Newsbeat: Spatial and Temporal Dynamics in a Twitterized News Ecosystem.
• Communication and “the Good Life,” Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, Seattle, WA, May 22-26, 2014.
  The Objects of Journalism, International Communications Association Pre-Conference (sponsored by the Journalism Studies division and Communication History division), London, June 17, 2013.
  The Twitterization of News Making: Transparency and Journalistic Professionalism.
• Communication and “the Good Life,” Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, Seattle, WA, May 22-26, 2014.
  Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York, August 10-13, 2013.
  Journalistic Autonomy as Cultural Practice: Boundary Work and Performance in Political News Production.
• Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York, August 10-13, 2013.
  Annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Publizistik und Kommunikationswissenschaften, Mainz, Germany, May 9-10, 2013.
  Communication and Community, Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, Phoenix, AZ, May 24-28, 2012.
  Media Sociology Forum III, Columbia University, School of Journalism, New York, March 2, 2012.
  Socio-techno-discursive Formations and Mediated Deliberation: What Twitter does to Political Journalism. Cultures and Civilizations in the Contemporary World, Midterm Meeting, Research Committee Sociological Theory (RC16), International Sociological Association, Trento, Italy, June 28-29, 2012.
• Polanski und das Verhältnis transnationaler und nationaler Öffentlichkeiten. (with Brian McKernan, Sebastian Moser, and Ian Sheinheit) Neuer Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit, Gemeinsamer Kongress für Soziologie der DGS, ÖGS, SGS, Innsbruck, Austria, October 1, 2011.
• In the Lions’ Den: Boundary Processes in Political Reporting. Spring Conference of the Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University, April 29, 2011.
• Morally Polluted or Purified Auteur: A comparative analysis of international media coverage regarding the Roman Polanski extradition case. (with Brian McKernan, Sebastian Moser, Ian Sheinheit). Eastern Sociological Society Annual Conference, February 25, 2011.
• Deportation and Cultural Conflict: Comparing Media Dramas about Civic Belonging. Konstanzer Meisterklasse “Clash of Cultures?” Universität Konstanz, Germany, July 19–27, 2010.
• Media Systems and Media Cultures: News Coverage of Deportation in the US and Austria. World Congress of Sociology, International Sociological Association, Gothenburg, Sweden, July 11-17, 2010.
• Embedded in Political Communication. What the Concept of Embeddedness in Economic Relations Explains About News. Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, August 7-10, 2009.
• Mediensysteme im transatlantischen Vergleich: Ein kultursoziologischer Ansatz. Kolloquium des Nachwuchsnetzwerks Politische Kommunikation, University of Mannheim, Germany, June 19, 2009.
• Towards a Cultural Understanding of Media Systems. Spring Conference of the Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University, May 8, 2009.
• Public Sociologists in News Media: Enhancing the Image of the Discipline? Annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Baltimore, March 2-5, 2009.
• Sociologists in the Press. Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Boston, July 31-August 3, 2008.