PhD students (associated)
PhD students also have the possibility to become associated members. If you are interested in participating for instance in workshops and colloquia, please feel free to contact us. The following students are or were associated with the PdD programme (a click on the names shows details of the particular person):
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Markus BrenneisComputer Science
HHU
Development of a voting advice application based on argumentation behaviour using artificial intelligence
personal websiteMarkus Brenneis studied computer science at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf between 2013 and 2018. In his master’s thesis titled “Analysis of Online Participation Projects: Automated Tagging of Text Content”, he developed machine learning algorithms for automatic categorization of texts on online participation platforms. Markus Brenneis is PhD student at the chair for Computer Networks and Communication Systems of the Institute of Computer Science and is supervised by Prof. Martin Mauve. He plans to develop a voting advice application which helps voters to find the parties that stand close to their preferences based the argumentation behaviour of parties and voters. For this purpose, machine learning methods are used and comprehensible results are a main goal.
Publications (selection):
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Dennis FrießCommunication Studies
HHU
E-Participation in an expectant area of conflict
The dissertation project examines expectations and meanings hold by citizens, politicians and administrative staff towards e-participation at the community level. In the context of e-participation the expectations and meanings of citizens, politicians and administrators towards this democratic innovation are of major importance, because those actors find themselves in a new situation of political communication. Therefore, the affected stakeholders have to cultivate shared expectations and meanings in order to make e-participation work and avoid frustrations. Starting from a social constructivist understanding of the technology and against the background of selected theories of democracy, the study aims to analyze and compare actor specific expectations and meanings towards e-participation. Methodically, the study aims to combine both, qualitative and quantitative research methods. Within focus group discussions actor specific expectations and meanings should be firstly examined. Subsequently, an online survey should provide empirical ground for a systematic comparison of the different stakeholders’ meanings with regard to e-participation.project poster (in German, presented at workshop on 17. June 2016)
personal websiteDennis Frieß holds a Bachelor degree in Political Sciences, Social Sciences and Communications from the University of Erfurt where he studied from 2006 to 2010. From 2010 to 2011 he completed a research internship in Dubai with a strong focus on social media monitoring and content analysis. In 2011 he started his Master in Political Communication at the University of Dusseldorf. He graduated in 2014 with a master’s thesis on the “Empirical analysis of online deliberation processes”. Since 2013 he is a research assistant at Institute of Social Sciences at the Heinrich-Heine University of Dusseldorf. His research interests lie in the field of political (online) communication and e-participation. As an associate member of the ‘Fortschrittskolleg’ he is interested online deliberation and democracy-related expectations that are associated with e-participation. Dennis Frieß is a PhD student at the Department of Communication and Media Studies. His thesis is supervised by Prof. Dr. Christiane Eilders.
Publications (selection):
(2012) Funktion erfüllt? Onlinegestützte Bürgerhaushalte aus Sicht der Bürger., p. 138, pdf
(2013) Demokratisierung durch Partizipation? Empirische Ergebnisse und neue Fragestellungen zivilgesellschaftlicher Beteiligung jenseits des Staates, Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 23(4), p. 605-626, url, doi:10.5771/1430-6387-2013-4-605
(2013) E-Partizipation. Chancen und Risiken, Kommune21 - Bürgerbeteiligung 11(2013)
(2015) Online Deliberation Complete. Towards a new framework to analyze and explain deliberation online, 65th Annual ICA Conference
(2015) Denn wer hat, dem wird gegeben. Eine Analyse zur demokratischen Funktionalität von onlinegestützten Bürgerhaushalten, Die Politik auf dem Siegertreppchen. Beiträge des 10. Düsseldorfer Forum Politische Kommunikation, Beate Pohlers, Franca Schreiber, Ibrahim Ghubbar (ed.), p. 55-74, Düsseldorf: Frank & Timme
(2015) A Systematic Review of Online Deliberation Research, Policy & Internet 7(3), p. 319-339, url, doi:10.1002/poi3.95 pdf
(2016) Design Matters! An empirical analysis of online deliberation on different news platforms, The Internet, Policy & Politics Conference
(2016) Towards a Democratic Citizens´ Perspective. What participants take away from eParticipation, ECREA, Section for Communication & Democracy
(2016) Online-Kommunikation im Lichte deliberativer Theorie. Ein forschungsleitendes Modell zur Analyse von Online-Diskussionen., Politische Online-Kommunikation. Voraussetzungen und Folgen des strukturellen Wandels der politischen Kommunikation, Philipp Henn, Dennis Frieß (ed.), p. 143-169, Berlin: Digital Communication Research 3, url, doi:10.17174/dcr.v3.7
(2016) Politische Online-Kommunikation. Voraussetzungen und Folgen des strukturellen Wandels der politischen Kommunikation, Philipp Henn, Dennis Frieß (ed.), Berlin: Digital Communication Research, url
(2016) Deliberation: zwischen normativer Theorie und empirischen Zugängen. Ein forschungsleitendes Modell, Verantwortung – Gerechtigkeit – Öffentlichkeit. Normative Perspektiven auf Kommunikation, Petra Werner, Lars Rinsdorf, Thomas Pleil, Klaus-Dieter Altmeppen (ed.), Konstanz: UVK pdf
(2017) Recent Perspectives on Online Deliberation, 67th Annual ICA Conference
(2017) Deliberation follows Design. Eine Analyse der Einflüsse von Plattformdesign auf die Qualität von Nutzerkommentaren, 62. Jahrestagung der DGPuK
(2017) Design Matters! An Empirical Analysis of Online Deliberation on Different News Platforms, Policy & Internet 9(3), p. 321-342, url, doi:10.1002/poi3.154 pdf
(2017) Emotionen, Narrationen und Humor im deliberativen Diskurs – Inhaltsanalyse von Nutzerkommentaren auf unterschiedlichen Online-Plattformen, Gemeinsame Jahrestagung des Arbeitskreises "Politik und Kommunikation" der DVPW, der Fachgruppe "Kommunikation und Politik" der DGPuK und der Fachgruppe "Politische Kommunikation" SGKM pdf
(2017) How Emotions, Humor and Narratives Interact with Traditional Characteristics of Deliberation Online, 67th Annual ICA Conference
(2017) Design Matters! An Empirical Analysis of Online Deliberation on Different News Platforms, 67th Annual ICA Conference pdf
(2017) Online Deliberation in Academia: Evaluating the Quality and Legitimacy of Cooperatively Developed University Regulations, Policy & Internet 9(1), p. 133-164, url, doi:10.1002/poi3.119 pdf
(2018) What do participants take away from local eParticipation?: Analyzing the success of local eParticipation initiatives from a democratic citizens' perspective, Analyse und Kritik 40(1), p. 1-29, doi:10.1515/auk-2018-0001
(2018) Vernetzung. Stabilität und Wandel gesellschaftlicher Kommunikation, Köln: von Halem
(2018) Deliberation follows Design. Eine Analyse der Einflüsse des Plattformdesigns auf die Qualität von Nutzerkommentaren zu Nachrichtenartikeln, Vernetzung. Stabilität und Wandel gesellschaftlicher Kommunikation, Christiane Eilders, Olaf Jandura, Halina Bause, Dennis Frieß (ed.), p. 87-106, Köln: von Halem
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Christian MeterComputer Science
HHU
Techniques of Dialog-based Online Argumentation in Arbitrary Contexts on the Internet
Central research question: How can the techniques of dialog-based online argumentation be used in arbitrary contexts on the Internet? The Computer Networks group at Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf implemented the prototype D-BAS, which enables dialog-based online argumentation as a standalone-solution. Now, we are going to analyze how these argumentation techniques of D-BAS can be embedded into arbitrary contexts on the Web. Possible use cases are comment sections in online news media articles, which are used to support reader feedback and are quite suitable to provide simple feedback, but they do a rather poor job at fostering meaningful discussions among the readers. This thesis will focus on these problems and provide solutions and software to solve these issues.
personal websiteChristian Meter studied Computer Science at Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf between 2010 and 2015. In his master’s thesis he analyzed electronic voting systems, which are used in political elections. He pointed out the problems of these systems and additionally provided a peer-to-peer approach of a voting system based on the Blockchain. Within the graduate school “Online Participation” he aims at working out how dialog-based online argumentation can be used in arbitrary contexts on the Internet. Christian Meter is a member of the Technology of Social Networks Lab and is supervised by Jun.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kalman Graffi.
Publications (selection):
(2017) Tor is not enough: Coercion in Remote Electronic Voting Systems, arXiv.org, Cornell University Library Cryptograp pdf
(2017) Survey on Remote Electronic Voting, arXiv.org, Cornell University Library Computers
(2017) Reusable Statements in Dialog-Based Argumentation Systems, CEUR Workshop Proceedings AI*IA Series, p. 0
(2017) Dialog-Based Online Argumentation: Findings from a Field Experiment, Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Advances in Argumentation in Artificial Intelligence, p. 85-99, CEUR-WS pdf
(2017) discuss: Embedding Dialog-Based Discussions into Websites, HCI International 2017, Social Computing for Social Change, pdf pdf
(2018) D-BAS – A Dialog-Based Online Argumentation System, 7th International Conference on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA), Sanjay Modgil, Katarzyna Budzynska, John Lawrence (ed.), p. 325-336, Warsaw: IOS Press, doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-906-5-325 pdf
(2018) Dialogbasierte Online-Diskussionen, Deutsche Verwaltungspraxis
(2018) Jebediah – Arguing With a Social Bot, 7th International Conference on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA), Sanjay Modgil, Katarzyna Budzynska, John Lawrence (ed.), p. 467-468, Warsaw: IOS Press, doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-906-5-467 pdf
(2018) EDEN: Extensible Discussion Entity Network, 7th International Conference on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA), Sanjay Modgil, Katarzyna Budzynska, John Lawrence (ed.), p. 257-268, Warsaw: IOS Press, doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-906-5-257 pdf
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Alexander SchneiderComputer Science
HHU
Compliance Management for Online Content
personal websiteIn the period from 2010 to 2015 Alexander Schneider studied computer science at the Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf. He finished his master‘s degree with distinciton. His thesis researched online voting systems with an emphasis on security. Currently Alexander is studying for his doctorate at the chair for computer networks under the guidance of Prof. Martin Mauve.
The current research emphasis lies on the compliance management for online content. Further areas of interest are network security and web-development.
Publications (selection):
(2017) Tor is not enough: Coercion in Remote Electronic Voting Systems, arXiv.org, Cornell University Library Cryptograp pdf
(2017) Survey on Remote Electronic Voting, arXiv.org, Cornell University Library Computers
(2017) Reusable Statements in Dialog-Based Argumentation Systems, CEUR Workshop Proceedings AI*IA Series, p. 0
(2018) Dialogbasierte Online-Diskussionen, Deutsche Verwaltungspraxis
(2018) EDEN: Extensible Discussion Entity Network, 7th International Conference on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA), Sanjay Modgil, Katarzyna Budzynska, John Lawrence (ed.), p. 257-268, Warsaw: IOS Press, doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-906-5-257 pdf
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Jonathan SeimPhilosophie
HHU
Jonathan Seim studied Political Science and Philosophy at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf and has been a doctoral fellow of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes in Philosophy since October 2019. His research focuses on moral philosophy and political philosophy, in particular democratic theory. His dissertation deals with democratic participation rights in the context of citizen participation procedures. Although a correct allocation of participation rights is of fundamental importance for the legitimacy of those procedures, this question is not sufficiently addressed in politics or science. The aim of the dissertation project is to develop criteria for the allocation of participation rights in the context of consultative citizen participation procedures and guidance for the political practice.
Veröffentlichungen & Vorträge (Auswahl):
Alumni
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Mario DattsPolitical Science
HHU (until 08/2018)
The social media activities of parties on the local level
Political and communication science has devoted itself intensively to researching social media and its impact on politics and society for several years. The political parties constitute a highly regarded subject of investigation, after all, they are the central link between the society and the state. An analysis of the usage of social media by the local party associations has so far hardly been conducted despite the fact that the local structures of parties are attributed to be of central importance for the entire organization. In view of the above, the main question of Mario Datts’ research project was as follows: To what extent do the local associations of parties in Germany use social media and which factors can explain this usage? The data for the social media usage by parties were captured by using an innovative data collection method, which has so far hardly been used in social sciences: the automated collection of interaction data on the social web.
personal websiteMario Datts was employed as a research assistant at the graduate school Linkages in Democracy (LinkDe) at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf until 2018. He studied political science at the Leibniz University Hanover (B.A.) and at the Freie Universität Berlin (M.A.). During his studies, Mario Datts was an active member of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) and worked at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) and at the Research Centre for Empirical Social Research in Berlin (Otto-Suhr-Institute). His master´s thesis discussed democratic processes within the German Pirate Party. The key issue discussed in this study centered around factors influencing the use of an internal participatory system (LiquidFeedback). In addition to the topics of online communication and participation, he is interested in political sociology (party research) and political theory. His interests at the NRW Graduate School on Online Participation included the usage of online media (especially the usage of social media) by various political actors in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Mario Datts was doctoral student in political science under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Stefan Marschall and Prof. Dr. Gerhard Vowe.
Publications (selection)
(2014) Innerparteiliche Mitbestimmung in der Piratenpartei. Eine empirische Analyse der Partizipation am Liquid-Feedback im Landesverband Berlin, Arbeitshefte aus dem Otto-Stammer-Zentrum(23)
(2015) Mehr Ungleichheit durch mehr Partizipationsmöglichkeiten, Jahrbuch des Göttinger Instituts für Demokratieforschung 2015, Alexander Hensel (ed.), p. 125-128, Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, url
(2017) Die facebook-Aktivitäten von Parteien auf kommunaler Ebene. Empirische Analysen auf Basis automatisiert erhobener Daten, Mitteilungen des Instituts für deutsches und internationales Parteienrecht und Parteienforschung(23), p. 23-36
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Katharina GerlPolitical Science
HHU (until 06/2016)
Der Einfluss von Online-Medien auf Parteien als Organisationen
Katharina Gerl has finished her dissertation and is now working for the “Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy”.
personal website
Publications (selection):
(2013) Die "Sonstigen" - Kleinstparteien in NRW, Parteien in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Stefan Marschall (ed.), p. 363-376, Klartext, pdf
(2014) Neue Medien – neue Machtverhältnisse? Eine Fallstudie zum Einsatz von Online-Beteiligungsplattformen Durch Parteien, Politische Interessenvermittlung und Medien, Franziska Oehmer (ed.), p. 115-141, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft pdf
(2015) Enhancing Representation by Online Participation? A Case Study on the (Non-)Usage of a Collaborative Platform in a German Party, ECPR General Conference, Montreal
(2015) Digitale Demokratie ohne Demos? Eine Analyse von (Nicht-)Beteiligung an einer innerparteilichen Online- Kommunikationsplattform, Gemeinsamen Jahrestagung „Politische Online-Kommunikation“ der Fachgruppe „Kommunikation und Politik“ der DGPuK, des Arbeitskreises „Politik und Kommunikation“ der DVPW und der Fachgruppe „Politische Kommunikation“ der SGKM
(2016) Evaluation von politischer Online-Partizipation - Demokratische Innovation vs. symbolische Politik, Pre-Conference Workshop der Themengruppe „Internet und Politik – Elektronische Governance
(2016) Evaluation von politischer Online-Partizipation – Demokratische Innovation vs. symbolische Politik, Zeitschrift für Politikberatung 8(2-3), p. 59-68, url, doi:10.5771/1865-4789-2016-2-3-59
(2016) Innerparteiliche Demokratie 2.0?, Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft 10(S2), p. 115-149, url, doi:10.1007/s12286-016-0288-7 pdf
(2017) Online-Partizipation in Kommunen – Verbreitung und rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen, 18. ÖV-Symposium
(2017) Measuring online political participation and its consequences for local governments and their citizens, ECPR General Conference
(2018) Does the Internet Encourage Political Participation? Use of an Online Platform by Members of a German Political Party, Policy & Internet 10(1), p. 87-118, url, doi:10.1002/poi3.149
