Communication & (Social) Media

Contact: Mag. Christoph Hofinger

Every year, millions of Euros are spent on campaigning and strategic communication, however, the effect of these resources is often unclear. SORA media research evaluates campaigns as wells as PR activities and analyzes target groups' media use and communication behavior.

Given the radically changing media landscape, SORA participates in cutting edge applied research in digital IE („Information Extraction“). With the help of innovative software applications, large data can be screened and analyzed in real-time - including social media such as Facebook, Twitter and the like. Strategic communication needs to evaluate its effects in these new media in order to get valuable insights for the design and management of campaigns. 

SORA media research is based upon both social science expertise and longtime experience in strategic consulting. SORA experts are established in academic teaching and participate in international cutting-edge research. Cooperation with the European Association of Political Consultants (EAPC) guarantees up-to-dateness in campaign consulting and strategic communication.

Key topics:

  • Evaluating media coverage (topics, image etc.)
  • Effectiveness of communication strategie
  • Input-Output Analyses
  • Political communication and discourse analysis
  • Internet and Social Media
  • Media use & Public Value

Methods:

  • Media content and discourse analysis
  • Network analysis
  • Survey research

Selected projects:

Trendminer (2011-2014): Trendminer continues the successful cooperation of SORA with leading tech-partners in EU-financed research. For the first time, automated analysis of multi-lingual data in the Web 2.0. is developed. SORA brings in its expertise in text analysis and will be coordinating the workpackage on development of applications in political trendmining. more... ../?id=279

Evaluation of the Public Value of "Die Barbara Karlich Show" (2010): The concept „Public Value“ wurde has been introduced in 1995 by the Harvard Professor Mark Moore and is a comprehensive concept for understanding the relations of an organisation with the public. As a part of this concept, empirical research can contribute to quality management in public service broadcasters by providing quantitative indicators but also a differentiated feedback generated in qualitative research such as focus group discussions. Along these lines, SORA carried out an evaluation of the public value of the talkshow „Die Barbara Karlich Show“.

Living Knowledge (2009-2012): The Living Knowledge project aimed at bringing a new quality into search and knowledge management technology for more concise, complete and contextualised results. SORA provided the social-science exertise in the framework of the interdisciplinary project consortium. more...

Cooperations (selection):

  • Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI)
  • Fundació Barcelona Media Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Yahoo! Research Barcelona)
  • School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP) group at the University of Sheffield
  • Internet Memory Foundation (IM), Amsterdam and Paris
  • Ontotext (Bulgarien, USA)
  • Eurokleis s.r.l. (Italien)
  • Hardik Fintrade Pvt. Ltd. (HFPL, India)
  • Università degli Studi di Trento
  • Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni
  • Stichting European Archive
  • Università degli studi di Pavia
  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover (L3S Research Center)