Quirin Ryffel has been a research assistant and PhD student at the Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich since February 2023. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Science and Media Research with a minor in Political Science, and a specialized master’s degree in Political Communication and Governance, both from the University of Zurich.

In his research, Quirin focuses on the political information behavior of citizens in liberal democracies and compares it across countries with different media systems. He examines factors that shape the composition of political information repertoires and how individual differences in information behavior affect political attitudes, perceptions, behaviors, and knowledge.

In his dissertation, he focuses on exposure to political views and arguments in the specific context of climate change mitigation (climate action), particularly the factors that facilitate exposure diversity and how the (lack of) encounters with different opinions and political arguments can affect individual perceptions and attitudes. The project, led by Prof. Thomas Zerback (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf), is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

•    Behavioral and attitudinal effects of political information behavior
•    Different aspects of media diversity (structure, content, exposure, and perception)
•    Issue-specific (perceived) polarization 
•    Climate change mitigation

Articles in peer-reviewed journals

Zerback, T., & Ryffel, Q. (2024). Attitude extremity and perceived argument diversity exposure in the COVID-19 debate. Studies in Communication and Media, 13(2), 214–237. https://doi.org/10.5771/2192-4007-2024-2-214

Vogler, D., Weston, M., Ryffel, Q., Rauchfleisch, A., Jürgens, P., Eisenegger, M., Schwaiger, L., & Christen, U. (2023). Mobile News Consumption and Its Relation to Young Adults’ Knowledge About and Participation in Referendums. Media and Communication, 11(1), 6–18.  https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i1.6029

Articles in edited books

Ryffel, Q., & Vogler, D. (2024). Medienkonzentration. In fög – Forschungszentrum Öffentlichkeit und Gesellschaft (Ed.), Jahrbuch Qualität der Medien 2024 (pp. 113–120). Schwabe Verlag. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-263857

Vogler, D., Fürst, S., Eisenegger, M., Ryffel, Q., Udris, L., & Schäfer, M. S. (2024). Künstliche Intelligenz im Journalismus: Wie sich die Akzeptanz in der Schweizer Bevölkerung entwickelt. In fög – Forschungszentrum Öffentlichkeit und Gesellschaft / Universität Zürich (Ed.), Jahrbuch Qualität der Medien 2024 (pp. 49–62). Schwabe Verlag.https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-261113

Vogler, D., Eisenegger, M., Fürst, S., Udris, L., Ryffel, Q., Rivière, M., & Schäfer, M. S. (2023). Künstliche Intelligenz in der journalistischen Nachrichtenproduktion: Wahrnehmung und Akzeptanz in der Schweizer Bevölkerung. In fög – Forschungszentrum Öffentlichkeit und Gesellschaft (Ed.), Jahrbuch Qualität der Medien 2023. Schwabe Verlag. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-235608

Vogler, D., Weston, M., Ryffel, Q., Rauchfleisch, A., Jürgens, P., Eisenegger, M., Schwaiger, L., & Christen, U. (2022). ‪Mobile Mediennutzung und politisches Wissen von jungen Erwachsenen. In fög – Forschungszentrum Öffentlichkeit und Gesellschaft (Ed.), Jahrbuch Qualität der Medien 2022. Schwabe Verlag.https://doi.org/10.24894/978-3-7965-4646-4

Position papers

Ryffel, Q., Marschlich, S., Fürst, S., & Thai, S. (2022). From precarious conditions to permanent positions? Problems, responsible actors, and solutions for strengthening the academic mid-level staff in Switzerland. Studies in Communication Sciences, 22(3), 575–582. https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2022.03.3936

Research reports

Vogler, D., Fürst, S., Ryffel, Q., Eisenegger, M., Porlezza, C., & Prociopio, N. (2024). Governance von KI im Journalismus. Bericht zuhanden des Bundesamtes für Kommunikation (BAKOM). Weblink

Udris, L., Ryffel, Q., & Vogler, D. (2023). Pilotstudie Struktur der Onlinemedienangebote. Bericht zuhanden des Bundesamtes für Kommunikation (BAKOM). https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-253197

Research instruments

Vogler, D., Fürst, S., Eisenegger, M., Ryffel, Q., Udris, L., & Schäfer, M. S. (2024). Fragebogen zur Studie: Künstliche Intelligenz im Journalismus: Wie sich die Akzeptanz in der Schweizer Bevölkerung entwickelt. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-261113

Vogler, D., Eisenegger, M., Fürst, S., Udris, L., Ryffel, Q., Rivière, M., & Schäfer, M. S. (2023). Fragebogen zur Studie: Künstliche Intelligenz in der journalistischen Nachrichtenproduktion: Wahrnehmung und Akzeptanz in der Schweizer Bevölkerung. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-235608
 

Conference presentations

Vogler, D., Fürst, S., Udris, L., Eisenegger, M., Ryffel, Q., & Schäfer, M. S. (2025, June). A Matter of Attitudes toward AI? How Users Assess the Effects of Artificial Intelligence on News Quality. 75th Annual International Communication Conference, Denver, Colorado, USA.

Zerback, T., & Ryffel, Q. (2025, February). Politisches Cross-Cutting und affektive Polarisierung. Jahrestagung der Fachgruppen «Kommunikation und Politik» (DGPuK), «AK Politik und Kommunikation» (DVPW) und «Politische Kommunikation» (SGKM), Innsbruck, Austria.

Ryffel, Q., Zerback, T., Jakob, A., & Fawzi, N. (2024, September). Telling or told? The role of implicit and explicit media cues in the formation of perceived affective polarization in the debate about climate change mitigation in Germany. 10th European Communication Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Jakob, A., Fawzi, N., Ryffel, Q., & Zerback, T. (2024, September). Between headlines and reality? News media’s impact on false polarization in the debate about climate change mitigation in Germany. 10th European Communication Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Vogler, D., Eisenegger, M., Fürst, S., Udris, L., Schäfer, M. S., & Ryffel, Q. (2024, September). How audiences evaluate the effects of generative AI on news quality. 10th European Communication Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia. 

Ryffel, Q. (2023, May). Setting the scene for research on political viewpoint diversity exposure: A scoping review on theoretical conceptualizations and empirical evidence. 73rd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association. Political Communication PhD Student Preconference, Toronto, Canada.

Weston, M., Eisenegger, M., Jürgens, P., Rauchfleisch, A., Ryffel, Q., & Vogler, D. (2023, May). Situational and temporal media use and avoidance as seen through mobile tracking data. 73rd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, Toronto, Canada (presented by Morley Weston).

Organization of conference panels

Marschlich, S., Fürst, S., Ryffel, Q. & Thai, S. M. (2022, April). Mittelbau: Schaffung entfristeter Stellen in der Wissenschaft. SGKM-Jahrestagung The Visual and Audiovisual Turn in the Age of Screen Media. Zürich