09.07.2018Research visit at the IKMZ: Lea Hellmüller

This summer, the IKMZ welcomes Lea Hellmüller, assistant professor at the University of Houston, who returns to Zurich for a research visit.

After her Ph.D. in Communication Sciences at the University of Fribourg, Lea Hellmüller undertook several fellowships at the Universities of Missouri-Columbia and Texas-Austin, and then an assistant professorship at Texas Tech University. Since 2016, Lea Hellmüller has been an assistant professor at the University of Houston to participate in the development of a Global Media Research Center. She is also the co-principal investigator of the Journalistic Role Performance around the World project that includes research activities in 25 countries (www.journalisticperformance.org).

In autmn 2017, Lea Hellmüller already worked closley with IKMZ colleagues in her role as a guest professor at the IKMZ. Her time at the department also marked the beginning of a new project on terrorism and the media together with Prof. Dr. Mike Schäfer, research assistant Valerie Hase (both University of Zurich) and research assistant professor Peggy Lindner (University of Houston). Their project titled "Voicing terrorism. Explaining news media attention to and framing of terrorists across cultures" analyzes mediated visibility of terrorists in different political contexts using news coverage from over 30 countries.

Her research visit is funded by the Swiss National Science Fundation (SNF). She will be working at the IKMZ between July and August 2018. We warmly welcome Lea Hellmueller and are looking forward to working with her again.