Verena K. Brändle

Elon Musk’s speech to far-right rally should have us all thinking about the power social media companies hold over our democracies The power of social media companies lies in your data.

Important analysis from @verenakbrandle.bsky.social on how Musk’s interference in democratic politics has economic incentives

Elon Musk’s speech to far-right rally should have us all thinking about the power social media companies hold over our democracies The power of social media companies lies in your data.

My analysis about Elon Musk's "awkward surprise appearance" at a far-right rally in London is out now on @theconversation.com
I'm discussing how all this connects to the politics and economics of social media companies. Yes, it's about money and democracy.

Important new piece by @drcharlottegalpin.bsky.social in @opendemocracy.net !

🆕 Introducing the ✨PolComm ECR Club✨ – a new monthly online forum for early career researchers in political communication!

Organized by @olgaeisele.bsky.social & @alenakluknavska.bsky.social, this initiative is open to PhD students & postdocs (≤4 yrs post-PhD) in the ECPR or ECREA polcom sections!

Are the Rights of Nature the Only Way to Save Lough Neagh? Northern Ireland's Lough Neagh—the UK and Ireland's largest freshwater lake—recently hit the headlines owing to an ecological crisis caused by the level of pollutants entering its waters. With politi....

I have a new article in @politicalquarterly.bsky.social, researched and written with my former student and research assistant, Elliott Hill, on the Lough Neagh ecological crisis, rights of nature and rights of future generations. #LoughNeagh #openaccess onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New episode of the podcast out now! Awesome conversation about social media with @verenakbrandle.bsky.social. Check it out. 🎙️

From the archive: in this blog post✍️ @verenakbrandle.bsky.social and @drcharlottegalpin.bsky.social explore the need for researchers to have better access to data so they can explore the impacts social media is having on democratic processes around the world.
Read now➡️ https://buff.ly/3X4HDND

Thank you!

The state we’re in: Meta and the entanglement of discourse, greed and political self-interest. - University of Birmingham Dr Verena K Brändle, explains what the changes to Meta's fact-checking and free speech rules mean for public discourse and political influence.

Oh hi! My rant about Meta's recent fact-checking announcement is now live. www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/th...

The political contention of LGBTQ+ communities in the digital age - state of the art, limitations, a... This paper develops an analytical framework for comparative research on political contention in the digital age and, building upon it, provides a literature review of social media research related ...

**POLCOMM PUBLICATION FRIDAY**
Verena Brändle, Olga Eisele, & Aytalina Kulichkina explore the digital age's impact on LGBTQ+ political contention. Their work highlights gaps in the literature: Mixed-method designs are notably scarce. 🧵⤵️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

This paper develops an analytical framework for comparative research on political contention in the digital age and, building upon it, provides a literature review of social media research related to LGBTQ+ political contention. So far, we lack systematic insights into the literature on digitally-mediated LGBTQ+ political contention and its potential for comparative research. Applying scoping literature review, we focus on the key comparative dimensions such as political context, social media, and knowledge production. The results provide an overview of the state of the art, limitations, and opportunities while also developing an agenda for future comparative research. This paper supports the visibility of LGBTQ+ issues in a still hostile public debate for both LGBTQ+ activists and researchers.

📝 new polcom article!

The political contention of LGBTQ+ communities in the digital age - state of the art, limitations, and opportunities for comparative research 🏳️‍🌈

It was a great collaboration with amazing Verena K. Brändle and @olgaeisele.bsky.social ✨

👇
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....