Anne Schulz is Senior Research and Teaching Associate in the Media Psychology & Effects Division (IKMZ, UZH) and Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford (UK) since 2021.

Focus in research & teaching

She works in the scientific fields of political communication, journalism research and media psychology. In these areas, she is particularly interested in how digitalization is changing the way people use and think about news and what this means for democratic participation, for example in elections. A particular focus of her work is the use of news by populist citizens. In a number of other projects she works on the topics of information abundance and information overload, news avoidance, news trust and news literacy, alternative media, local journalism and public media. Her research is interdisciplinary and internationally comparative. Specific projects focus on Switzerland, Germany and Great Britain. From 2022 to 2023 she led the "DSI Information Abundance Project" together with Dr. Sophia C. Volk.

Professional background

Anne Schulz studied communication science and psychology at the universities of Erfurt (B.A.) and Zurich (M.A.) from 2007 to 2014. After her studies, she worked as a research and teaching assistant at the Institute for Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich (Switzerland). She received her doctorate with summa cum laude in May 2019 for her dissertation on populist citizens' news use in 11 countries. In 2019 she worked as a research fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford (UK) and was, among other things, co-author of the Reuters Institute Digital News Report in 2020 and 2021. In the 2022 spring term she was also Lecturer at the Institute for Communication and Media Studies at the University of Bern (Switzerland).

Publications and Awards

Anne Schulz has published in various journals, including New Media & Society, Communication Research and Journal of Communication. She has received awards for her work, including the Kaid Sanders Prize for the best article of 2019 in the field of political communication from the International Communication Association. You can find her publications in her Google Scholar profile.

Schulz, A., & Volk, S. C. (2023). Zwischen Wertschätzung und Überlastung – Wie Schweizerinnen und Schweizer die Fülle von Informationen und Angeboten erleben. Ergebnisbericht des Information Abundance Projekts der Digital Society Initiative. Zürich: Universität Zürich. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-239383

Schulz, A., Fletcher, R., & Nielsen, R. K. (2022). The role of news media knowledge for how people use social media for news in five countries. New Media & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221108957

Müller, P., & Schulz, A. (2021) Alternative media for a populist audience? Exploring political and media use predictors of exposure to Breitbart, Sputnik, and Co. Information, Communication & Society, 24, 277-293. 10.1080/1369118X.2019.1646778

Schulz, A., Wirth, W., & Müller, P. (2020). We Are the People and You Are Fake News: A Social Identity Approach to Populist Citizens’ False Consensus and Hostile Media Perceptions. Communication Research, 47, 201-226. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650218794854

Schulz, A., Müller, P., Schemer, C., Wirz, D. S., Wettstein, M., & Wirth, W. (2018). Measuring Populist Attitudes on Three Dimensions, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 30(2), 316–326. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edw037

Müller, P., Schemer, C., Wettstein, M., Schulz, A., Wirz, D.S., Engesser, S. and Wirth, W. (2017). The Polarizing Impact of News Coverage on Populist Attitudes in the Public: Evidence From a Panel Study in Four European Democracies. Journal of Communication, 67, 968-992. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12337

Schulz, A., & Rössler, P. (2012). The Spiral of Silence and the Internet. Selection of Online Content and the Perception of the Public Opinion Climate in Computer-Mediated Communication Environments. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 24, 346–367. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/eds022