Florian Saurwein is a Senior Research and Teaching Associate at the Media & Internet Governance Division of the Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ) of the University of Zurich. He studied Communication Science and Political Science in Austria and Switzerland and holds an M.A. in Communication Science from the University of Vienna, and a PhD from the University of Zurich. Before joining IKMZ, Florian was a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Comparative Media- and Communication Studies (CMC) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OAW) and the Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt (AAU) and a Research and Teaching Associate at the Media Change & Innovation Division at the IPMZ - Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research of the University of Zurich. Moreover, he was a research fellow at the Research Unit for Institutional Change and European Integration (IWE) and at the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, a lecturer for media economics and politics at the Department for Communication Science at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (PULS), a research fellow and project manager at the Department of Communications of the University of Vienna and a research associate at the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten, Austria.

Florian Saurwein has comprehensive experience in research on interrelations of technology, media and society. In particular, he is interested in media change and implications for media governance. Research interests include the impact of media change on the public sphere and democracy (e-democracy), alternative modes of governance (self- and co-regulation), public service broadcasting and conceptual work on criteria for the selection of governance arrangements (governance choice). His  most recent work deals with the automation of information processing, the growing power of algorithms and the risks and governance options for algorithmic selection and content moderation on the Internet. At IKMZ he will contribute to the “CAll for Regulation support In Social MediA” (CARISMA) project funded by the SNF Sinergia program.