Michael is Professor of Communication Research, Climate and Science Communication at University of Hamburg. He co-chairs the project Social Constructions of Climate Futures at the cluster of excellence Climate, Climatic Change and Society (CLICCS). In his current research, he focuses on climate communication and the communicative dimension of socio-ecological transformations: exploring how journalism, digital media networks and different social actors coproduce and shape public debates about global ecological challenges. Recently, he has explored both the neglect of climate coverage in the news as well as emerging practices of transformative journalism and tendencies towards discursive polarization.

Michael has been invited to join THE NEW INSTITUTE in the spring of 2023 as the chair in the program „Depolarizing Public Debates: Developing Tools for Transformative Communication”.

What gives you hope?
The global youth movements for climate protection, the courage of protesters for women's rights in Iran, the resistance against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine and the voting out of enemies of democracy such as Trump and Bolsonaro.

What inspires you?
The conviction that a better world is possible and in the making.

Why do you believe in truth?
There is no alternative.

“Polarisation or just differences in opinion, how and why Facebook users disagree about Greta Thunberg”, in European Journal of Communication, 2022 (with Dag Elgesem)

“Learning about climate politics during COP 21: explaining a diminishing knowledge gap”, in Public Understanding of Science, 2022 (with Fenja De Silva-Schmiddt, Imke Hoppe and Dorothee Arlt)

“Media systems in the digital age: an empirical comparison of 30 countries”, in Journal of Communication, 2022 (with Edda Humbrecht, Laia Castro Herrero, Sina Blassnig, Sven Engesser)