1. Topic

    Social media and democracy

    Twitter/X · Facebook · TikTok

    I study how politicians, campaigns, journalists, and the public use social media, from the days of heady optimism about Twitter and Facebook in 2009 to today’s fears and skepticism about X and TikTok. One constant remains. Social media have never influenced elections and political attitudes as strongly as optimists hoped and pessimists fear. Change is real, but it happens in how politics is expressed and reaches people. The fundamentals stay the same.

    For journalists, campaigners, and regulators: what social media change in politics, and what social media campaigns can and cannot do.

Selected publications

  • Retooling Politics

    Do digital media empower the weak or break democracy? A balanced account of data-driven politics, political information, campaign effects, and political organizations.

    Book · Cambridge University Press · 2020 · with Gonzalo Rivero and Daniel Gayo-Avello
  • Twitter Use in Election Campaigns

    Twitter did not level the playing field. Parties and candidates used it mostly to broadcast their message and to influence news coverage, rarely for dialogue with voters. Those tweeting about politics were a small, politically interested, and partisan minority.

    Journal of Information Technology & Politics · 2016
  • Digital Media and the Surge of Political Outsiders

    Digital media let outsiders route around parties and legacy media, which once filtered out extreme positions. This helps explain the success of challengers in the United States, Germany, and China.

    Social Media + Society · 2019 · with Ralph Schroeder and Sebastian Stier
  • Digitale Informationsumgebungen

    Digital information environments offer more choice and give new intermediaries a growing role in the flow of political information. The chapter reviews the evidence on echo chambers, filter bubbles, fake news, and algorithms.

    Chapter · Handbuch Digitalisierung und politische Beteiligung · 2023

Recent publications 8

2026 2

  1. Social Media als Wahlkampfinstrument – entscheidet TikTok über unsere Demokratie?Andreas JungherrAkademie Aktuell
  2. Soziale Medien als politische Bühne – Parteien, Wahlkämpfe und neue ÖffentlichkeitenAndreas JungherrDeutschland und Europa 92

2025 1

  1. Social Media and Electoral Prediction: Ten Years AfterDaniel Gayo-Avello, Andreas Jungherr, and Gonzalo RiveroIn Handbook of Computational Social Science, edited by Taha Yasseri, pp. 360–371 · Edward Elgar · Chapter

2023 1

  1. Digitale Informationsumgebungen: Echokammern, Filterblasen, Fake News und AlgorithmenAndreas JungherrIn Handbuch Digitalisierung und politische Beteiligung, edited by Norbert Kersting, Jörg Radtke, and Sigrid Baringhorst, pp. 1–17 · Springer VS · Chapter

2022 3

  1. Populist Supporters on Reddit: A Comparison of Content and Behavioral Patterns within Publics of Supporters of Donald Trump and Hillary ClintonAndreas Jungherr, Oliver Posegga, and Jisun AnSocial Science Computer Review 40(3): 809–830 · Peer-reviewed article
  2. Review of Cristian Vaccari and Augusto Valeriani (2021): Outside the Bubble: Social Media and Political Participation in Western DemocraciesAndreas JungherrJournal of Information Technology & Politics 20(4): 503–504 · Book review
  3. The Role of Flag Emoji in Online Political CommunicationAnkit Kariryaa, Simon Rundé, Hendrik Heuer, Andreas Jungherr, and Johannes SchöningSocial Science Computer Review 40(2): 367–387 · Peer-reviewed article

2021 1

  1. Twitter im WahlkampfAndreas JungherrSparta Blog

All 44 publications on social media and democracy