Dr. Peter Maurer

Bild Dr. Peter Maurer

Academic CV and Research Interests

Peter Maurer (PhD, Freie Universität Berlin) is a Postdoc in the research unit of Prof. Christian Nuernbergk since December 2019. He is also a member of the Trier Center for Language and Communication's (TCLC) interdisciplinary research project "Patterns". 

Peter studied Political Science, Communication and French at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and Institut d’Études Politiques, Strasbourg. From 2005 to 2011, he worked as a research associate and doctoral candidate in different DFG (German Research Foundation) funded projects about political communication culture in comparative perspective (Head: Prof. Barbara Pfetsch) at Universität Hohenheim and Freie Universität (FU) Berlin. In his PhD-thesis (completed in 2011 at FU Berlin), he compared media influence between France and Germany based on elite perceptions.

From 2016 to 2019, Peter was a postdoctoral fellow in the COST Action “Populist Political Communication in Europe” (Chair: Prof. Toril Aalberg) at NTNU Trondheim From 2011 to 2016, he held a postdoc position in journalism at the Department of Communication at University of Vienna.

Peter’s research interests include Twitter communication of political journalists, patterns of interaction between political actors and the media in comparative perspective (with a special focus on France), and political actors’ strategies of communication on social media platforms (e.g., populism). He is also part of an international cooperation studying media performance in the COVID-9 crisis.

Selected Publications

Edited volumes:

Arndt-Lappe, S., Belosevic, M., Maurer, P., Moulin, C., Rettinger, A. & Stumpf, S. (Eds.) (in preparation). Pattern Theory in Language and Communication. (planned for summer 2022)

Maurer, P. & Nuernbergk, C. (Eds.) (in preparation). Journalism, Activism, and Social Media: Exploring the Shifts in Journalistic Roles, Performance, and Interconnectedness. Special issue for Media and Communication. Cogitatio. (geplant für Sommer 2022)

Peer-reviewed journals

Schumacher, N., Maurer, P., & Nuernbergk, C. (2021). Towards new standards? Interaction patterns of German political journalists in the Twittersphere. International Journal of Press/Politics. Online first DOI: 10.1177/19401612211025502

Maurer, P. & Riedl, A. (2020). Why bite the hand that feeds you? Politicians’ and journalists’ perception of common conflicts. Journalism – Theory, Practice & Criticism.
Online first: DOI: 10.1177/1464884919899304

Maurer, P. & Diehl, T. (2020). What kind of populism? A comparison of populism and sentiment in the Twitter campaigns of French and US presidential candidates. Online first: European Journal of Communication.DOI:10.1177/0267323120909288

Chapters in edited volumes

Maurer, P. (2021): Einfluss auf politische Entscheidungsträger [Influence on political decision makers]. In M. Prinzing & R. Blum (Hrsg.) Handbuch politischer Journalismus.[Handbook of Political Journalism] Köln: Halem (Link)

Maurer, P. & Beiler, M. (2021): Nähe und Distanz zu den Politikern [Mingeling and distance to politicians] . In M. Prinzing & R. Blum (Hrsg.) Handbuch politischer Journalismus [Handbook of Political Journalism]. Köln: Halem.

Maurer, P. & Béllanger, S. (2021). France: Parties‘ Communication Strategies After the 2017 Earthquake. In J. Haßler, M. Magin, U. Russmann, & V. Fenoll (Eds.), Campaigning on Facebook in the 2019 European Parliament Election (87 —102). Palgrave-Macmillan.