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About UsPablo Porten-Cheé

Junior Professor of “Communication Studies and Information Society in Ibero-America”

Affiliation: Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies - HCIAS
Co-operation: Faculty of Modern Languages, Institute for Translation and Interpreting

Tel.: +49 (0)6221 54-19337
Email: pablo.porten-chee(at)uni-heidelberg.de

Dr. Pablo Porten-Cheé is a communication researcher who earned his Ph.D. from the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf studying the effects of media content on everyday face-to-face and online conversations. Since April 2021, he is Junior Professor for Communication Studies at Heidelberg University with an emphasis on information societies in Latin America.

 Pablo Porten-Cheé began his career in research at the Ilmenau University of Technology, contributed to communications research at the University Düsseldorf for several years, and worked at the University of Zurich’s Department of Communication and Media Research. Before he joined Heidelberg University, he was a postdoc at Berlin’s Freie Universität at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies. He also led the research group “Digital Citizenship” at the Weizenbaum Institute for the networked society (WI). He is an associate researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute (funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research).

Complete CV Pablo Porten-Cheé

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Pablo Porten-Cheé

Research

At the HCIAS, Pablo Porten-Cheé is focused primarily on online communication in Latin America and the effect it has on individuals. Dissatisfaction with democracy and the spread of misinformation online are two current challenges being faced by the somewhat fragile information societies of Latin America. His primary research interests are focused accordingly on how users react to misinformation in social media or how political narratives (such as online petitions) can motivate people to participate in politics. His research interests lean in towards the study of political communication under the conditions of a digitalized media world. His current projects deal in particular with the factors affecting political participation and opinion formation online.

Research in Progress

  • Digital Citizenship: The goal of this research program is to observe the long-term change in political participation under digital media conditions and takes interest in the ever-changing factors contributing to political participation on an individual level (e.g., citizenship norms, narratives). This program grounds on a close collaboration with Prof. Martin Emmer and colleagues from the Freie Universität Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society.
  • Political participation and media use of the Latin-American community in the US: In this collaborative project, under the direction of Prof. Alcides Velásquez (University of Kansas), the political participation and media use of members of the Latin-American community in the USA are being studied. The two objectives of this study are to shine a light on the conditions for political engagement in a growing community, as well as study and expand the knowledge on contextual repertoires in the study of communication (since 2021).
  • Food Narratives: Individual political action to alleviate environmental and public health issues is demanding. In this research project, we investigate whether narrative features of petitions help to promote awareness and action regarding food issues and do this with extensive experimental survey data from Germany, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, and Italy. This research project is funded by 4EU+ and grounds on a collaboration with colleagues at Heidelberg University (Prof. Jale Tosun, Charlene Marek) as well as at Charles University Prague (Prof. Vílem Novotny), University of Copenhagen (Prof. Carsten Daugbjerg), and the Università degli Studi di Milano (Prof. Paola Mattei).
  • Public discourse on the pandemic in Latin America. Awareness, understanding, and social attitudes: A case study on Argentina: The goal of this cooperative project is to analyze the socio-communicative dynamics of discourse on the COVID-19 pandemic in educational contexts in Argentina. In order to understand the discursive construction of social representations, both, the discourses on education produced by the media as well as the discourses of the educational institutions themselves and their political representatives are being studied. This project is funded by the DAAD (lead PI Francisco Moreno-Fernández).

Recent Publications

Table

Porten-Cheé, P. (2024). Gift und Gegengift. Fake News und Strategien zu ihrer Bekämpfung. Ruperto Carola Forschungsmagazin, 23, 50-57. 
Gagrčin, E., & Porten-Cheé, P. (2023). Individual and collective social effort: Ideals and practices of informed citizenship in different information environments. International Journal of Communication, 17, 1510–1529.
Eilders, C., & Porten-Cheé, P. (2022). Effects of online user comments on public opinion perception, personal opinion, and willingness to speak out: A cross-cultural comparison between Germany and South Korea. Journal of Information Technology & Politics.
Gagrčin, E., Porten-Cheé, P., Leissner, L., Emmer, M., & Jorring, L. (2022). What Makes a Good Citizen Online? The Emergence of Discursive Citizenship Norms in Social Media Environments. Social Media + Society, 8(1).
Vaughan, M., Vromen, A., Porten-Cheé, P., & Halpin, D. (2022). The role of novel citizenship norms in signing and sharing online petitions. Political Studies.
Porten-Cheé, P., Kunst, M., Vromen, A., & Vaughan, M. (2021). The effects of narratives and popularity cues on signing online petitions in two advanced democracies. Information, Communication and Society.
Kunst, M.; Porten-Cheé, P.; Emmer, M.; Eilders, C. (2021, online first). Do “Good Citizens” fight hate speech online? Effects of solidarity citizenship norms on user responses to hate comments. Journal of Information Technology & Politics. 

Recent Presentations and Media Contributions

Table

  • Porten-Cheé, P. (2023). “I have a different story to tell” – A literature review on countering misinformation with narratives. Conference of the Political Communication Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association. Hosted by the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society and the Institute for Media and Communication Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin.
  • Porten-Cheé, P. & Ecker, A. (2023). Newsness in Latin American digital mis- and disinformation. International Communication Association Annual Conference, Toronto.
  • Porten-Cheé, P. & Tosun, J., Marek, C., Novotny, V., Daugbjerg, C., & Mattei, P. (2023). Food narratives and willingness to support policy change in five EU countries. International Communication Association Annual Conference, Toronto.
  • Emmer, M., Strippel, C., Porten-Cheé, P., & Toth, R. (2022). Typologies of political online participation – illustrative snapshots or substantial research strategy? Conference “Quo vadis Digital Democracy? Strengthening and Preserving Democracy in the Digital Age” organized by the NRW Graduate School Digital Society, Bonn.
  • Porten-Cheé, P., Velásquez, A., & Muddiman, A. (2022). Media use, political discussion, and discursive citizenship norms of U.S. Latinx. American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Montréal.
  • Porten-Cheé, P. (2022). Talk: Digital citizenship in flux: Theoretical and empirical approaches helping to understand today’s digital political participation of citizens. Latinx Digital Media Virtual Seminar Series, Center for Latinx Digital Media, Northwestern University.
  • Boczkowski, P., Porten-Cheé, P. (2022): Episode 53: Pablo Porten-Cheé and careers in and conditions for communication research in Germany. El Café Latinx Podcast Series, Center for Latinx Digital Media, Northwestern University.

Teaching

Summer Semester 2024

  • Media Effects and Ibero-America
  • Digital disinformation research and Ibero-America

HCIAS Course Catalog Summer Semester 2024

CONTACT

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Pablo Porten-Cheé

Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies | HCIAS
Brunnengasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg

Tel.: +49 (0)6221 54-19337
Email: pablo.porten-chee(at)uni-heidelberg.de

Visiting address: 
Brunnengasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg
Room 103 (3012.01.103)

Office Hours

Schedule a meeting at pablo.porten-chee(at)uni-heidelberg.de

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