Ukrainian scientist receives millions in funding for terror reporting!

Ukrainian scientist receives millions in funding for terror reporting!

Today, March 31, 2025, the refugee Ukrainian communication scientist Prof. Dr. Lesia Horodenko received additional funding of almost 220,000 euros for her important research project. This project is part of the DFG-funded project “Responsible Terrorism Reporting” at the Mannheim Center for European Social Research (MZES), which has been led since 2017 by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Wessler is headed. Horodenko, who fled Ukraine in July 2024 and previously taught at the University of Kiev, focuses her work on media reporting on terrorism in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

The central research question that Horodenko focuses on is how the media in these countries use the term “terrorism” and what different narratives arise from it. It is particularly revealing that in Russia Ukrainian troops are portrayed as “acts of terrorism,” while opposition Russian media in countries such as Latvia or Poland use the term in a more nuanced way. The analysis is intended to help formulate recommendations for journalists when dealing with terrorist attacks.

Research objectives and methods

The overarching goal of the overall project is to examine the tone, fact checks and the use of images and videos in reporting on attacks. In the first phase of the project, a comparative analysis of terrorism reporting in different countries and cultures was carried out. With the transition to the second phase, which runs until 2027, the focus is on the interaction of texts and images and their influence on the perception of media users.

Experiments are being carried out to find out whether responsible reporting leads to a more objective perception of the topic of terrorism. Developments in media coverage of terrorism are an ongoing topic that must be viewed against the backdrop of major events such as September 11, 2001, which is considered a turning point in the global perception of terrorism, as the publications of Federal Peace Research Foundation show.

Media construction of terrorism

The works of Wolfgang Frindte, Nicole Haußecker and Jens Jirschitzka are at the center of these media studies analyses, which deal with the media construction and individual interpretation of terrorism. These analyzes also cover important time periods and events, such as the 2002 terrorist attacks in Kenya and post-9/11 developments.

Through quantitative and qualitative analyzes of news reporting on terrorism in Germany from 2007 to 2009, the influence of media representation on the individual understanding of terrorism and the security behavior of the population was also examined. Using three representative population surveys, the constructions about terrorism in society were to be determined in order to promote a peaceful world order.

Another example of the analysis of media reporting on terrorism is the master's thesis entitled “Framing of terrorism in Austrian media reporting”. This investigation dealt with the IS-organized terrorist attack in Vienna on November 2, 2020 and analyzed the reporting in two different daily newspapers: the quality newspaper “der Standard” and the tabloid “die Kronenzeitung”.

The evaluation of 209 articles made it clear that the reporting in these media sometimes varied greatly. While initially the reactions to the attack and the portrayal of terrorism as a threat dominated, over time the focus shifted to the consequences and measures following the attack.

Overall, it appears that media reporting on terrorism is complex both in terms of perception and reasoning and is influenced by a variety of factors. The need for responsible and differentiated reporting practice therefore remains central to promoting understanding of this pressing social issue.