Date: 20th - 21st Fabruary 2026
Organizers: Dr. Melanie Radue, Prof. Dr. Wolfram Schaffar (Chair for Development Politics)
This interdisciplinary workshop brings together scholars from the University of Passau and other national and international universities. This workshop explores how media and political actors construct and amplify perceived threats, often targeting minority groups through selective reporting, negative framing, and the viral dynamics of online networks. The workshop focuses on the mechanisms by which these moral panics arise and spread in Germany and other regions, e.g. Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe, examining the interplay between media systems, political actors, and (digital) communication networks. It brings together scholars from various disciplines to discuss comparative research findings, methodological perspectives, such as network and framing analysis and practical counter-strategies. Key questions include: How do moral panics develop in different contexts? What role do media and politics play in reinforcing or mitigating polarization? How can interdisciplinary methods help analyse these phenomena?
