Euregio JungforscherInnenpreis für Raffael Heiss

The winners of this year's Euregio Young Researcher Award are described as figureheads for the research location Euregio Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino, according to a press release from the Province of Tyrol. Raffael Heiss from the MCI is one of them. For his dissertation "Political actors on social media: Content, Selection and Effects" he was awarded second place. Tyrol's Governor Günther Platter, his South Tyrolean colleague Arno Kompatscher and Roberto Paccher, President of the Regional Council of Trento, congratulated him on his outstanding work.

In his dissertation, Raffael Heiss examines the phenomenon of political actors on social media and shows that mainstream politicians do not make full use of the potential, while right-wing populist actors use social media platforms to mobilise against immigrants and the political elite. Based on these findings, there is an urgent need to professionalise the social media communication of political actors beyond classical marketing strategies. To this end, political actors would have to involve citizens more in their social media activities, create more spaces for political participation and begin to communicate even complex content.

Raffael Heiss is a scientist in the "Center for Social & Health Innovation" established at the MCI, a multidisciplinary research centre that deals with current regional, national and international challenges in social and health care. "The digital media diversity in which we live today requires us to research the new dynamics in information behaviour and to process findings in such a way that they can be used to benefit society. In my research at the MCI, in addition to political communication, I am also concerned with the question of how digital media affect our health care system, e.g. how and with what effects people inform themselves about their health on social media," Raffael Heiss describes his work.

MCI Rector Andreas Altmann congratulates on the award: "I am very pleased with this success of Raffael Heiss, which once again shows that our consistent development work is bearing fruit. I congratulate him and everyone who contributed to this success!"

This year's call for entries for the Young Researcher Award had the motto "Megatrend Digitalisation - Digital Transformation in the European Region Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino". The aim is to transfer scientific achievements into innovations that benefit the entire region.