Honorary Professor of Media Studies

Profile

Klaus Schönbach is an Honorary Professor of Media Studies, Zeppelin University, and an Honorary Fellow, Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam. Schönbach studied mass communication, sociology and German literature at the University of Mainz.


  • PhD in 1975 with an empirical thesis about the journalistic norm to separate facts and opinion (advisor: Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann)
  • 1975-78 founder and director of the content-analysis department of the University-of-Mannheim-based Center for Surveys and Methods (ZUMA, now GESIS) of the German National Science Foundation
  • 1978-83 associate professor, Department of Communication, University of Muenster, Germany
  • In 1982 Habilitation in General Communication Science at the University of Muenster with a second doctoral dissertation comparing the political effects of newspapers and television
  • 1983-85 (full) professor of Applied Communication Studies, Department of Communication, University of Munich, Germany
  • In 1985 professor, Chair of Journalism and Communication Studies, and founder of the postgraduate program in journalism at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and
  • 1990 founder of the Department of Journalism & Communication Research in Hanover with its first program in media management in Germany
  • In 1998 appointed professor, Chair of General Communication Science – as successor of Denis McQuail – at the Department of Communication, University of Amsterdam
  • 2000-03 Director of Graduate & Undergraduate Studies in Communication and chairman of the department
  • 2005-08, and concurrent with his chair in Amsterdam, Schoenbach held the endowed BBDO Chair of Media Studies at the newly founded Zeppelin University
  • 2006-08 its Dean of the Faculty for Communication & Cultural Management. In 2008 Vice President of Zeppelin University, responsible for its Research School and for international relations
  • 2010-14 professor of General Communication Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria, and chair of one of the world’s largest departments of communication
  • 2012-14, at the University of Vienna, founder and Scientific Director of the first (executive) master’s program in Europe in Health Communication
  • 2014-17 Professor in Residence of the U.S. Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) in Qatar
  • 2014-16 its Associate Dean for Research and
  • in 2017 Senior Associate Dean


For, in total, more than one year visiting professor in the USA--at Indiana University, Cleveland State University, University of Texas and San Jose State University.


Major research and teaching interests: media and democracy; production, audience and effects of political communication; journalism; media marketing; persuasive communication; methods of communication research.

Schönbach, Klaus
Schönbach, Klaus Prof Dr
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