Rate My Professor Daniela Schlütz

Prof. Dr. Daniela Schlütz is Professor of Theory and Empirics of Digital Media at Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, a position she has held since August 2018. She leads the Bachelor's program in Digital Media Culture, serves as Vice President for Research and Transfer, Open-Access Strategy Officer, and Chair of the university's Ethics Committee. She is a co-founder of the Center for Jewish Film & Audiovisual Memory and a member of the Media Research Center Babelsberg. Schlütz chairs the German Society for Journalism and Communication Studies (DGPuK) and is a member of the Society for Media Studies (GfM), the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), and the International Communication Association (ICA). She reviews for the German Research Foundation (DFG) and various journals. Her academic background includes a Diploma in Media Management, Applied Communication Research, and Philosophy from the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover; an MSc in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics; a PhD on 'Screen Games and Their Fascination'; and a habilitation on 'Quality TV as an Entertainment Phenomenon.' Earlier career steps encompassed training as an advertising buyer and strategic planner at Grey Düsseldorf, project assistance in a DFG priority program on reading socialization at the University of Osnabrück, research assistance at the Institute for Journalism and Communication Research where she completed her doctorate and habilitation, and consulting at aserto GmbH.

Schlütz's research focuses on media reception and effects, digital media empirics, quality TV series, podcasts, research ethics, and communication methodologies. She has directed BMBF-funded projects such as FEKOM on research ethics in communication and media studies (2020-2024), PaedBez on digital pedagogical relationships (2020-2023), ILLUME on complementary research practices (2025-2027), and CUNQuer on arts curriculum development (2025-2029). Key publications include her monograph 'Quality-TV als Unterhaltungsphänomen: Entwicklung, Charakteristika, Nutzung und Rezeption von Fernsehserien wie The Sopranos, The Wire oder Breaking Bad' (2016); co-edited 'Handbuch standardisierte Erhebungsmethoden in der Kommunikationswissenschaft' (2013); co-authored 'Die Befragung in der Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft' (4th ed., 2025); and articles like 'Auditive "deep dives": Podcasts als narrativer Journalismus' (2020), 'Audience engagement with spreadable texts: How to measure fan involvement with Game of Thrones' (2021), and 'Forschungsethische Prinzipien und methodische Güte in der Umfrageforschung' (2024). Her work advances empirical standards and interdisciplinary media analysis.