Michaela Maier, born in Ulm, Germany, in 1973. Ph.D. from University of Jena. Professor for Applied Communication Psychology at University of Koblenz-Landau.
Fellow (1 February 2013 – 30 June 2013)
Between Integration and Demarcation: Measuring the Impact of Party Communication on Citizens’ Implicit and Explicit Attitudes towards the European Union
Our research deals with citizens’ attitudes towards Europe, and we are especially interested in the relevance of political communication (e.g. news coverage, party communication, campaigns) for the formation, reinforcement and change of these attitudes. During our stay at NIAS we will primarily analyse the data from two studies. First, we will work on an experimental study in which we seek to understand whether national parties impact citizens’ EU support by publicly cueing Europe as a risk to or as a chance for the economy or identity. In order to answer this question, we have conducted a cross-country survey experiment relying on real-world stimuli from party campaign communication in the run-up to the 2009 European Parliament elections. The second study explores the possibility to assess campaign-induced attitude changes by combining explicit with implicit measures. We therefore combine a standard explicit questionnaire from EU research with an affective misattribution procedure (AMP).
Selected Publications
Adam, S., & Maier, M. (2010). Personalization of Politics: A Critical Review and Agenda for Research. Communication Yearbook 2010, (34), 213-257.
Maier, M., Strömbäck, J., & Kaid, L. L. (Eds.). (2011). European Political Communication: Campaign Strategies, Media Coverage, and Campaign Effects in European Parliamentary Elections. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Maier, M., Adam, S. & Maier, J. (forthcoming) The impact of identity and economic cues on citizens’ EU support: An experimental study on the effects of party communication in the run-up to the 2009 European Parliament elections. European Union Politics.