Sebastian Stier

Senior Researcher

GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

About me

I am a Senior Researcher at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Cologne. Currently, I serve as Interim Scientific Director of the Department Computational Social Science. My research is situated in the fields of computational social science, digital media, political communication and comparative politics.

Recent work has been published in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and the European Journal of Political Research. I am leading collaborative projects funded by the German Research Foundation DFG, the Leibniz Association and the Volkswagen Foundation. I am also a member of the editorial board of Political Communication.

Research interests

Computational social science
Digital democracy
Digital media and their effects
Political communication and public opinion
Comparative research

Featured Publications

Full list of publications

Sebastian Stier, Frank Mangold, Michael Scharkow, Johannes Breuer (2022). Post Post-Broadcast Democracy? News Exposure in the Age of Online Intermediaries. American Political Science Review.

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Nora Kirkizh, Caterina Froio, Sebastian Stier (2022). Issue trade-offs and the politics of representation: Experimental evidence from four European democracies. European Journal of Political Research.

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Sebastian Stier, Caterina Froio, Wolf J. Schünemann (2021). Going transnational? Candidates' transnational linkages on Twitter during the 2019 European Parliament elections. West European Politics.

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Michael Scharkow, Frank Mangold, Sebastian Stier, Johannes Breuer (2020). How social network sites and other online intermediaries increase exposure to news. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Sebastian Stier, Johannes Breuer, Pascal Siegers, Kjerstin Thorson (2020). Integrating Survey Data and Digital Trace Data: Key Issues in Developing an Emerging Field. Social Science Computer Review.

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