Donsbach, Wolfgang (1949–)

Wolfgang Donsbach studied communications, political science, and cultural anthropology at the University of Mainz, Germany, where he also received his PhD in 1981 and completed his postdoctoral dissertation (Habilitation) in 1989. He taught at the universities of Dortmund and Mainz and was a visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin and at Syracuse University, New York. In 1989–1990 he was a fellow at the Gannett Center for Media Studies, Columbia University, and in 1999 the Lombard Visiting Professor in Harvard University. Since 1993, he is professor of communication in the Department of Communication at the Technical University of Dresden.

Early in his career Donsbach started to concentrate on three fields that have remained his primary research interests and which he has often linked together: journalism, political communication, and public opinion. Many of his publications and research projects deal with the education and attitudes of journalists, their professional behavior, as well as objectivity and quality of reporting, the role of journalism and the media in democracy, and media effects. Regarding public opinion polls, he discusses the influence of poll data on public opinion and argues for the “freedom of pre-election polls.”

Wolfgang Donsbach is also one of only a few German communication scholars who, almost from the beginning of his research activities, took up the international perspective and engaged in comparative research across countries. His extensive activities in international communication associations are proof not only of his global angle but also of his worldwide connections and the recognition in the international scientific community. From 1995 to 1996 he was president of the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR), from 1992 to 2002 chair of the AMCR section Psychology and Public Opinion, from 1996 to 1998 chair of the Political Communication Division of the International Communication Association (ICA) and from 2004 to 2005 president of the ICA. He is also a member of several editorial boards of communication journals and the managing editor of the International Journal of Public Opinion Research.