Profile

Professional career

• since 03/2025
  Member of the Advisory Board of the peer-reviewed book series "Media Dynamics" (Amsterdam University Press)
• since 04/2024
  Principal Investigator "Platformization of Public Service Media" (funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Research Foundation)
• 05/2023 - 09/2024
  Member of the research group on "Screening European Populisms (2008-2020): Audiovisual Fiction, Social Media, and Political Affect"
• since 02/2023
  Professor of Media Change (Book Culture and Digital Publishing) at Leipzig University’s Institute of Communication and Media Studies
• 04/2021 - 09/2021
  Temporary Professor of Media History and Communication Theory, Ruhr University Bochum, Institute for Media Studies
• since 11/2020
  Steering Board Member, Consortium for Research Data on Material and Immaterial Cultural Heritage (NFDI4Culture)
• 10/2019 - 03/2023
  Principal Investigator "Social TV in a Connective Media Culture" (funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Research Foundation)
• 10/2016 - 01/2023
  Assistant Professor of Digital Media Culture at Leipzig University’s Institute of Communication and Media Studies
• 04/2017 - 03/2023
  Managing Program Director of the local and training radio "mephisto 97.6"
• 10/2017 - 09/2021
  Board Member of the German Society for Media Studies (GfM)
• 02/2016 - 03/2016
  Visiting Professor at the Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens (Centre d'Histoire des Sociétés, des Sciences et des Conflits)
• 10/2015 - 09/2016
  Research Associate at the Department of Media Studies, University of Bayreuth
• 10/2012 - 09/2015
  Research Associate at the Institute of Media and Communication Studies, University of Mannheim
• 07/2012 - 08/2012
  Visiting Researcher (DAAD), ERASMUS Intensive Programme "Cultural Identities in Virtual Contexts", Aydin University, Istanbul.
• 10/2009 - 09/2012
  Research Associate at the Institute of Media Studies, Philipps-University of Marburg

Education

• 01/2009 - 12/2012
  Ph.D. in Media Studies, Philipps-University of Marburg
• 10/2004 - 12/2008
  Academic Studies of Media Studies, Modern German Literature and European Ethnology at the Philipps-University of Marburg

The research focuses on the evolving conditions of the platformization of digital media, book, and publication culture. Current research and teaching priorities include the platformization of media and book culture, reading practices across books and platform media, digital publishing and algorithmic processes, open access and digitally networked working environments, social media and book reviews, social reading and writing platforms, social television, and communitainment.

The professorship is also in the process of establishing a Research Lab for Digital Publishing Cultures, which integrates foundational research approaches with innovation-driven studies. The lab aims to investigate transformative innovations in production and publication practices within digital book culture, emphasizing their potential for international, regional, and local transfer.

The professorship's theoretical and methodological approach combines media cultural studies with social science perspectives.

• Transformations of Digital Book Culture: Production, Publication, Reception and Usage in Platform and Social Media Environments

  Stollfuß, Sven

  Duration: 04/2020 – ongoing

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Medienwandel mit Schwerpunkt Buchkultur und digitale Publikationen
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• Social TV in a Connective Media Culture: Apparatus Analysis of Public Service Content Networks and Participatory Multiplatform Productions for Social Media

  Stollfuß, Sven

  Duration: 10/2019 – 03/2023

  Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Medienwandel mit Schwerpunkt Buchkultur und digitale Publikationen
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• Platformization of Public Service Media: Platform Approach, Target Group-Specific Community Management, and Public Value Concept in the Case of the funk Content Network

  Stollfuß, Sven

  Duration: 03/2024 – ongoing

  Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Medienwandel mit Schwerpunkt Buchkultur und digitale Publikationen
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more projects

• Stollfuß, S.

  Platformization as a Structural Dimension for Public Service Media in Germany: The funk Content Network and the New Interstate Media Treaty

  Television & New Media. 2024. 25 (2). pp. 185–203.

  DOI: 10.1177/15274764221138248
  show details
• Stollfuß, S.

  Platformization and the Policy of Social Reading and Writing in Digital Book Culture: The Case of Wattpad

  LWU - Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht. 2023. Themenheft "Plurale Autorschaft: Formen der Zusammenarbeit in Schriftkultur, Kunst und Literatur" (2/2023). pp. 223–244.
  show details
• Stollfuß, S.

  How to Talk About Books on Social Media: The German-Language Social Media Reviewer Sphere on Instagram

  SAGE Open. 2023. 13 (3). pp. 1–16.

  DOI: 10.1177/21582440231194461
  show details
• Stollfuß, S.

  Platformized Book Prosumption on Wattpad: Reading and Writing in the Case of a Pandemic Diary

  Book 2.0. 2021. 11 (1). pp. 139–155.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/btwo_00049_1
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• Stollfuß, S.

  funk im Medienalltag der Nutzerinnen und Nutzer: Onlineumfrage zum ARD/ZDF-Contentnetzwerk in Sozialen Medien

  Media Perspektiven. 2025. 1 (Januar). pp. 1–16.
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more publications

In its teaching, the professorship explores the digital transformation of media, book, and publication cultures within the international scope of Media and Communication Studies, Digital Book Studies and Digital Publishing Studies. This is approached through theoretical frameworks and empirical analyses in communication and media studies.

In the foundational media, communication and book studies seminars within the Bachelor's program in Communication and Media Studies, students gain a forward-looking understanding of media and book culture. In the Master's program, students further develop their skills by creating their own projects in the research area of media, communication and book culture.

• Social Media, Platformization and Digital Book Culture

• Bookstagram, Online Review Culture and Influencer Marketing