Current Activities

Findings of the research project “Energy Projects in the Münsterland Region” have been accepted for presentation at this year’s annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) and will be presented there. The conference will take place from June 12 to 16, 2025, in Denver. Under the title “Communicating the Energy Transition in Germany—Enablers and Barriers at Local and National Level,” the results of the Q-sort survey conducted as part of the project will be presented and discussed during the presentation.

The presentation will be given in cooperation with Sigrid Kannengießer’s research group (University of Münster), which will present a media discourse analysis of the energy transition in media reporting. The presentation is part of the panel “What, So What, What Now?! Consolidating Local Energy Discourses With a Global Vision of Transformation” chaired by Franzisca Weder (Vienna University of Economics and Business).

Findings of the research project “Energy Projects in the Münsterland Region” were presented at this year’s annual conference of the German Communication Association (DGPuK). The conference took place from March 19 to 21 in Berlin. Under the title “Communication Science Perspectives on Actors in the Energy Transition,” the project team presented findings from its content analysis of communication materials from organizations responsible for specific energy projects. The content analysis examined, among other things, what types of legitimacy are sought through strategic energy project communication and what legitimation strategies are used by the organizations responsible for such projects. The project team collaborated with Sigrid Kannengießer and Heike Hausmann (University of Münster) on the presentation. The presentation was part of the panel “The Energy Transition as a Magnifying Glass for Public Value Negotiations,” which was moderated by Stephan Görland (University of Münster).

The next step in our research project ‘Energy projects in Münsterland’ has begun! We are currently conducting interviews with citizens to understand how communication around regional energy projects is perceived and what expectations there are. The approximately 35-minute interviews are usually conducted online as video calls.

We are currently still looking for participants who live near the Herkentrup wind farm near Havixbeck or near the planned Corridor B power line in Münsterland. Would you like to take part? Please get in touch at kontakt@communicating-energy.de or via our contact form. We look forward to hearing your opinions and thank you for your support!

A book chapter entitled ‘Striving for legitimacy: Strategic energy project communication and its characteristics’ by Prof. Dr. Helena Stehle, Julia Lührmann, M. A., and Dr. Bernadette Uth will soon be published in a volume on strategic sustainability communication. The handbook ‘Strategic Sustainability Communication: Principles, Perspectives, and Potential’ is edited by Prof. Dr. Franzisca Weder, Institute for Communication Management and Media at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

The peer-reviewed chapter deals with corporate energy communication as a specific subfield of strategic sustainability communication. Based on the project’s literature review, characteristics such as stakeholders, goals, and implementation issues are examined. The concept of legitimacy is discussed as a key goal of strategic energy communication. The chapter also considers which discursive legitimation strategies are used to achieve this goal.

Two new student assistants have joined the research project team this year. Ante Leutloff is currently completing her Bachelor’s degree in Communication Science and Economics at the University of Münster and joined the team in March. Paula Fröhlich is pursuing her Master’s degree in Communication Science at the University of Münster and joined the project in July. We are very happy about the growth of our team and look forward to continuing our work together!

Read more about the research team here.

The research project ‘Energy Projects in Münsterland’ was represented at this year’s European Communication Conference (ECC) of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). The conference took place from 24 to 27 September in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Our presentation, which focused on the first results of the project’s content analysis, was entitled ‘How do organizations responsible for green energy projects employ strategic communication to legitimize such projects? A quantitative content analysis’. Among other things, we showed which types of legitimacy are sought through strategic communication for energy projects and which legitimation strategies are used by the organizations responsible for such projects.

The research team “Energy projects in Münsterland” will be represented at this year’s European Communication Conference of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) in Slovenia, where they will present the results of their project work. The presentation “How do organizations responsible for green energy projects employ strategic communication to legitimize such projects?” will address, among other things, the types of legitimacy that organizations seek through strategic energy project communication and the legitimation strategies that are used.

The team is looking forward to the presentation and the exchange in Ljubljana!

The research team “Energy Projects in Münsterland” welcomes a new employee: Katharina Lemper supports our project as a student assistant starting in October. She is currently completing her master studies in strategic communication at the University of Münster. We are looking forward to working together!
More information about the research team can be found here.

In May of this year, the research project “Energy Projects in Münsterland: Strategies of Legitimacy Communication and their Impact” was launched. In this blog post we would like to introduce you to the team behind the project.

The project is being carried out in the Department of Strategic Communication II under the direction of Prof. Dr. Helena Stehle. Her research focuses on strategic communication, organisational communication, and sustainability and energy communication, and she has been researching communication related to energy and infrastructure projects for more than ten years.

Dr. Bernadette Uth completed her doctorate in 2021 on the topic of trust building in journalism and contributes her expertise to the project as a postdoctoral researcher, particularly in the area of trust research. Julia Lührmann has been working as a research assistant at the department since October 2021. She brings expertise from the research areas of organisational communication, media use and media effects. Johanna Heckert and Isabell Klawitter are Master students in strategic communication at the University of Münster and support the project as student assistants.