Dr. Wiebke Drews

Welcome! 

I am a Scientific Associate at Rudolfovo - Science and Technology Centre Novo Mesto (Slovenia) working at the Centre for Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property (CETIP) and a Research Affiliate at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich (Germany) in the research project SPARTA. I earned my PhD from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, in 2020.

My research examines how digital communication shapes politics, public discourse, and emerging technologies. A central focus of my work is the study of digital publics: how communication emerges, circulates, and gains influence across and beyond social media environments. Methodologically, I work with computational social science approaches, including Natural Language Processing (NLP), network analysis, and statistical modelling, to analyse who communicates, which narratives emerge, how they spread, which actors shape digital discourse over time, and to what ends.

Building on my work in political communication, I now apply these approaches to the study of emerging technologies. I currently lead the CSSInnoRadar project, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Education, Science and Youth. The project develops computational approaches to map how emerging technologies (e.g., quantum technologies) are discussed by firms and research institutions, policy-makers, the media and public, and how these narratives may shape technology acceptance, adoption, and diffusion. I am also a co-researcher on the EPO-funded ForQast project, which combines patent, scientific publication, and social media data to examine whether digital communication can provide early signals of future technological and patenting trends with quantum technologies as its use case.

My work has been published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Information, Communication & Society, German Politics, Frontiers, Political Research Exchange, and PLoS ONE. I have also served as a reviewer for journals including Data & Policy, Political Communication, New Media & Society, The International Journal of Press/Politics, Party Politics, and German Politics, as well as the Austrian Science Fund.

In addition, I serve as a member of the Steering Committee of the ECPR Standing Group on Internet & Politics. I have also served as co-director of euandi2021, a Voting Advice Apllication (VAA) for the 2021 German federal election, and as a member of the advisory board at the Schader Foundation.

I am always happy to connect and welcome messages about potential collaborations, exchange of expertise, or any shared interests.