Univ.-Prof. Folker Hanusch, PhD

Professor of Journalism
Vice-Dean for Career Development and International Affairs
Vice-Director of Studies

Research Interests

• Comparative Journalism Studies⎜Journalism Culture⎜Lifestyle Journalism⎜Indigenous Journalism⎜Journalism and Memory

Folker Hanusch is Professor of Journalism in the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna, where he heads the Journalism Studies Center. Since 2018, he has also been Editor-in-Chief of Journalism Studies, one of the field’s leading international journals. He also serves as Vice-Chair of the Worlds of Journalism Study, which conducts a representative survey of journalists in more than 70 countries.

His research explores how journalism is understood and practiced across different cultural, political and social contexts. His main interests are comparative journalism studies and journalistic cultures, the shifting boundaries of journalism and the rise of peripheral actors, audience expectations of journalism, emotions in journalism, and lifestyle journalism. He has also written widely on Indigenous journalism and on journalism and memory. In 2026, he was inducted as a Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA), the field’s leading international scholarly association.

Originally from Germany, Hanusch moved to Australia in 1999 to study an undergraduate degree in journalism at the University of Queensland, ultimately earning a PhD in Journalism in 2006. Following a postdoctoral research fellowship at the same university, he was Lecturer and later Senior Lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast for six years. In 2014, he joined Queensland University of Technology (QUT) as Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow and later Associate Professor. At QUT, he was also a Chief Investigator in the Digital Media Research Centre, co-leading its program on journalism, public communication and democracy. He joined the University of Vienna as full professor in 2016. He has also held visiting research positions at LMU Munich, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, the University of Santiago, Chile, and Massey University Wellington, New Zealand. 

He has published 10 books, including most recently his edited collection The Routledge Handbook of Lifestyle Journalism (2025), a key reference for this sub-field of journalism studies. He has also co-edited The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies (Wiley, 2019), the ICA’s official reference work for the field, as well as Travel Journalism: Exploring Production, Impact and Culture (Palgrave, 2014). His co-edited volume Worlds of Journalism: Journalistic Cultures Around the Globe (Columbia University Press, 2019), received the 2020 International Journal of Press/Politics Book Award. His authored books include Representing Death in the News: Journalism, Media and Mortality (Palgrave, 2010) and Journalism Across Cultures: An Introduction (with Levi Obijiofor, Palgrave, 2011). He has also authored or co-authored more than 100 journal articles, many of which have appeared in leading journals, including Communication Theory, Journalism, Digital Journalism, Journalism Studies, New Media & Society, The International Journal of Press/Politics and Media, Culture & Society. 

Professor Hanusch serves on a number of editorial boards and has held senior roles in scholarly associations, including as Chair of the Journalism Studies Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). At the University of Vienna, he is currently Vice-Dean for Career Development and International Affairs at the Faculty of Social Sciences