📌 Key facts
- When: Start anytime. Applications are open!
- How to apply: Send an e-mail to maxi.goernitz@tum.de with your CV and a grade report.
- 📌 Key facts
- 💡 Background
- 👩🎓 Topic 1: Survey with scientists
- 👩💻 Topic 2: Survey with journalists, editors and media representatives
- 🦾Who We Are
- 📄 Requirements to any Work
- 📝 How to Apply
💡 Background
Although visibility is essential for scientific career success, female scientists and their achievements are less visible than their male colleagues.
Previous research provides too few answers about reasons for female scientists’ lack of visibility and on how to reach gender-equal visibility. Therefore, we aim to investigate two potentials reasons contributing to the underrepresentation of female scientists in the public:
- attitudes and behaviors of the scientists themselves (Topic 1)
- attitudes and behaviors of journalists (Topic 2)
👩🎓 Topic 1: Survey with scientists
One possible reason why female scientists are underrepresented in the public is lying in the female scientists themselves. Therefore, it is necessary to have a closer look to the question, if attitudes and behaviors of female scientists influence their visibility. Moreover, we want to investigate if female scientists even want to be more visible in the public.
Tasks for this Master’s thesis topic:
- Literature review about the state of research in this topic
- Development of a questionnaire for the quantitative survey & implementation in Unipark
- Pilot run of the questionnaire with a small sample
Reading:
Chimba, M., & Kitzinger, J. (2010). Bimbo or boffin? Women in science: An analysis of media representations and how female scientists negotiate cultural contradictions. Public Understanding of Science, 19(5), 609-624.
Crettaz von Roten, F. (2011). Gender differences in scientists’ public outreach and engagement activities. Science Communication, 33(1), 52-75.
Howell, L., & Singer, J. B. (2017). Pushy or a princess? Women experts and British broadcast news. Journalism Practice, 11(9), 1062-1078.
Mitchell, M., & McKinnon, M. (2019). ‘Human’or ‘objective’faces of science? Gender stereotypes and the representation of scientists in the media. Public Understanding of Science, 28(2), 177-190.
Niemi, M. K., & Pitkänen, V. (2017). Gendered use of experts in the media: Analysis of the gender gap in Finnish news journalism. Public Understanding of Science, 26(3), 355-368.
Shine, K. (2022). Willing but wary: Australian women experts’ attitudes to engaging with the news media. Journalism, 23(11), 2364-2379.
👩💻 Topic 2: Survey with journalists, editors and media representatives
Another possible reason for the underrepresentation of female scientists in the media might lie in journalistic and editorial practices. However, there are only few qualitative studies investigating this topic and those studies partially have contradicting results. Therefore, we aim to create a quantitative survey, questioning journalists, editors and media representatives about factors relevant for their content decisions and their perceptions of male and female scientists in the media.
Tasks for this Master’s thesis topic:
- Literature review about the state of research in this topic
- Development of a questionnaire for the quantitative survey & implementation in Unipark
- Pilot run of the questionnaire with a small sample
Reading:
Boyce, T., & Kitzinger, J. (2008). Promoting Women in the Media: The Role of SET Organisations and their Science Media Communicators. Report for the UKRC.
Howell, L., & Singer, J. B. (2017). Pushy or a princess? Women experts and British broadcast news. Journalism Practice, 11(9), 1062-1078.
Mendick, H., & Moreau, M. P. (2013). New media, old images: constructing online representations of women and men in science, engineering and technology. Gender and Education, 25(3), 325-339.
Niemi, M. K., & Pitkänen, V. (2017). Gendered use of experts in the media: Analysis of the gender gap in Finnish news journalism. Public Understanding of Science, 26(3), 355-368.
🦾Who We Are
The Chair for Strategy and Organization is focused on research with impact. This means we do not want to repeat old ideas and base our research solely on the research people did 10 years ago. Instead, we currently research topics that will shape the future. Topics such as Agile Organisations and Digital Disruption, Blockchain Technology, Creativity and Innovation, Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation, Diversity, Education: Education Technology and Performance Management, HRTech, Leadership, and Teams.. We are always early in noticing trends, technologies, strategies, and organisations that shape the future, which has its ups and downs.
📄 Requirements to any Work
We do not want your research to gather dust in some corner of bookshelf but make it accessible to the world. Thus, we warmly encourage you to create some or all of the following:
- Infograph - visually represent some of your work (find examples here)
- Slide Deck - summarise your research and possibly present it
- Extract most important sequences from podcasts, videos, and other media
- optional: Medium Article - let people outside the university know about your research and start your personal brand
Please note that these deliverables are not officially required.
📝 How to Apply
If you are interested, please contact Maxi Görnitz (maxi.goernitz@tum.de) by submitting your CV and grade report.
We're greatly looking forward to hearing more about you!