The Media Governance and Industries Research Lab, established by Professor Sarikakis in 2011, studies the processes of and challenges posed by governance of communication processes and the media in relation to Democracy, Citizenship and Human Rights.

Governance is understood as a dynamic and process determined concept, which contains a sum of processes derived and impacted upon by institutions, the law, values and principles, regulatory frameworks, as well as practices that shape media and communicative spaces and processes.

Our principles

Our work is both theory and practice driven, aiming to bridge academic systematic enquiry and theory together with applicability and solution driven research. Our work is hostage to neither direction. Yet, the Lab's commitment is to engage actively with world affairs and real world research and to pursue research with social responsibility.

The Lab is hostage to no methodological dogmas: we engage in established and innovative research methods  as these may be useful to help us answer appropriate, relevant, timely research questions- not the other way around. Seeking the best methodological tools means being also  active in developing new methods that are best suited to help provide answers to the research questions we ask.

Our research and epistemological ethics is underpinned by a commitment to a margins-activated research, especially in providing critique standards and measures. As such, and with an ethical compass firmly on real world research, our research is engaged and engaging aiming to supportng the betterment of the human condition.

Our research culture

The Lab brings together international scholars from different cognate disciplines, whose intellectual and sociocultural interests gravitate to the systematic study of the policies and politics of media, culture and communication.The Lab has received the support of international organisations as well as importantly research funding through competitive processes. The most recent successes have been two Horizon projects: REBOOT of which the University of Vienna through Professor Sarikakis is the coordinator of a nearly 4mil Euro grant; and GAMEHearts in which the lab participates as partner with appr. 600k euro funding.

Teaching and Paedagogy

Our teaching is research-informed and our paedagogical philosophy is based on active, student-centred and student-led learning. Academic knowledge is a process through which students are invited and encouraged to connect their personal lives and experiences to theory and analysis. Learners' experiences are validated as important sites of knowledge; ethical self-assessment and self-reflection of any and all research projects undertaken with Professor Sarikakis and her team is standard practice.

Professor Sarikakis and her teams have been recognised for their sustained innovative, forward looking, interdisciplinary and social justice centred approach in teaching and mentoring.

We welcome new PhD students and scholars interested in working on the topics of the research described on this website. Please get in touch with Professor Sarikakis if you are interested in engaging in complementary research areas, as a PhD student or if you are planning to pursue funded research at a postdoctorate level.

We are situated in Währinger Straße 29, in the heart of the 9th Viennese district.