Lara Kobilke, PhD

Political Communication Researcher, LMU Munich

Welcome!

My name is Lara Kobilke, and I am a political communication researcher at the LMU Munich, Department of Media and Communication.

I hold a double BA in Communication Sciences, German Literature, and Law, as well as a Master’s in Communication Science from LMU Munich. During my Master’s studies, I investigated the dissemination of the term “Lying press” from the PEGIDA movement to mainstream media — an issue central to media discourse between 2015 and 2017. This work earned me the department’s Best Thesis Award.

In 2022, I completed my PhD at the University of Zurich (UZH), where my research focused on the dynamics of cross-cutting exposure and political participation—specifically, how individuals react when exposed to opposing political viewpoints. This research guided me toward specializing in reactance theory, exploring how people resist persuasive communication in polarized environments. Through this work, I aim to contribute to a better understanding of how communication succeeds or fails in contentious public spheres.

As the coordinator for the R-Curriculum and Statistics Help Desk at LMU Munich, I contribute to advancing research methodologies within communication studies. I co-developed the R package tidycomm with Julian Unkel and Mario Haim, which standardizes computational communication research and makes advanced methods more accessible to both students and researchers. Alongside my institutional duties, I am committed to educating the next generation of scholars by teaching R at LMU and through open-access tutorials that are available to researchers worldwide. My resources, including the teach-the-teachers course, are designed to empower educators and researchers with the skills to effectively teach and apply R for data analysis. I also maintain an institutional tutorial website to guide students through statistics and R, ensuring they gain a strong foundation for future research.

In my current research, I focus on two distinct areas. The first area combines data analysis and computational communication methods to explore cross-cutting exposure and reactance — specifically how individuals respond when exposed to opposing political viewpoints and other threats to their freedom to believe or act. I aim to better understand resistance dynamics in wicked problems—complex societal issues with contradictory solutions, particularly those unfolding in digital contexts such as social media platforms. If you’re interested in learning more about reactance and resistance, I invite you to visit our project website, where I share insights and findings from our bidt-funded project, ‘Rethinking and Measuring Psychological Reactance in Times of Wicked Problems’.

The second area of my work focuses on social media challenges, particularly how youth leverage these trends on platforms like TikTok. While much of the existing research emphasizes the negative health implications and risks of extreme or harmful challenges, my research also highlights the positive outcomes of social media challenges. I explore how these trends foster community spirit, support good causes, and alleviate social isolation, especially during times like the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, I investigate how some of these challenges are harnessed for political expression.

Feel free to learn more about my professional experience, education, teaching, presentations and publications.