I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg (UHH). My current work focuses on the use of AI in journalism and its relationship to power and inequality. More generally, I am interested in how new technologies and social structures shape what we know and what we do.

I hold a PhD in journalism and communication studies from UHH. Prior to my doctoral studies, I worked as a research associate at the Weizenbaum Institute, Freie Universität Berlin, and Stockholm University.

My research and writing are published in Digital Journalism, Journalism, and New Media & Society.

AI in Journalism: Exploring AI Circles in Journalism (J-AIC)

This DFG-funded project examines the role of interorganizational networks for AI readiness and AI adoption in journalism across two different national contexts—Kenya and Germany. PIs: Juliane Lischka (University of Hamburg), Jessica Kunert (University of Mainz), Nancy Booker (Aga Khan University).

Special Issue for Journalism

Together with Tomás Dodds, Anna Schjøtt Hansen, and Claudia Mellado, I am currently guest-editing a Special Issue on the impact of academic work on journalistic practice.

Schaetz, N., & Schjøtt (2024) AI Hype and its Function: An Ethnographic Study of the Local News AI Initiative of the Associated Press. Digital Journalism.

Schaetz, N., Laugwitz, L., Lischka, A.J. (2024) Solving Journalism with Data: Silicon Valley’s influence on the Fourth Estate. Journalism.

Schaetz, N. (2024). Journalism & Audience Datafication: How Audience Data Practices Shape Inequity. Digital Journalism.

Schaetz, N., Gagrčin, E., Toth, T., Emmer, M. (2023) Algorithm dependency in platformized news use. New Media & Society.

Schaetz, N., Lischka, A.J., Laugwitz, L. (2023) Datafication of Journalism: How Data Elites and Epistemic Infrastructures Change News Organizations.Digital Journalism.

Lischka, A.J., Schaetz, N., Oltersdorf, A.L. (2022) Editorial Technologists as Engineers of Journalism’s Future: Exploring the Professional Community of Computational Journalism. Digital Journalism.

Robertson, A. & Schaetz, N. (2021). Moving people: Proper distance and global news coverage of migration in 2019.Global Media and Communication.

Lischka, A.J., Laugwitz, L., Schaetz, N. (2024) News Recommender Systems. In: Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies (2nd Ed.)

Robertson, A., & Schaetz, N. (2022). News Professionals, Audiences and Communication Rights in a Global Perspective. In: Futures of Journalism: Technology-stimulated Evolution in the Audience-News Media Relationship. Palgrave.

Gagrčin, E., Schaetz, N., Rakowski, N., Toth, R., Renz, A., Vladova, V., Emmer, M. (2021) We and AI-Living in a Datafied World: Experiences & Attitudes of Young Europeans. Berlin: Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute.

Emmer, M., Leißner, L., Strippel, C. Porten-Cheé, & Schaetz, N. (2021). Politische Partizipation in Deutschland 2020 (Political Participation in Germany 2020). Berlin: Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute.

Schaetz, N., Leißner, L., Porten-Cheé, P., Emmer, M., & Strippel, C. (2020). Politische Partizipation in Deutschland 2019 (Political Participation in Germany 2019). Berlin: Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute.

Gagrčin, E., Schaetz, N., Toth, R., Naab, T., Emmer, M. (2025) Perceptions and Implications of Data Harms to Individuals and Society. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft (DGPuK) 70th Annual Conference, Berlin.

Schaetz, N. (2025) AI Provenance Loss and the Boundaries of Origin. STS-Hub 2025: Diffracting the Critical, Berlin.

Schaetz, N.; Schjøtt Hansen, A. (2024) A Sociology of Expectations: Understanding AI Hype in Journalism. Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), Sheffield.

Schaetz, N.; Gagrčin, E. (2024) How Immediacy Diminishes Academic Labor, YECREA, Ljubljana.

Koitie, P., Schaetz, N., Kunert, J., Lischka, J. (2024) No AI without Datafication: Datafication Levels and Actor Constellations in Kenyan and German News Organisations. Pre-conference to the 10th European Communication Conference (ECREA): Mapping AI Constellations in News Media and Journalism, Ljubljana.

Koitie, P., Schaetz, N., Kunert, J., Lischka, J. (2024) The Datafication Divide in Journalism. DGPuK FG-Tagung: Methoden & DigiKomm, Hamburg.

Hilker, C.; Schaetz, N.; Loosen, W.; Lischka, A.J. (2024) From Innovation Labs to Innovation Systems in Public-Service Media. 74th ICA Annual Conference, Gold Coast (virtual).

Schaetz, N., Laugwitz, L., Lischka, A.J. (2024) Domestication of Data in Journalism. Big Data Discourses: Communicating, Deliberating, and Imagining Datafication Conference, Leipzig.

Schaetz, N., Schjøtt Hansen, A. (2023) ‘Journalistic AI Training Programs: Macro Epistemics, Inequities & A Global Journalistic Coalition’. AI Infrastructures Conference, AI, Media, and Democracy Lab, Amsterdam.

Schjøtt Hansen, A. Schaetz, N. (2023) AI courses as epistemic devices: A case study of the JournalismAI Academy for Small Newsrooms. AI Infrastructures Conference, AI, Media, and Democracy Lab, Amsterdam.

Schaetz, N., Lischka, A.J., Laugwitz, L. (2023) From Data to Epistemic Infrastructure: How Data Elites Are Changing the Journalistic Field. 73rd ICA Annual Conference, Toronto.

Schjøtt Hansen, A. Schaetz, N. (2023) The Paradox of Responsible AI: A Study of Journalistic Training Programs on AI as Socio-Discursive and Performative Spaces. 73rd ICA Annual Conference, Toronto.

Gagrčin, E., Schaetz, N.,Toth, R., Emmer, M. (2023) Commodification, Control, Concern: Exploring Appraisals of Data Collection Harms to Individuals and Democracy Among Young European Social Media Users. 73rd ICA Annual Conference, Toronto.

Lischka, A.J., Laugwitz, L.,Schaetz, N., Meyer, H., Heitz, L., Abdullah, R. Kunert, J., Kleinen von Königslöw, K. (2023) When Recommender Systems Select Political News: Effects of Algorithmic News Curation on Party Preferences. 73rd ICA Annual Conference, Toronto.

Schaetz, N. (2022). News Professionals and their Datafied Audiences: How Audience Data Practices Shape Inequity. 73rd ICA Annual Conference, Paris.

Schaetz, N. (2022). News Professionals and their Datafied Audiences: How Audience Data Practices Shape Inequity. Media & Publics, Roskilde.

Lischka, A.J., Schaetz, N. (2021) Editorial Technologists as Engineers of Journalism’s Future: Exploring the Professional Community of Computational Journalism. 71st ICA Annual Conference, Online.

Lischka, A.J., Schaetz, N. (2021) Narrative Construction of the Future of Journalism in Professional Projectories. Future of Journalism Conference, Online.

Robertson A., Schaetz, N. (2020) Journalists, information inequality, and the global data economy. European Communication Research and Education Association, Online.

Robertson A., Schaetz, N. (2020) Representations of Inequality in Global Television News. IAMCR, Online.

Robertson A., Schaetz, N. (2019) Words Transcend Borders? Proper distance and global news coverage of the ‘migration crisis’ of June 2018. 69th ICA Annual Conference, Washington D.C.

Schaetz, N. (2024) OriGen: AI Data Provenance Loss. AI, Media, and Democracy Lab, University of Amsterdam.

Schaetz, N. & Schjøtt, A. (2024) Understanding AI Hype in Journalism. Berkman Klein Center For Internet & Society, Harvard.

Schaetz, N. (2024) Generative AI: Immediacy & Origin. Critical Data and Machine Learning Lecture Series. Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen.

Schaetz, N. (2024) Independent Journalism and AI. Digital- und Medienpolitische Fachforum Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance 90/The Greens), Berlin.

Schaetz, N. (2023) Resilience and Innovation in Journalism. Der Spiegel, Hamburg.

Schaetz, N. (2022) Digital Transformation and Platform Dependencies. Das Konzeptwerk, online.

Grants

2023 Digital and Data Literacy in Teaching Lab Grant

2022 Digital and Data Literacy in Teaching Lab Grant

Research Visits

2021 Visiting Scholar, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University; Supervisor/Collaborator: Assistant Professor Jakob L. Nelson

Awards

Robertson A., Schaetz, N. (2019) ‘Top Papers in Global Communication and Social Change’ Award. 69th ICA Annual Conference, Washington D.C.

I have taught courses in journalism studies, sociology, and media & communication studies at University of Hamburg and Freie Universität Berlin.

Critical Data Studies (B.A.)

Data and AI Literacy in Journalism (M.A.)

Feminist Interventions in News Distribution (B.A.)

Algorithmische Optimierung in demokratischen Öffentlichkeiten (M.A.)

Journalism & Audience Datafication (M.A.)

Media & Attention (B.A.)

Datafication and Information Inequality: News Professionals and Audiences in a Global Perspective (B.A.)

Methods of Communication Research (B.A.)

Formalised Curiosity: Foundations of Qualitative Interviewing (M.A.)

Quantitative Content Analysis (M.A.) 

Guest Lectures

2021 Responsibility, Ethics, Justice? Principles of Data Feminism (M.A.), Furtwangen University.

2021 Media and Politics in a Globalizing World (M.A.), Stockholm University.

2018 Global Crisis, Global Media (M.A.), Stockholm University.

I’m happiest when I work collaboratively and can learn from others. That’s why I believe in Shine Theory. Reach out. You can contact me via email here or find me on bluesky. I am based in Berlin.