Innovation is “that which is considered innovative” (Hauschildt/Salomo 2007: 24) and “Innovations arise above all in people’s minds – and these must be achieved under the conditions of the media society (...)” (Zerfass/Möslein 2009: VI). These observations underline the importance of communication for the dissemination of innovations, but also the importance of communication for the creation of new markets for innovative products and solutions.

Research on “Innovation Communication” focuses on projects and analyses on the mediation and construction of innovations, on innovation management, and on the communication of socio-technical futures. This includes the “Innovation Journalism” subject area, which was developed in Sweden.

Publications on the research topic, IKOM Working Papers, and reports from student projects and theses on the subject of the research topic can be found under Publications. Current reports are listed under the headings.

Contact: volkermarkus.banholzeratth-nuernbergPunktde

Listening Center tracks down discussions on technology and innovations

The Innovative Communication research topic is getting its own Listening Center, which will allow it to research trends and moods associated with innovation and technology via social media channels. The Listening Center is also used for teaching research projects with publishers and for the strategic corporate communications of companies and organizations.

What does the internet think about Industry 4.0, digitization, and artificial intelligence? These are the questions that the Innovative Communication research topic at Nuremberg Tech has been looking into for a year already using the social listening method. It worked together with Rheinische Post in Düsseldorf, using the editorial office’s Listening Center to gather and evaluate the relevant data. The Listening Center can be used to further deepen the projects to benefit from social listening for strategic corporate and organizational communication, for example. For think tanks, organizations, clusters, and companies in particular, organizational listening offers the potential to improve their own positioning as well as the perception of their institution. The Listening Center has been successfully used for editorial work at Rheinische Post for several years. Rheinische Post has been awarded the NOVA innovation prize by the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers for this project. Google has also supported the Listening Center as part of its Digital News Initiative.