Mgr. Dominika Betakova, Bc.

Universitätsassistentin (Prae-Doc)

Main Research Areas and Interests

  • News Avoidance
  • Political Communication
  • Automated Content Analysis
  • Experimental Research Methods

Dominika Betakova is a PhD candidate at the Department of Communication, supervised by Prof. Hajo Boomgaarden and Prof. Sophie Lecheler, and she is part of both Computational Communication Science Lab and Political Communication Research Group.

Her dissertation titled “I Do Not (Want to) Know! Political News Use in Fragmented Media Environments ” focuses on the highly socially relevant phenomenon of news avoidance. To investigate news avoidance and news (non-)consumption from multiple angles, Dominika’s multi-method dissertation applies survey methodology, experimental and automated text analysis methods. Dominika regularly presents her work at international conferences and teaches bachelor courses on quantitive research methods and statistics.

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Kolingasse 14, 1090 Wien
Zi. 6.57
T: +43-1-4277-49378

eMail: dominika.betakova@univie.ac.at

Recent Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

  • Schäfer, S., Betakova, D., & Lecheler, S. (2024). Zooming in on Topics: An Investigation of the Prevalence and Motives for Selective News Avoidance. Journalism Studies, 25(12), 1423–1440. doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2024.2338114
  • Betakova, D., Boomgaarden, H., Lecheler, S., & Schäfer, S. (2024). I Do Not (Want To) Know! The Relationship Between Intentional News Avoidance and Low News Consumption. Mass Communication and Society, 1–28. doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2024.2304759
  • Schäfer, S., Betakova, D., Aaldering, L., & Lecheler, S. (2022). Opting out of News. Medienjournal-Zeitschrift für Medien-und Kommunkiationsforschung, 45(3), 31.

Book Chapters

  • Gregor, M., Vejvodova, P., Zvol si info (Bajerova, A., Betakova, D., Bruk, V., Chlupacek, O., Krivankova, K., Myklin, M., Solymosova, K., Stritezsky, P., Svozilova, L.) (2018). Nejlepší kniha o fake news, dezinformacích a manipulacích!!! CPress.
  • Betakova, D., Motykova, Z., Stritezsky, P. (2017). Volební strategie. In Kralova, A., Kominek, K (Eds.), Americké volby: nejdražší show světa (154-167). Institut politického marketingu.

Conference Presentations

  • Betakova, D. (2024, September 24-27). Leave Me Alone, I Do Not Believe You! News Avoidance, Conspiracy Beliefs and Vaccine Opposition [Paper presentation]. 10th European Communication Conference (ECREA), Ljubljana, Slovenia.
  • Planitzer, A. M., Betakova, D., Kathirgamalingam, A., (2024, September 22-23). Intersecting Struggles: Building An Early Career Network For Navigating Precarity in Academic Spaces [Paper presentation]. Pre-conference (Dis)order in academic culture: Finding meaning in a precarious environment at the 10th European Communication Conference (ECREA), Ljubljana, Slovenia.
  • Betakova, D., Boomgaarden, H., Lecheler, S. (2024, June 20-24). The Role of Choice Architecture and Civic Duty Nudges in Fighting News Avoidance [Remote paper presentation]. 74th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Gold Coast, Australia.
  • Čirjak, M., Kathirgamalingam, A., Betakova, D., Syed, A. P., Boomgaarden, H. (2024, September 24-27). A Matter of Risk Perception? The Dynamics of Media Use during the Covid-19 Pandemic [Paper presentation]. 10th European Communication Conference (ECREA), Ljubljana, Slovenia.
  • Betakova, D., Boomgaarden, H., Lecheler, S. (2024, September 24-27).“Too Much and Always the Same”: Textual Characteristics of News Articles that People Intentionally Avoid [Paper presentation]. 10th European Communication Conference (ECREA), Ljubljana, Slovenia.
  • Betakova, D., Boomgaarden, H., Lecheler, S. (2024, May 02-04). “Too Much and Always the Same”: Textual Characteristics of News Articles that People Intentionally Avoid [Paper presentation]. The 6th International and Interdisciplinary Conference on the Quantitative and Computational Analysis of Textual Data (COMPTEXT), Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  • Betakova, D. (2024, March 20). Leave Me Alone, I Do Not Believe You! News Avoidance and Conspiracy Beliefs and Vaccine Opposition [Remote paper presentation]. Emerging Directions in News Use Research, Virtual Conference. Leverhulme Project Launch Event & Open Conference, Virtual Conference.
  • Betakova, D., Boomgaarden, H., & Lecheler, S. (2023, September 19-22). I Read Because Democracy Depends on Me: The Impact of “Civic Duty to Keep Informed” on News Avoidance in Austria and Slovakia [Paper presentation]. WAPOR 76th Annual Conference, Salzburg, Austria.
  • Betakova, D., Boomgaarden, H., & Lecheler, S. (2023, May 25-29). I cannot stand this anymore! Text characteristics of news articles informing about avoided topics and expressed news avoidance intentions [Research Escalator]. 73rd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Toronto, Canada.
  • Betakova, D., Boomgaarden, H., Lecheler, S. (2022, October 19-22). Selective exposure or news avoidance? The impact of civic duty to keep informed and topic salience on selection and avoidance in an online comparative experiment [Paper presentation]. ECREA 2022 9th European Communication Conference, Aarhus, Denmark.
  • Betakova, D., Boomgaarden, H., Lecheler, S., Schäfer, S. (2022, May 26-30). I Do Not (Want to) Know! An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship Between Unintentional and Intentional News Avoidance and Their Predictors. [Paper presentation]. 72nd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Paris, France.
  • Betakova, D., Boomgaarden, H., Lecheler, S., Schäfer, S., Aaldering, L. (2021, September). I Do Not (Want to) Know! An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship Between Unintentional and Intentional News Avoidance and Their Predictors. Presentation at the (virtual) 2021 Conference of The International Journal of Press/Politics, September 13-16.

Media Appearances