A Human-Centred Approach to Understanding Citizens’ Responses to Public Communication Challenges examines how people experience and respond to difficult communication situations when public debates become tense, conflictual or polarised. The article is co-authored by CMC researchers Christina Krakovsky and Marina Sophie Lindmeyr, alongside Auksė Balčytienė and Inesa Bunevičienė. The article forms part of the Horizon Europe project DIACOMET, which explores the transformative potential of dialogic communication for democratic societies. 

Based on focus group discussions conducted in Austria and Lithuania, the study explores how citizens navigate challenging moments in public communication. Rather than debating specific political or thematic issues, participants primarily expressed unmet communicative needs arising from the dynamics of interaction itself. Their experiences reveal how conflicts, uncertainty, perceived unfairness and competing values shape the ways in which people participate in public communication and form and express opinions.

The study highlights the importance of understanding citizens not simply as media audiences or information users, but as active participants in communication whose experiences and values influence how they interpret situations and respond to them. This perspective can help to better understand the roots of communication conflicts and the conditions under which people can participate meaningfully in public deliberation.

The paper also points to journalism as a potential model for more inclusive communication. Rather than merely exposing societal problems, journalism can contribute to ethical sensitivity by paying closer attention to people's experiences, perspectives and communicative needs.

The findings contribute to ongoing debates about polarisation, information inequality, vulnerability, and democratic communication, while offering practical insights into how public communication can become more inclusive, attentive and responsive to citizens.

Reference: Balčytienė, A., Bunevičienė, I., Krakovsky, C., & Lindmeyr, M. S. (2026). A Human-Centered Approach to Understanding Citizens’ Responses to Public Communication Challenges. Communications, 51(2).

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A Human-Centered Approach to Understanding Citizens’ Responses to Public Communication Challenges