In recent weeks, CMC’s Maren Beaufort has presented and discussed research on the relationship between citizens’ understandings of democracy and their information practices at several major international communication conferences.

At the International Communication Association (ICA) Annual Conference in Cape Town and the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) Conference in Galway, the research addressed questions of democracy, information use, and contemporary information environments, with particular attention to their implications for communicative justice. The ICA conference was followed by the Worlds of Journalism Study Annual Meeting in Stellenbosch, bringing together researchers from many of the 75 countries participating in the global comparative project.

Most recently, the 2026 Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in New Orleans provided another opportunity for international exchange as part of a WJS panel on the challenges and opportunities of global comparative journalism research.

Related questions will be further discussed at the 11th European Communication Conference (ECREA 2026) in Brno in September.

The research places information users as citizens at the centre of analysis and examines how understandings of democracy relate to information practices, expectations, and the functioning of contemporary information environments.