The winners of the Günter Thiele Prize 2021 are Björn Borchardt (B.A.) and Jeanne Link (M.A.). The virtual award ceremony took place on 16 April as part of the LPRS Forum. The outstanding theses from the Bachelor Communication and Media Studies and Master Communication Management programmes at the University of Leipzig deal with the influence of strategic communication on the innovative capacity of companies and ethical dilemmas in digital communication. "Last year was particularly challenging for our students. All the more reason for us to be pleased with the extraordinary quality of the award-winning work," (translated) says a delighted Günter Bentele, chairman of the jury.
Björn Borchardt examined the role of communication in innovation management in his Bachelor's thesis. In nine expert interviews with representatives of innovation and communication departments of companies, the following advantages of close communication support could be described: Orientation towards stakeholder interests, creation of internal attention for innovations, faster dissemination of ideas within the company and accelerated communication between departments and teams.
Jeanne Link analysed how communication managers deal with ethical dilemmas in digital communication practice. With the help of a quantitative online survey of German communication managers, typical situations were played out in three scenarios that address the use of clickbaiting, microtargeting and social bots. The results of the study show that the moral awareness of the majority of respondents is very high. In this context, the relationship between employees and their superiors influences how they deal with the moral problem.
The Günter Thiele Prize, worth 400 euros for Bachelor's theses and 600 euros for Master's theses, has been awarded annually since 2005 to graduates of Germany's first PR chair (founded in 1993/94) in Leipzig - first by the Stiftung zur Förderung der PR-Wissenschaft an der Universität Leipzig (SPRL), now by the Günter Thiele Foundation for Communication & Management. The jury consists of Prof. Dr. Günter Bentele (chair), Prof. Dr. Bernd Schuppener and Dr. Christine Viertmann. The prize, which is awarded annually, bears the name of the foundation's authoritative founder, Dr. h.c. Günter F. Thiele. The aim of the prize is to create an incentive for top scientific and conceptual performance as well as for innovative and reflective engagement with the subject area.
Presentations on the most important results of Mr Borchardt's and Ms Link's theses are now available on the Günter Thiele Foundation's YouTube channel.
Contact: Dr. Christine Viertmann, Tel. +49341-97-35043, viertmann(at)guenter-thiele-stiftung.de
You can find more information at www.guenter-thiele-stiftung.de