Michaela Forrai, BA MSc

PhD Researcher (Prae-Doc)

Research Interests

• Media change and media innovation, especially artificial intelligence
• Media psychology
• Health communication
• Media use and well-being/mental health/suicide prevention

Ela joined the VMCI Lab as a predoctoral researcher in November 2023. In her dissertation, supervised by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Desirée Schmuck, she focuses on young people’s use of artificial intelligence and how this relates to their well-being. Further research interests generally concern the areas of media change and media innovation, media psychology, and health communication, such as (social) media use and well-being/mental health/suicide prevention.

Prior to becoming a member of the VMCI Lab, Ela studied Communication Science (MSc, 2022) and Journalism and Communication Studies (BA, 2019) at the University of Vienna. She has been working at the Department of Communication since 2018 and was part of several research projects by Assoc.-Prof. Dr. Florian Arendt as well as the Advertising and Media Psychology Research Group, led by Univ.-Prof. Dr Jörg Matthes.