Prof. Dr. Jens Eder

Field
- Media Studies
Main Research Interests
- Film, narration and society
- Aesthetics and analysis of audiovisual media (cinema, television, online video)
- Theories of narration, emotion, non-fiction/fiction, rhetoric, reception and impact
- Current transformations of audiovisual media
Current Research Interests
- Social impact of film/cinema in contemporary European societies / Film and societal transformations
- New developments in the theory of fictional and nonfictional characters
CV
Jens Eder studied philosophy and literature, specialising in media studies. He worked for several years in media practice, including in screenwriting. After writing a book on narrative structures of mainstream film, he completed his doctorate in 2002 on film characters and habilitated in 2011 with a thesis on emotions in audiovisual media. From 1999, he taught film, media and communication studies at the universities of Hamburg, Mainz and Mannheim. Since 2017, he has been working at the Film University Babelsberg in the interdisciplinary professorship for narration and aesthetics.
Current research project
- Research group Film as a Catalyst for Social Transformation (2025-2029), together with Gesine Mannheimer and Saskia Vömel (Jetzt & Morgen, AG Verleih), Valentin Thurn (AG DOK), Nicole Zabel-Wasmuth (Planet Narratives), Maja Göpel (Mission Wertvoll) and doctoral students (Lillian Rosa, N.N.). Funding: Volkswagen Foundation.
Completed research projects (selection)
- Research Group Attention Strategies of Video Activism in the Social Web (1st project phase: Movement Images 2.0. Video Activism between Social Media and Social Movements), together with Britta Hartmann and Chris Tedjasukmana. Funding: Volkswagen Foundation (2015-2021). URL: www.videoactivism.net .
Publications (selection)
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1937-5999
Further published texts can be downloaded here: https://filmuniversitaet.academia.edu/JensEder
Monographs:
- Understanding Video Activism on Social Media, together with Britta Hartmann and Chris Tedjasukmana. Bristol: Intellect 2025 (April). Open Access: https://www.intellectbooks.com/understanding-video-activism-on-social-media
- Characters in Film and Other Media:Theory, Analysis, Interpretation. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers 2025 (August). Open Access. (Heavily revised new edition of Die Figur im Film. Marburg: Schüren 2008). 2014. Open Access: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0283
- Bewegungsbilder. Politische Videos in Sozialen Medien, together with Britta Hartmann and Chris Tedjasukmana. Berlin: Bertz + Fischer 2020. https://www.bertz-fischer.de/bewegungsbilder
- Die Figur im Film. Grundlagen der Figurenanalyse. Marburg: Schüren 2008, 2nd ed. 2014. https://www.schueren-verlag.de/programm/titel/72--die-figur-im-film.html
- Was sind Figuren? Ein Beitrag zur interdisziplinären Fiktionstheorie.. Paderborn: Mentis 2008. Open Access: https://mediarep.org/entities/book/65be5b0f-2e6c-4832-b760-e4d2fca0f603
- Dramaturgie des populären Films. Drehbuchpraxis und Filmtheorie. Hamburg: Lit 1999, 3rd ed. 2007 (Beiträge zur Medienästhetik und Mediengeschichte, vol. 7). Open Access:http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/10705
Edited and co-edited books, websites and journals (selection):
- Social Impact and Audiovisual Media. Website/research portal, edited since 2021 by Catalin Brylla and Jens Eder. URL: www.av-impact.com
- Videoactivism.net. Website/research portal, edited since 2016 by Jens Eder, Britta Hartmann and Chris Tedjasukmana. URL: www.videoactivism.net
- #Emotions. Special issue of the journal NECSUS, edited by Jens Eder, Julian Hanich and Jane Stadler, 1 June 2019. https://necsus-ejms.org/portfolio/spring-2019_emotions/
- Image Operations.Visual Media and Political Conflict. Edited by Jens Eder and Charlotte Klonk. Manchester: Manchester University Press 2017. http://d2yvuud5fila0c.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/13142910/Image-operations.pdf
- Medialität und Menschenbild. Edited by Jens Eder, Joseph Imorde and Maike Reinerth. Berlin: de Gruyter 2012 (Series ‘Media Convergence’ vol. 4). https://www.degruyter.com/view/supplement/9783110276176_Inhaltsverzeichnis.pdf
- Characters in Fictional Worlds: Understanding Imaginary Beings in Literature, Film, and Other Media. Edited by Jens Eder, Fotis Jannidis and Ralf Schneider. Berlin: de Gruyter 2010. https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/37181
- Audiovisuelle Emotionen. Emotionsdarstellung und Emotionsvermittlung durch audiovisuelle Medienangebote. Edited by Anne Bartsch, Jens Eder and Kathrin Fahlenbrach. Cologne: Herbert von Halem 2007. https://www.halem-verlag.de/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/9783938258309_lese.pdf
Articles in journals and anthologies (selection):
- Affekt- und Emotionstheorie des Films. In: Handbuch Filmwissenschaft: Theorie - Geschichte - Analyse, edited by Britta Hartmann, Ursula von Keitz, Markus Kuhn, Thomas Schick, Michael Wedel. Wiesbaden: Springer (forthcoming 2025).
- Political Impact: On the Societal Vibrancy of Film. In: What Film Is Good For:On the Values of Spectatorship, edited by. Julian Hanich and Martin P. Rossouw, 102-114. Berkeley: University of California Press 2023.
- Figuren in der Animation. In: Handbuch Animation Studies, edited by Franziska Bruckner, Julia Eckel, Erwin Feyersinger and Maike Reinerth. Wiesbaden: Springer 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-25978-5_26-1 .
- Film: The Affective Specificity of Audiovisual Media. In: The Routledge Companion to Literature and Emotion, ed. by Patrick Colm Hogan, Bradley Irish and Lalita Pandit Hogan, 354-365. New York: Routledge 2022.
- (with Britta Hartmann) Film Studies and Citizen Media. In: The Routledge Encyclopedia of Citizen Media, edited by Mona Baker, Bolette B. Blaagaard, Henry Jones and Luis Pérez-Gonzalez, 170-184. London: Routledge 2020.
- (with Chris Tedjasukmana) Video Activism on the Social Web. In: Radical Film Cultures:Networks, Organisations, Activists, edited by Steve Presence, Mike Wayne and Jack Newsinger, 41-52. New York: Routledge 2020.
- Rechte Videos und Affekte in Sozialen Medien. In: Zwischen Feindsetzung und Selbstviktimisierung: Gefühlspolitik und Ästhetik populistischer Kommunikation, edited by Lars Koch and Thomas König, 177-202. Frankfurt: Campus 2020.
- (together with Julian Hanich and Jane Stadler) Media and Emotion: An Introduction. In: NECSUS Special section #Emotions, edited by Jens Eder, Julian Hanich andJane Stadler, 1 June 2019. https://necsus-ejms.org/portfolio/spring-2019_emotions/
- Collateral Emotions: Political Web Videos and Divergent Audience Responses.’ In: Cognitive Theory and Documentary Film, edited by Catalin Brylla and Mette Kramer, 183-203. London: Palgrave Macmillan 2018.
- Empathie und existentielle Gefühle im Film. In: Empathie im Film. Ed. v. Íngrid Vendrell and Malte Hagener, 237-270. Bielefeld: Transcript 2017.
- Affective Image Operations. In: Image Operations.Visual Media and Political Conflict. Edited by Jens Eder and Charlotte Klonk, 63-78. Manchester: Manchester University Press 2017.
- Films and Existential Feelings. In: Projections.The Journal for Movies and Mind 10(2) 2016, 75-103.
- Aus der Täterperspektive: Nähe und Erkenntnis im Dokumentarfilm. Montage/AV 25/1/2016, 45-62.
- Transmediality and the Politics of Adaptation: Concepts, Forms and Strategies. In: The Politics of Adaptation.Media Convergence and Ideology, edited by Dan Hassler-Forest and Pascal Nicklas, 66-81. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2015.
- Bilder der Finanzkrise. Interventionen des Dokumentarfilms. Montage/AV 23/2/2015, 35-58.
- Film and Digital Media. In: The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, edited by Marie-Laure Ryan, Lorie Emerson and Benjamin Robertson, 191-196. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 2014.
Interviews on the research (selection)
- TV Diskurs 4, 2016 http://tvdiskurs.de/beitrag/das-portraet-jens-eder/
- Stichwort Drehbuch 9.2.2017 http://www.stichwortdrehbuch.de/podcast/2017-02-09_jens-eder