since 2023
Research associate at the Chair of Political Communication of Prof. Dr. Marcus Maurer at the Institute for Communication Studies of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Involvement in the DFG project “Critical Online Reasoning in Higher Education” (CORE). (www.core.uni-mainz.de).

2020 to 2023
Master’s program in Communication and Media Research at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt (Austria).

2016 to 2020
Bachelor’s program in Communication Studies and History at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

During his studies, internships at Handelsverband Mitte e.V. and the Media Authority of Rhineland-Palatinate. Additionally, worked as a Personal Assistant at the Media Authority of Rhineland-Palatinate.

main research areas

  • Political Communication
  • Disinformation Research
  • Media and Information Literacy
  • Entertainment Media in Political Communication
  • Political Communication
  • Disinformation Research
  • Media and Information Literacy
  • Entertainment Media in Political Communication
  • Kruschinski, S., Jost, P., Fecher, H., & Scherer, T. (2025). Artificial Intelligence in Political Campaigns. Acceptance, Perception, and Impact. Frankfurt am Main. (download)
  • Scherer, T., Laufer, A., Maurer, M., & Schemer, C. (in press). Assessing the information quality of online sources used by first year students for solving generic Critical Online Reasoning tasks. Z Erziehungswiss.
  • Scherer, T. & Dogruel, L. (2024). Being prepared to distinguish fact from fake: The effect of media literacy on detecting deepfakes [Abstract]. Multidisciplinary International Symposium on Disinformation in Open Online Media (MISDOOM) – Book of Abstracts. Münster: University of Münster.
  • Schemer, C., Maurer, M., Laufer, A., & Scherer, T. (2023). B04: Analysis of the Accuracy and Comprehensibility of Media Content Used by Medical and Economics Students in Higher Education Online Learning Settings. In O. Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, J. Fischer & D. Molerov (Eds.), Critical Online Reasoning in Higher Education (CORE) – overview of the research unit: Objectives, framework, structure, and research projects (CORE Working Papers, Vol. 1, pp. 21-23). Mainz: Johannes Gutenberg University. (Link)

Consultation hour: by appointment
Georg-Forster-Building, Room 01-325

Postal address:
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Institute for Communication Studies
Tobias Scherer
Jakob-Welder-Weg 12
55128 Mainz

  • Scherer, T., Laufer, A., Maurer, M., & Schemer, C. (2025). Information quality of online sources used by first-semester students when solving generic COR tasks. Presentation at the 2025 conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) from August 25 to 30 in Graz.
  • Scherer, T., Laufer, A., Maurer, M., & Schemer, C. (2025). Incomplete, incorrect, and unbalanced? The quality of online content used by students for solving COR tasks. Presentation at the 12th conference of the Society for Empirical Educational Research from January 27 to 29 in Mannheim.
  • Scherer, T. & Dogruel, L. (2024). Being prepared to distinguish fact from fake: The effect of media literacy on detecting deepfakes. Presentation in the webinar “Developing digital literacies in algorithmic culture” of the ECREA TWG Media Literacies and Communication Competencies on October 22, 2024.
  • Scherer, T. & Dogruel, L. (2024). Being prepared to distinguish fact from fake: The effect of media literacy on detecting deepfakes. Presentation at the “Multidisciplinary International Symposium on Disinformation in Open Online Media (MISDOOM)” from September 2 to 4, 2024 in Münster.