Kathrin Karsay is an Assistant Professor for Entertainment Research since September 2023. Her research focuses on media effects, particularly in entertainment media, and makes use of communication science and social psychological theories to explore topics, such as health and body image, media use among children and adolescents, and the role of mobile media. Her research has been funded by various third-party funding partners, such as FWF, FWO, and the City of Vienna, and her work has been published in several international journals, including Communication Research, Popular Media and Culture, and Media Psychology.

Currently, she is researching the representation of mental illness on TikTok and Instagram, the role of health influencers on social media through her FWF project HISM, and the use of so-called detox apps to deal with permanent digital connectivity.

Kathrin Karsay received her PhD in Communication from the University of Vienna in 2018. She was a research assistant and doctoral candidate there before becoming a Postdoctoral fellow in 2020-2021 and an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at the KU Leuven School for Mass Communication Research in Belgium from 2021-2023.