Lukas Barbutev has been a Junior Researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) since April 2026. Within Research Programme 2, “Regulatory Structures and the Emergence of Rules in Online Spaces”, he is responsible for the German section of the Global Media & Internet Concentration Project (GMICP), under the direction of Dr. Tobias Mast.
Previously, he was involved in the project as a student research assistant for two and a half years. Most recently, he led the preparation of the German country report as part of the GMICP.
His research focuses on the economic analysis of media and internet concentration. In particular, he is interested in how the market power of digital platforms affects competition, media markets, and the structure of media ecosystems.
Lukas Barbutev studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at the University of Hamburg. In his master’s thesis, he quantitatively examined the digital transformation of major German publishing houses. From October 2026, he will pursue a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Neil Thurman at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), focusing on audience measurement.
