Teaching areas:
- Interdisciplinary journalistic projects:
Stuttgart Moderation Prize / Entertainment Campus HdM
- Journalism
- Social Media, and Democracy
- Moderation
- Video / Audio / Podcast Productions
Stephan Ferdinand has been a professor of journalism in the "Digital and Media Economics" program at the Faculty of Electronic Media at Stuttgart Media University (HdM) since 2001. Prior to this, the economics graduate worked for 14 years as a reporter, moderator, and editor for radio and television, primarily public broadcasters, most recently as head of the SDR radio department for economics, social policy, and transportation. At SWR, he developed the new SWR4 Radio Stuttgart program. Ferdinand is the director of the Institute for Moderation (imo) at HdM, where he has produced the educational podcast SPRICH:STUTTGART since 2020. In this podcast, prominent figures from Stuttgart's civic life talk about their experiences. Ferdinand, together with ARD anchor Prof. Ingo Zamperoni, launched the Stuttgart Moderation Prize in 2023. Outstanding journalistic moderators from across Germany are recognized in the categories of "Journalistic Quality," "Public Value," and "Presentation, Language, and Innovation." For twenty years, Ferdinand also headed the Steinbeis Transfer Center for Audiovisual Media, a hub connecting academia and media practice. He is a two-time recipient of the Ernst Schneider Journalism Prize awarded by the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce.