International Anniversary Conference "20 Years into the Future: What is our vision of media, data, and society?"
ZeMKI, Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research
The Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) is one of nine central research units at the University of Bremen and is one of the important European institutions researching questions into media-related transformations at the interface of the cultural, social, and technical sciences. Our research focuses on the emerging digital society in terms of the inequalities it generates while probing the historicity of their genesis and the challenges posed by algorithmic systems, automation, and the burgeoning datafied society.
New publication by Paloma Viejo Otero and Rebecca Scharlach
ZeMKI members Dr. Paloma Viejo Otero and Dr. Rebecca Scharlach published their new paper “‘We do not marshal your feed’: How Alt Tech platforms (re) conceptualise safety” in the Platforms & Society Journal. Find the link to the full article here.
21. March 2025
Kathrin Trattner: Guest at the arte_tv Gaming Stream on Civilization VII
ZeMKI member Dr. Kathrin Trattner was part of the format “Couchwissen” of the twitch channel of arte_tv on the topic Civilization VII.
21. March 2025
Call for Papers for the Journal gamevironments Special Issue 2026
ZeMKI members Prof Dr Kerstin-Radde Antweiler, Prof Dr Karsten D. Wolf and Prof Dr Christian Schwarzenegger are guest editors for the currently advertised special issue “Beyond Play: The Transformative Power of Digital Gaming in a Deeply Meditized Society” of the journal gamevironments.
19. March 2025
ZeMKI speakers at the 70th DGPuK Annual Conference in Berlin
The 70th annual conference of the DGPuK with the topic “Public spheres and their values” will take place from March 19-21, 2025 in Berlin. You can find out which ZeMKI members have been invited as speakers in the following article.
18. March 2025
Kathrin Trattner: Interview on radio station FM4
ZeMKI member Dr. Kathrin Trattner was interviewed by the Austrian public radio station FM4 on the topic of “Right-wing extremism and games culture”. The interview can be accessed here.
13. March 2025
Miira Hill and Cornelius Puschmann at workshop on AI in scientific research
Miira Hill and Cornelius Puschmann from the DCID-Lab will give a talk at the workshop “Large Language Models for the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science” at TU Berlin. The event from April 2 to 4, 2025 is open to the public and free of charge.
12. March 2025
Dissertation by Katharina Heitmann-Werner: Zivilgesellschaft und Stadtteilöffentlichkeit
Katharina Heitmann-Werner examines, using the approach of communicative configuration, how urban public spheres are constituted by civil society actors and analyzes their communication strategies and networks in local public spheres.
10. March 2025
ComAI featured in taz: Researching Societal Communication in the Age of AI
The research group “Communicative AI” (ComAI) was featured in a recent taz article. It explores the central question of our project: How does societal communication change when Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes part of it?
10. March 2025
Paul Pressmann undertakes POLTRACK research stay in Brisbane, Australia
ZeMKI member Paul Pressmann has completed a one-month research stay at the DMRC (Digital Media Research Centre) of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia, to further expand international cooperation within the POLTRACK project.
9. March 2025
ZeMKI Visiting Research Fellows 2025
From over 150 applications, the steering committee of the Center for Media, Communication and Information Research at the University of Bremen selected five researchers who will work together with at least two ZeMKI labs in interdisciplinary research for four weeks each until the end of 2025.
2. March 2025
Stephanie Geise as a guest on buten un binnen's thematic week “Denken & Gedanken“
ZeMKI member Stephanie Geise talks about how images can manipulate our thoughts, especially when it comes to political election campaigns, in the new part of the buten un binnen thematic week “Denken & Gedanken“ on February 27.
28. February 2025
Review of media talk with Jens Radü: How do editorial offices deal with the use of AI?
In the media talk, which took place on January 21 at the Bremen Press Club, Jens Radü, head of the German magazine DER SPIEGEL, shared, among other things, how editorial offices deal with the use of AI.
26. February 2025
Session 17 of "Behind the Scenes" Online Talk Series with Tom Divon & Carolina Are
In the next session of the PGMT-Lab online talk series "Behind the Scenes - Conversations on Empirical Platform Governance Research", Tom Divon and Dr. Carolina Are will be guests on the topic of "Platform Gaslighting".
24. February 2025
Stephanie Geise as an interview guest in the online magazine ‘up2date.’
In an interview with the University of Bremen's online magazine, ZeMKI member Professor Dr. Stephanie Geise reports on how dangerous AI-generated images can be for democracy and what measures can ensure transparency and integrity.
24. February 2025
Review of media talk with Jens Radü: Does artificial intelligence scare you?
With the involvement of the audience, one of the questions discussed at the media talk on “AI in journalism” on January 21 was: “Does artificial intelligence scare you?”.
18. February 2025
Cornelius Puschmann as an interview guest in the online magazine “up2date.”
In an interview with the University of Bremen's online magazine, ZeMKI member Cornelius Puschmann explains what consequences the abolition of moderation mechanisms on platforms such as X and Facebook could have for democracy.
18. February 2025
Review: ZeMKI media talk with Jens Radü on the topic of ‘AI in journalism’
On Tuesday, 21 January, the ZeMKI and Radio Bremen jointly hosted a media talk on the topic of ‘AI in journalism’ at the Bremen Press Club.
17. February 2025
Christian Katzenbach as an interview guest in the online magazine ‘up2date.’
In an interview with the University of Bremen's online magazine, ZeMKI member Professor Dr. Christian Katzenbach reports on how the denial of responsibility by large tech companies such as Meta and X can affect democracy.
11. February 2025
Stephanie Geise on the election campaign on social media
ZeMKI member Prof. doctor Stephanie Geise in the current article by "buten un binnen" examining how the top candidates of the Bremen parties design their campaign strategies on social media.
10. February 2025
Guest Lectures on Platform Governance and Social Justice in Dublin
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Paloma Viejo Otero, from our ZeMKI’s Lab Platform Governance, Media, and Technology, is delivering two guest lectures at University College Dublin (UCD) on February 18 & 20, 2025.
10. February 2025
Session 16 of "Behind the Scenes" Online Talk Series with Emillie de Keulenaar
In the next session of the PGMT-Lab online talk series ‘Behind the Scenes - Conversations on Empirical Platform Governance Research’, Emillie de Keulenaar from the University of Groningen will be our guest.
7. February 2025
OpenQDA 1.0 – A Major Update for a Better User Experience!
We are excited to announce the release of OpenQDA 1.0! This major update brings numerous improvements that make working with OpenQDA even more intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable.
4. February 2025
Hepp and Radde-Antweiler elected to ZeMKI spokespersons for a further two years
At the ZeMKI General Assembly on January 24, 2025, Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp (right) and Prof. Dr. Kerstin Radde-Antweiler (left) were confirmed in office as ZeMKI spokespersons for a further two years. In addition, Sandra Kero (center) was elected as a new representative of the doctoral students for the ZeMKI Steering Committee. Kero has been (…)
27. January 2025
Developments in Internet censorship in Russia
In her article „Shutting down the net: The growing threat of Russian internet censorship“, from January 22, 2025, ZeMKI member Dr. Daria Dergacheva sums up the latest developments in internet censorship in Russia.
23. January 2025