Lab Datafication and Mediatization

In June 2025, ZeMKI member professor Dr Andreas Hepp will address key questions on the transformation of public communication and the digital futures of communicative AI at two renowned events.

On June 13, 2025, as part of the ICA conference in Denver, a panel entitled “Critical Perspectives on Communicative AI and Society: Imaginaries, Data Infrastructures, Democracy, Silence and Automated Markets”took place.

How do we stay mentally strong in digital times? This question is at the center of three current lectures by Leif Kramp, which deal with the effects of the digital transformation on users and journalists.

What characterizes the “intellectual landscape” surrounding the development of artificial intelligence in California? ZeMKI member Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp is currently researching pioneering communities in Silicon Valley as a visiting scholar at Stanford University. Andreas Hepp will be working with the Silicon Valley Archives, among others, until October 20, 2025 as part of his research (…)

On June 7, 2025, the radio report "molo - Lokaljournalismus in einer App" by WDR5 is published.

On June 4, Niels Bibert successfully defended his dissertation at the KU Leuven entitled “An Odd Game? Understanding Esports Betting Access, Drivers and Consumption”.

The article published in 2024 entitled “Solving the crisis with ‘do-it-yourself heroes’? The media coverage on pioneer communities, Covid-19, and technological solutionism” in the journal ‘Communications’ is now also available in print.

In an article published by MDR on May 29, 2025, the local news app molo is presented as an alternative to large platforms such as Facebook and TikTok.

On May 22, 2025, the local news app “molo” will be presented at the 69th Conference for Urban Press Relations and Communication in Rostock.

An interview with ZeMKI member Dr. Philip Sinner served as the basis for the report “Sport für junge Zielgruppen” in the program “WDR 5 Töne, Texte, Bilder”.

ZeMKI members Andrea Grahl and Alex Krause will be holding a workshop on “molo – eine Plattform als neues soziales Medium für Stadt und Region” at re:publica 2025 on May 26 at 3 pm.

The 5th conference of the Qualitative Methods Network will take place in Cologne from May 7 to 9, 2025. The theme for 2025 is Digital Methods in Qualitative Social Research: Applications, Challenges, Reflections.

On May 7, 2025, Andreas Hepp will give a lecture at the Institute for Global Governance Research (GGR) at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. The lecture will explore the concept of digital futures and the research perspectives required to investigate them.

How can we research the digital future? ZeMKI member Professor Dr Andreas Hepp addresses this question in a new article published in the Berliner Journal für Soziologie.

ZeMKI member Dr. Rieke Böhling is publishing her dissertation on the question of how people with a 'migration background' remember the migration histories of their families.

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.

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.

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.

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 (…)

ZeMKI member Professor Dr. Andreas Hepp reports on the molo news platform on Deutschlandfunk's format @mediasres.

Horizont Editor Helena Birkner reports on the continuing success and development of the app 'molo'.

In one section of the new handbook on contexts of media reception, ZeMKI members Prof. Dr Andreas Hepp and Dr. Philip Sinner deal with the subject area of ‘Media reception, community and communitisation’.

ZeMKI member Prof. Dr Andreas Hepp, project manager of the ‘molo.news’ app, reported on the ad-free and data-saving news platform for local news in the Radio Eins podcast ‘Medienmagazin’ on 11 January 2025.

The ZeMKI Research Day will take place on January 24. At the internal event, current projects will be presented and discussed, overarching research perspectives will be developed at thematic tables and current questions from the ZeMKI doctoral program and from the group of postdocs will be discussed. The Research Day is taking place for the (…)