Lab Media Change and Long-Term Transformation Processes

ZeMKI members Prof. Dr. Christian Schwarzenegger and Katharina Schöppl are speaking today, April 9, 2026, at the ECREA Journalism Section conference on the topic "The threads behind the trends." They will present a paper titled "Emotional Belonging Against Epistemic Uncertainty? Understanding Alternative Media Use Beyond Ideology".

The article “Counter publicity as a feeling? Alternative media and public dissent as the will and imagination of their users” co-authored by the ZeMKI members Katharina Schöppl and Christian Schwarzenegger, is awarded second prize for the best communication studies journal article of 2025 at the DGPuK 2026 conference.

For 2026, the ZeMKI Steering Committee has selected seven international visiting scholars as part of the Visiting Research Fellowship program. Each fellow will spend at least four weeks collaborating with selected ZeMKI Labs.

Zemki member Sandra Kero was interviewed in a television report by Sat.1 REGIONAL as an expert on media communication and the construction of gender roles.

SpringerVS has published a new methods volume entitled “Exploring Media, Data, and Networking Practices: Methodological Concepts and Research Software,” edited by ZeMKI members Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp, Florian Hohmann, and Dr. Philip Sinner.

ZeMKI members Dr. Erik Koenen and Simon Sax publish the book "Prodemokratische Propaganda, Pressekultur und politische Kommunikation in der Weimarer Republik" in 2025.

ZeMKI member Sandra Kero recently published an article together with Dr. Josephine B. Schmitt (CAIS) entitled “Narrative, Creative – Immersive? The Immersive Potential of Right-Wing Extremist Communication on Social Media”.

ZeMKI members Sandra Kero and Rieke Böhling will participate in the joint conference of the DGPuK specialist groups on media, public relations, gender, and visual communication from November 19 to 21.