Lab Platform Governance, Media and Technology
The Lab “Platform Governance, Media and Technology” examines the interactions between regulation, discourses and the development of technologies and business models. Digital platforms and new infrastructures, algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI) and data are currently fundamentally (re)organising communication, the public sphere and society. At the same time, these media, their technologies and economic structures are themselves (still) in a process of formation that is shaped by governance, regulation and public debate. How should platforms like Facebook and YouTube deal with disinformation campaigns and hate speech? What challenges does the increasing use of automation and AI bring? And how do public debates and perceptions of problems in turn impact back on regulation and technology development?
We explore these questions with a focus on three areas of work:
(1) Platform Governance and Economics;
(2) Institutionalisation of AI – Regulation, Discourses, Technology;
(3) Automation Regulation and Communication.
In several large international third-party funded projects on these topics, funded by the DFG, the EU’s H2020 framework programme, the BMBF, the Volkswagen Foundation and the Federal Agency for Civic Education (BpB), we collaborate with partners in France, UK, Canada, Switzerland, and Italy. In empirical studies, the Lab integrates computational methods and qualitative approaches. We attach great importance to the development of open data infrastructures (Platform Governance Archive), especially in the notoriously non-transparent research field of platform governance.

ZeMKI media and communication students part of Erasmus+ BIP held in Salerno
From May 26 to 30, 2025, the third edition of the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Program (BIP) organized by the Digital Constitutionalism Network took place in Salerno, Italy. Entitled “Digital Constitutionalism and Digital Sovereignty: Navigating Power and Rights in the Digital Age”, this international teaching program followed on successful BIP editions in Padua (2023) and at (…)
6. June 2025

Critical Times: Power and Politics in Tech Governance
- Datum: 3. June 2025
- Location: Kassenhalle, Forum am Domshof
19. May 2025

Christian Katzenbach as a guest at “Wissen um 11”
19. May 2025

The final program of the AoIR Flashpoint Symposium 2025 in Bremen
16. May 2025

Christian Katzenbach at the press conference on "Regulierung sozialer Medien und Tech-Giganten"
12. May 2025

Rebecca Scharlach elected to the Executive Committee of the AoIR
6. May 2025

Earth Day with ZeMKI: Six Research Projects on Communication and Climate
21. April 2025

Vasilisa Kuznetsova presenting at Spring School "Media Climate Justice" in Bochum
11. April 2025