Presentations by ZeMKI members at the 76th Annual ICA Conference, “Communication and Inequalities in Context”
1. June 2026
The 76th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) will take place from June 2 to 8 in Cape Town, South Africa. This year’s conference is themed “Communication and Inequalities in Context” and will bring together over 2,900 researchers in the field of communication studies. ZeMKI will be represented at the conference by several members, who will present their own research during the event.
List of Presentations with ZeMKI Members:
Thursday June 4, 14:15 – 15:00, Protea (CTICC2, Lev 1): “ “Loops of emergence”: How communicative AI’s inequalities emerge in recursivity tension between sociomaterial constitution and domain-specific appropriation”
- Wiebke Loosen, Leibniz Institute for Media Research, Hans-Bredow-Institute, GERMANY
- Andreas Hepp, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Friday June 5, 10:30 – 11:45, Bluebell (CTICC2, Lev 3): “Anger-Driven Climate-Skeptic Message Propagation during the 2021 German Elections”
- Nicola Righetti, U of Urbino Carlo Bo, ITALY
- Petro Tolochko, U of Vienna, AUSTRIA
- Aytalina Kulichkina, U of Vienna, AUSTRIA
- Azade Kakavand, Leibniz Institute for Media Research, Hans-Bredow-Institute, GERMANY
- Daisuke Nakamura, U of Vienna, AUSTRIA
- Yuru Li, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Paul Pressmann, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Stephanie Geise, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Annie Waldherr, U of Vienna, AUSTRIA
Friday June 5, 10:30 – 11:45 Westin Ballroom East (Westin, Old Harbour Level): “Activism, Communication, and Social Justice Research Escalator”
- Christian Schwarzenegger, U of Bremen, GERMANY as Activism, Communication and Social Justice Chair
Friday June 5, 12:00–13:15, 1.64 (CTICC1, Lev 1): “From Clicks to Action: Investigating the Relationship between Climate News Exposure and Political Participation”
- Patrick Zerrer, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Vasilisa Kuznetsova, Weizenbaum Institute & ZeMKI, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Hendrik Meyer, U of Hamburg, GERMANY
- Lisa Merten, Leibniz Institute for Media Research, Hans-Bredow-Institute, GERMANY
- Cornelius Puschmann, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Friday June 5, 13:30–14:45, 2.44-2.46 (CTICC1, Lev 2): “Criminals or Heroes? How Media Portrayals of Climate Activists Shape Affective Polarization”
- Clara Schultz, Friedrich Schiller U Jena, GERMANY
- Lisa Merten, Leibniz Institute for Media Research, Hans-Bredow Institute, GERMANY
- Edda Humprecht, Friedrich Schiller U Jena, GERMANY
- Cornelius Puschmann, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Friday June 5, 15:00–16:15 CTICC BALLROOM WEST (CTICC1, Lev 1): “(HYBRID) Curating Reality: Gatekeeping and Digital Capital in the Age of Algorithms”
- Andreas Hepp, U of Bremen, GERMANY as Interdivisional Chair
Friday June 5, 16:30–17:45 Westin Ballroom East (Westin, Old Harbour Level): “Activism, Communication, and Social Justice Business Meeting”
- Rasha El-Ibiary, Nile U, EGYPT as Activism, Communication and Social Justice Chair
- Elisabetta Ferrari, Aarhus U, DENMARK as Activism, Communication and Social Justice Chair
- Christian Schwarzenegger, U of Bremen, GERMANY as Activism, Communication and Social Justice Chair
Saturday June 6, 9:00–10:15 1.44 (CTICC1, Lev 1): “Elaboration of Multimodal Frames in News Reception: A Mixed-Method Eye-Tracking and Think-Aloud Study”
- Stephanie Geise, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Nieki Samar, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Saturday June 6, 12:00–13:15, 2.61-2.63 (CTICC1, Lev 2): “Epistemic Expectations and Contested Knowledge: Seeking or Managing Truth(s) in Alternative Media Repertoires”
- Jule Ubben, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Christian Schwarzenegger, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Saturday June 6, 13:30–14:45, 1.43 (CTICC1, Lev 1): “Entertainment Media: Algorithmic Bias, Structural Power, and the Reproduction of Social Inequality”
- Paloma Otero, U of Bremen, GERMANY as Media Industry Studies Chair
Saturday June 6, 13:30–14:45, Freesia (CTICC2, Lev 2): “Media Practices of Contradicting by Far-Right Actors”
- Hanna-Sophie Ruess, U of Augsburg, GERMANY
- Susanne Kinnebrock, U of Augsburg, GERMANY
- Michael Johann, U of Augsburg, GERMANY
- Christian Schwarzenegger, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Annett Heft, U of Tübingen, GERMANY
- Yanran Gong, U of Texas at Austin, USA
- Zhi Lin, U of Texas at Austin, USA
Sunday June 7, 10:30–11:45, Edward & Schappen (Westin, Mezzanine Level): “Flags, Identities and the Flaying Field”:
- Philip Sinner, U of Bremen, GERMANY als Chair of Standard Paper Session
Sunday June 7, 10:30–11:45, 1.64 (CTICC1, Lev 1): “MEOW-ney in AI: Exposure Payments, Deepseek Breakthroughs, and Preferred Rules”
- Andreas Hepp, U of Bremen, GERMANY as Communication and Technology Chair
Sunday June 7, 10:30–11:45, Westin Ballroom West (Westin, Old Harbour Level): “Leveraging LLMs in Survey Research: Towards an Issue Polarization Scale from Open Text Responses Research Escalator, Comp Methods Division”
- Paul Pressmann, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Cornelius Puschmann, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Sunday June 7, 12:00–13:15, Edward & Schappen (Westin, Mezzanine Level): “ “If We Bombed London…” Language of Conflict in the Media Statements of Russian Sports Officials during Wartime”
- Gleb Tomashevskii, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Philip Sinner, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Sunday June 7, 13:30–14:45, de Gama (Westin, Old Harbour Level): “Rethinking War Photography in the Digital Age: An Analysis of Press Photographs from 2005 to 2025”
- Stephanie Geise, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Elira Turdubaeva, International Ala-Too U, KYRGYZSTAN
- Fritz Cropp, U of Missouri in Columbia, USA
Sunday June 7, 15:00–16:15, 2.64 (CTICC1, Level 2): “You’ve Got the Power(?) Playlist Curation as a Technology of the Self on Music Streaming Platforms”
- Xavier Saldes Martí, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Philip Sinner, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Christian Schwarzenegger, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Sunday June 7, 15:00–16:15, Bluebell (CTICC2, Lev 3): “Engineering Diversity? Exploring Hidden Diversification Labels on TikTok and Their Role in Algorithmic Recommendations”
- Vasilisa Kuznetsova, Weizenbaum Institute & U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Yuru Li, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Paul Pressmann, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Sunday June 7, 16:30–17:45, Edward & Schappen (Westin, Mezzanine Level): “A Reinforcing Spiral? Online News Exposure and Polarization in the Climate Discourse”
- Lisa Merten, Leibniz Institute for Media Research, Hans-Bredow-Institut, GERMANY
- Clara Schultz, Leibniz Institute for Media Research, Hans-Bredow-Institut, GERMANY
- Cornelius Puschmann, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Patrick Zerrer, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Edda Humprecht, Friedrich Schiller U Jena, GERMANY
- Helena Rauxloh, GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, GERMANY
- Sebastian Stier, GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, GERMANY
- Juhi Kulshrestha, Aalto U, FINLAND
Monday June 8, 9:00–10:15, CTICC Ballroom West (CTICC1, Lev 1): “(HYBRID) HIGH-DENSITY: Political Communication, Disinformation, and Democratic Crisis”
- Christian Schwarzenegger, U of Bremen, GERMANY as Theme Chair
Monday June 8, 9:00–10:15, de Gama (Westin, Old Harbour Level): “Becoming Champions: Postfeminist Freedom and Neoliberal Constraint in Alpine Youth Culture”
- Thomas Neumann, U of Klagenfurt, AUSTRIA
- Joerg-Uwe Nieland, U of Klagenfurt, AUSTRIA
- Philip Sinner, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Monday June 8, 10:30–11:45, 1.62 (CTICC1, Lev 1): “The Devil Is in the Details: The Politics of Value Specification in AI Governance”
- Rebecca Scharlach, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- CJ Reynolds, U of Copenhagen, DENMARK
- Vasilisa Kuznetsova, Weizenbaum Institute & U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Blake Hallinan, Aarhus U, DENMARK
- Christian Katzenbach, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Monday June 8, 10:30–11:45, Watsonia (CTICC2, Lev 3): “Feel Informed to Be Informed? Rethinking News-ness through the Sense-Making-Practices of Alternative Media Users”
- Katharina Schöppl, U of Mannheim, GERMANY
- Christian Schwarzenegger, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Monday June 8, 10:30–11:45, de Gama (Westin, Old Harbour Level): “Football Fandom and Media Use: Exploring Team Identification and Team Loyalty among Colombian Football Fans”
- Philip Sinner, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Paloma Otero, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Monday June 8, 12:00–13:15, 1.44 (CTICC1, Lev 1): “Silicon Valley’s Slippery Futures: Artificial General Intelligence, Technofascism, and the Limits of Reinventing the World”
- Andreas Hepp, U of Bremen, GERMANY as Philosophy, Theory and Critique Chair
Monday June 8, 12:00–13:15, 1.44 (CTICC1, Lev 1): “On the Paradox of Superintelligence: The “Ideological Flip-Flop” of AGI and the Threat to the Future”
- Andreas Hepp, U of Bremen, GERMANY
Monday June 8, 13:30–14:45, Protea (CTICC2, Lev 1): “Studying Digital Activism in the Age of Big Data: A Systematic Review of Online Protest Research”
- Annett Heft, U of Tübingen, GERMANY
- Valerie Hase, Ludwig-Maximilian-U Munich, GERMANY
- Merja Mahrt, Weizenbaum Institute, GERMANY
- Stephanie Geise, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Julia Niemann-Lenz, German Center for Higher Education and Science Studies, GERMANY
Monday June 8, 15:00–16:15, Protea (CTICC2, Lev 1): “Framing, Activism, and Social Justice”
- Christian Schwarzenegger, U of Bremen, GERMANY as Activism, Communication and Social Justice Chair
Monday June 8, 15:00–16:15, Orchid (CTICC2, Lev 2): “Against the Tide: Tracing Media Persistence through Big Tech’s Enclosure (2005–2025)”
- Paloma Otero, U of Bremen, GERMANY
- Elizabeth Ferries, U College Dublin, IRELAND
- Eugenia Siapera, U College Dublin, IRELAND
You can view the full program here.
About ICA26
The International Communication Association (ICA) is a global academic association that brings together researchers, educators, and practitioners from all areas of communication studies. Its annual conference promotes international exchange on current research findings. This year’s theme, “Communication and Inequalities in Context,” invites critical reflection on the dynamics between communication and inequality in various social, cultural, and geographical contexts. With over 600 sessions and more than 3,000 presenters, the conference will also be held in a hybrid format to enable global participation.