ZeMKI Research Report 2011

Editorial

Foreword by the Vice-Rector for Research and Early-Career Researchers

2011 was a special year in the history of the University of Bremen: In its 40th year after being founded, it achieved an important milestone in its bid to become the first university in north-western Germany to be awarded excellence status. The university was invited to submit a full application for the “Ambitious and agile” future concept. This underlines in particular the high motivation of all faculties at the University of Bremen to work on pressing research issues with experimentation and commitment, flexibility and a willingness to cooperate. The Center for Media, Communication and Information Research – ZeMKI for short – has also contributed to this as an interdisciplinary research center. With its integrative approach, it brings together outstanding researchers and their projects from the fields of communication and media studies, cultural studies, computer science and educational science.
2011 was also an important year for the ZeMKI. The former Institute for Media, Communication and Information was not only given a new name, but also an even more ambitious research agenda: ZeMKI is responsible for one of the university’s newest research groups, which deals with “Communicative Figurations of Mediatized Worlds”. The research groups at the University of Bremen form the innovative heart of the coordinated research in the Excellence Initiative, alongside the established key research areas and the central scientific institutions. With its five interlinked research labs, the ZeMKI is working on important research questions and promises valuable findings in the fields of media history and developmental shifts, forms of communication and perception, networking and community processes as well as learning and educational organizations.
I would like to take this first ZeMKI research report as an opportunity to congratulate all the staff involved on the great strides the Center has made over the past six years. The move to new premises in Linzer Straße has done justice to the institutional dynamics as well as the overall very lively and pleasing research management with numerous research projects.
The ZeMKI stands for exemplary productivity, which is reflected in the numerous publications of its members, as well as for conscientious and responsible research. This research report bears witness to this. I wish the ZeMKI continued dynamic development and all conceivable success to its members.

Prof. Dr. Rolf Drechsler
Vice-Rector for Research and young scientists

The ZeMKI Research Report 2011 with a review of the history of the institute since 2005 can be downloaded here.