ZeMKI Research Report 2016

Editorial

In the course of 2016, two major collaborative research projects involving the ZeMKI were successfully concluded: the priority programme “Mediatized Worlds” and the Creative Unit “Communicative Figurations”. The DFG-funded priority programme was established under the coordination of Prof. Dr. Friedrich Krotz in 2009/2010, and has since successfully examined the increasing penetration of culture and society by digital media. In addition to the coordination project, the ZeMKI was involved in three further projects on method development, schooling and communatization. The Creative Unit “Communicative Figurations”, co-ordinated by Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp, was about developing new approaches for the research of a media-related transformation of society. In the process, more and more questions of datafication, i.e. the role of data and algorithms for the communicative construction of social reality, came into focus. The Creative Unit has been supported by the University of Bremen’s future concept funded by the Excellence Initiative over a period of three years. Both research groups concluded with major international conferences, which are also documented in more detail in this research report. The final book publications will be published in 2017.

However, the contributions in this report also reflect the fact that research at the ZeMKI is not only composed of such large-scale projects. They document the diversity of the various individual, qualification and publication projects, which together stand for the interdisciplinary profile of the research centre. The report presents selected highlights from the last year.
In addition, 2016 was a sad one: Inge Marszolek, a long-standing and dedicated member, died unexpectedly. We also want to commemorate her in this research report.

Overall, we hope that this research report will provide an appropriate and easy-to-read insight into the activities of the ZeMKI in 2016.

We hope you enjoy reading!

The ZeMKI Research Report 2016 is available here.