Winter Semester 26/27

Abstract: Shared matters of concern are fundamental to democratic life. Publics do not simply exist; they form around problems, controversies and consequences that come to matter. As Marres succinctly puts it: “no issue, no public.” But what happens when the conditions under which issues become visible, relevant and shared are increasingly organised by artificial intelligence?

Abstract: Can a robot teach a class? Can a chatbot earn a student's trust? For over a decade, our research has put machines in the teacher's chair: a bot answering health questions on Twitter, a telepresence robot delivering a business lecture, an AI voice judged against student assumptions about age and wisdom, a robotic pet keeping isolated college students company. Again, students rate these machine instructors as credible, and real learning happens, even when a human teacher still edges them out. Voice, appearance, and a machine's perceived age all shape how much students trust it. These findings raise a natural question: does the same hold outside the laboratory?

Abstract: In this talk, I describe and contextualize so-called "AI" by addressing, then quickly moving on from, its origins, technological underpinnings and specificities and turn to its deployment and rhetorical social and political dimensions and functions. For that, I introduce the metaphor of "the hydra" (from the mythical Hydra of Lerna), a multi-faceted beast whose head regrew as soon as another was severed from its body, always showing a different face and a seemingly indefatigable shapshifter.

Abstract: In this presentation, I introduce and develop the concept of boutique media to describe small-scale, personality-driven and affectively charged forms of journalism emerging in the wake of the decline of industrial news production. The presentation examines how journalists and other news creators respond to the reconfiguration of trust and authority in an era of “post-industrial” news production, in which social media platforms governed by algorithms have become the primary intermediaries for news.

On November 12, 2026, ZeMKI, in collaboration with Bremen Zwei and the Bremen Press Club, invites you to a media talk at Club27 in Bremen’s Schnoor district. Author Aron Boks and Prof. Dr. Cornelius Puschmann from ZeMKI will discuss “What the East Wants, What the West Sees.” The discussion will be moderated by Katharina Guleikoff of Bremen Zwei.

Abstract:   How did Deutschlandfunk cover the  beginnings of the Gaza War? What kinds of portrayals of violence prevailed, and which frameworks for understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were dominant in this time? This lecture focuses in particular on the role of scholars of Middle East politics and their scientific authority in the German public sphere. Who (…)

PhD student Anne Clausen from the Digital Democracy Centre, University of Southern Denmark presents findings from her PhD project ‘High Choice Platform Environments and the Spreading of Intolerance’ (2024-2027). The project focuses specifically on online hate speech targeting sexual and gender minorities.

Abstract:   The controlled substance “ibogaine” is reported to have unique addiction-interrupting properties. Due to its illegal status, the drug’s application for treating substance dependency has been explored by a network of addicts and harm reduction activists in underground and off-shore clinics. Söderberg presents the results of a several year-long, multi-site case study of a global (…)