
ZeMKI Doctoral Program
What is the ZeMKI doctoral program?
The ZeMKI doctoral program deals with media and communication change in the present and past. In profoundly mediatized societies, popular culture, politics, everyday life, education, religion and art are changing. Not only do changing digital infrastructures play a role here, but also innovative practices of media use and datafication. As phenomena in these subject areas are multi-layered, the doctoral program as a whole is based on a broad interdisciplinary approach in order to strengthen the respective disciplinary doctorates. The joint exchange from different perspectives promotes understanding and enables creative approaches to solutions and research, also in each individual discipline.
The aim of the ZeMKI doctoral program at the University of Bremen is to provide cooperative and collegial support for its doctoral candidates. Participants must be enrolled as doctoral candidates at the University of Bremen and be supervised by professors working at the ZeMKI. The doctoral program is based on a binding doctoral agreement, it separates supervision from assessment and gives doctoral candidates broad opportunities to develop and complete their dissertation projects in a constructive environment.
Which disciplines are involved in the doctoral program?
The disciplines involved in the doctoral program are broad. In addition to communication and media studies, they include history, film studies, religious studies, sociology, political science, education and computer science.
1st Year | Focus: exposé
Participation in events | Course leader | Frequency/Duration & Semester |
Block event: “Exposé and Project Development” | 2 professors at ZeMKI | 3x 1 day in Winter or Summer Semester |
Block event for the presentation and discussion of the projects / project ideas | Supervising professors at ZeMKI | 1x 1 day in the semester |
Workshops on self-selected topics | PhD students | at least 1x year x 1 day |
Method exercises of the MA programs of the ZeMKI | Changing professors at ZeMKI | 2 SWS in Summer Semester |
Methods groups | PhD students | at least 1x semester x 1 day |
Topic groups | PhD students | at least 1x semester x 1 day |
Lab Colloquia | Lab heads | several times a semester |
ZeMKI- Colloquia | Changing professors at ZeMKI | several times a semester |
Optional events (subject-related events, key qualifications, professional career) | International Summer Schools, BYRD, Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institute, external lecturers | different |
2nd Year | Focus: empiricism
Participation in events | Course leader | Frequency/Duration & Semester |
Block event for the presentation and discussion of the projects / project ideas | Supervising professors at ZeMKI | 1x 1 day in the semester |
Workshops on self-selected topics | PhD students | at least 1x year x 1 day |
Methods groups | PhD students | at least 1x semester x 1 day |
Subject groups | PhD students | at least 1x semester x 1 day |
Lab Colloquia | Lab heads | several times a semester |
ZeMKI- Colloquia | Changing professors at ZeMKI | several times a semester |
Optional events (subject-related events, key qualifications, professional career) | International Summer Schools, BYRD, Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institute, external lecturers | different |
3rd Year / if necessary 4th Year | Focus: writing
Participation in events | Course leader | Frequency/Duration & Semester |
Block event for the presentation and discussion of the projects / project ideas | Supervising professors at ZeMKI | 1x 1 day in the semester |
Workshops on self-selected topics | PhD students | at least 1x year x 1 day |
Methods groups | PhD students | at least 1x semester x 1 day |
Subject groups | PhD students | at least 1x semester x 1 day |
Lab Colloquia | Lab heads | several times a semester |
ZeMKI- Colloquia | Changing professors at ZeMKI | several times a semester |
Optional events (subject-related events, key qualifications, professional career) | International Summer Schools, BYRD, Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut, external lecturers | different |
Closing Colloquia | Changing professors at ZeMKI | 1x in final phase of the dissertation |
Exchange and Networking
Lab Colloquia | Each ZeMKI-Lab organizes regular colloquium dates in the semester for a scientific exchange. The dates are organized internally by the Labs, but they are open to the other members by arrangement. Regular participation in the Labs’ appointments is explicitly desired. |
ZeMKI Colloquia | The research colloquium takes place regularly on Wednesdays between 12 and 14 o’clock and includes lectures by the ZeMKI Fellows on current research projects followed by a question and discussion session. It is open to all PhD students and regular attendance is encouraged. |
Day of Research | The research day takes place once a semester. It gives an opportunity to present project work as well as individual work within ZeMKI in different formats (e.g. presentation, sketch, data session etc.). It is not necessary to present a finished project, workshop reports are also welcome. Doctoral students are also explicitly invited to provide insights into their dissertation projects. |
Brestolon | The ZeMKI is part of the BREmen-STOckholm-LONdon network, which meets once a year at one of the locations. It offers PhD students the opportunity to present their dissertation projects and get feedback from the other participants. An application to participate is required. |
Summer/Winter Schools | The ZeMKI supports the participation in Summer Schools (e.g.: ECREA Summer School) and Winter Schools (e.g.: Digital Methods Initiative Amsterdam) for further education. An application for participation is necessary. |
Erasmus | Within the framework of the Erasmus program, doctoral students can take advantage of a stay at a partner university as doctoral students or lecturers (with a teaching assignment). |
Thematic clusters
The study group is concerned with the exchange of content and methodology on digital communication in political contexts. Specifically, the group is interested in phenomena of political participation on the Internet, the transformation of the political public sphere through digital media, the transformative effect of digital media for political systems, the use of political media content, the representation of political actors on the Internet, the dissemination of political news and its credibility. The study group aims to follow current research in these areas and to exchange theoretical, content-related and methodological findings. Among other things, they meet for a reading circle.
Events of the doctoral program

PhD Writing Week 2024
- Datum: 16. September 2024 – 20. September 2024
The Writing Retreat 2024 to this year is scheduled from September 16 to September 20. This Writing Week is designed to support the academic progress of doctoral candidates by providing an environment perfectly suited for focused writing and research. Situated in the picturesque north of Germany, this retreat offers participants a chance to advance their (…)
13. May 2024

Academic Project Management
- Datum: 10. July 2024 – 10. July 2024
- Location: Bremen
We are pleased to invite you to our workshop “Academic Project Management.” Effective time management and self-organization is a prerequisite for graduates. But how do you manage to structure your everyday life and keep your planning and goals under control, maintain an overview and avoid chaotic time pressure situations? This workshop explores these questions and (…)
13. May 2024

Successfully Connecting Theory and Methods in the Thesis
- Datum: 3. July 2024 – 3. July 2024
- Location: Bremen
We are pleased to invite you to our workshop “Successfully Connecting Theory and Methods in the Thesis.” Learn from Prof. Andreas Hepp, Prof. Christian Schwarzenegger and Prof. Stephanie Geise how to effectively integrate theoretical and methodological approaches in your thesis. The workshop is about reflecting on how theoretical work and empirical research can be related (…)
13. May 2024

Qualitative Interviews und digitale Verhaltensdaten
- Datum: 17. May 2024 – 5. July 2024
- Location: Bremen
We are excited to invite you to a method-focused seminar on the integration of qualitative interviews and digital behavioral data, hosted by Lisa Merten from the Leibniz Institute for Media Research. The seminar will consist of various sessions aimed at exploring the utilization of digital trace data in conjunction with qualitative interviews. We will delve (…)
2. May 2024
Selected doctoral projects

- PhD project
The Visual Framing of Politicians' Self-Presentation on Instagram and its Influence on Online Political Participation
Political actors use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to influence potential voters and other key audiences such as journalists and civil society actors. This research will examine the self-promotion strategy of politicians from the perspective of visual framing and textual framing on Instagram. For data analysis, supervised deep learning will be used to (…)

- PhD project
Value Formations in a Video-Game-Franchise. A Comparison of Value Formations in “The Last of Us” (2013) and “The Last of Us: Part II” (2020) (seit 2020)
The video games “Last of Us” (2013) and “Last of Us 2” (2020) caused heated discussions during their release periods. While the first game prompted players’ to reflect on their moral compass through depictions of difficult decisions in crisis situations, the second instalment, published in the middle of the corona-pandemic, caused a polarizing controversy about (…)

- PhD project
Journalistic Tools as "Boundary Objects" - A Media-Ethnographic Study of their Specifics as well as Dynamics of Development and Appropriation in Journalism
The dissertation focuses on new journalistic tools under the conditions of digital media change. The tools are understood as „boundary objects“ (Star&Griesemer, 1989). Such a socio-technological perspective makes it possible to analyze their (technical) specifics as well as to grasp the negotiation processes in the context of concrete development and appropriation processes. Methodologically, the work (…)

- PhD project
Journalistic narratives after the audience turn: How new journalistic narratives address their audience
PhD project On the internet, the old business model of mass media is no longer viable and journalism must seek the attention of the audience in the area of conflict between quality reporting and personalized experience. An audience turn has taken place, which is also changing journalistic narrative styles.Hendrik Kühn’s dissertation project examines how this (…)

- PhD project
The sustainable development of research software for media and communication studies
PhD project The research field of communication and media studies has changed significantly in recent decades with the spread of the internet and advancing digitalization. This applies not only to the subject area itself, but also to the methodological approach used to analyze it. Research software is an important tool in the implementation of numerous (…)

- PhD project
The Aesthetic Dimension of Mental Illness
Films can impressively shape the everyday image of mental disorders (mental illness) and develop complex forms of expression for the representation of mental disorders that go beyond the scientific descriptions (such as the ICD-10 or DSM). In addition, they reflect scientific characterizations of mental disorders and open up new, everyday-based insights for the health sciences. (…)

- PhD project
Data Pratice in School Social Work
When looking at the interface between school social work and digitalization, it becomes clear that there is little knowledge and even less insight into the interactions between them. The literature states, among other things, that digitalization “just happens” (Ermel 2020: 42). Nevertheless, it is becoming apparent that digital media affect school social work at different (…)

- PhD project
Among Anti-Vaxxers, Esoterics and Right-Wing Radicals: Anti-Covid Communities’ Social Media Activism on Telegram
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, various groups in Germany and other global regions have protested against governmental measures implemented to combat the virus. The Covid-skeptic scene in Germany particularly utilizes the social media platform Telegram for information exchange and the coordination of protest activities. In my PhD project, distinct anti-Covid communities on Telegram (…)

- PhD project
AI Imaginaries - The Role of (Social Media) Platforms in Shaping (Public) Future Perspectives of Technical Development
Artificial intelligence is considered a key technology today, even if it is interpreted in different and ambiguous ways. As AI products become part of everyday life, new fears of job losses and promises to lighten the workload are emerging, impacting major public investment in research and industry and being reflected in political discourse and legislation. (…)

- PhD project
Agenda Setting and Discursive Power in the German AI Discourse
Due to promises of groundbreaking technologies and a considerable hype, the issue of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is receiving increasing attention. Besides the focus on innovation driven by actors in business and research, it is primarily political and media actors who take on ethical and legal considerations, such as human-centredness or discrimination, and thus shape the (…)

- PhD project
The Construction of Mental Health among Muslim Influencers on Instagram. A comparative Study between German and Tunisian Actors.
“Can only a Muslim therapist really treat me well? How important is it that the therapist has the same faith?” These questions come from a post on the Instagram page of a German influencer of Muslim faith. Like many other influencers on Instagram, the influencer “psych.beck” deals with questions about mental health, self-care, nutrition, fitness (…)

- PhD project
Claimspotting: On the Role and Automation of Fact-Checking
Disinformation and fake news are not new, but digitalization and mediatization have taken the problem to a new level. The dissertation project aims to gain a better understanding and possible solutions. Through a quantitative content analysis of fact checks by German organizations, Sami wants to find out what disinformation is actually about. Which topics are (…)

- PhD project
Discourse Power in the (Digital) Public Sphere
The internet is permanently changing the structure and logic of the political public sphere: the former gatekeeping position of traditional media is disappearing and new actors are entering the arena. Jan Rau’s dissertation project investigates how and to what extent German far-right and right-wing populist actors can exploit this transformation of discursive power relations. Specifically, (…)

- PhD project
Gender-specific Subjectivation Processes of Young People in the Informal Digital Learning and Educational Space YouTube
YouTube is one of the most popular Internet offerings for young people in Germany and serves many of them as an informal learning and educational space for researching information for leisure interests, school and training (Feierabend et al., 2021; Wolf, 2015). YouTube is a space that is structured along stereotypical notions of gender (Döring, 2019; (…)

- PhD project
1968 and 1969 as Epochal Years. On the History and Aesthetics of Argentinean and Mexican Documentary Films and Social Movements
“The camera is the inexhaustible expropriator of image-weapons; the projector, a gun that can shoot 24 frames per second.“ The 1960s have gone down in history not only in Latin America as the years of the so-called social movements and the political struggle of left-wing groups. It was about political participation and civil rights, but (…)

- PhD project
Political Action and News Usage of the Fridays for Future Movement in Germany
When we think of political action, we often think of crowds of people pushing their way through the streets with flags, signs and slogans. However, this image of political action is incomplete. Political action takes place both in the ‘analog’ world and in the digital world in a wide variety of forms. Fridays for Future (…)