ZeMKI, Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research
The Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) is one of seven central research units at the University of Bremen and is one of the important European institutions researching questions into media-related transformations at the interface of the cultural, social, and technical sciences. Our research focuses on the emerging digital society in terms of the inequalities it generates while probing the historicity of their genesis and the challenges posed by algorithmic systems, automation, and the burgeoning datafied society. ZeMKI coordinates the international „Communicative AI“ research unit.
Investigating how deep mediatization transforms society — at the intersection of culture, communication, and technology.
Exploring how communicative AI reshapes the fabric of societal communication — and what futures it opens and forecloses.
Developing and refining digital methods in context — combining computational approaches with qualitative depth.
Our research labsTo research10 labs. One research community.
Lab Audio-Visual Media and Historiography
This Lab investigates audio-visual media – particularly film and television – as historical sources and documents of the history of modernity. Central to this is the role of these media for memory and the construction (…)
Lab Datafication and Mediatization
The Datafication and Mediatization Lab deals with how societies change when they are increasingly saturated by digital media and their infrastructures. The lab focuses on the role digital data play in these globalized processes of (…)
Lab Digital Communication and Information Diversity
Our digital information environment is complex: diverse, but also characterized by a lack of transparency, fake news and algorithms. The “Digital Communication and Information Diversity” (DCID) lab systematically examines how we use digital media and (…)
Lab Film, Media Art and Popular Culture
The Lab “Film, Media Art and Popular Culture” is concerned with visual and audio-visual media, their aesthetics and history as well as with their transformation in the context of digitalisation and globalisation. A particular research (…)
Lab Good Life and Media Society
The Good Life and Media Society Lab (GLaMS) explores the role of media and communication in shaping what counts as a good life and for whom. The lab works on the premise that a good (…)
Lab Media & Education
The lab “Media and Education” researches educational processes in a deeply mediatised society. Research focuses on (a) Actor-centred analysis of audiovisual educational spaces such as YouTube and TikTok, (b) the didactic and filmic analysis of (…)
Lab Media and Religion
The Media and Religion Lab is concerned with the interrelation between media and religions and their transformation. Thereby the perspective is a dual one: On the one hand side current as well as religious discourses (…)
Lab Media Change and Long-Term Transformation Processes
Media emerge, change, and disappear – yet often in ways quite different from what their contemporaries expect. The lab investigates how media communication and its conditions change over long time spans and what these processes (…)
Lab Platform Governance, Media and Technology
The Lab “Platform Governance, Media and Technology” examines the interactions between regulation, discourses and the development of technologies and business models. Digital platforms and new infrastructures, algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI) and data are currently fundamentally (…)
Lab Political Communication and Innovative Methods
The Lab “Political Communication and Innovative Methods” uses computer-based, process-accompanying and experimental research methods to investigate how visual and multimodal media messages affect political thought and action: How is political information in digitalised publics prepared (…)
Lab Socio-Technical Systems and Critical Data Studies
The lab “Socio-Technical Systems and Critical Data Studies” explores reciprocal relations between digital technologies and social processes in organizations and communities (with a special focus on education). In the lab, we combine a deep understanding (…)
Research Unit "Communicative AI"
When chatbots answer questions, voice assistants organise appointments, or AI tools summarise texts, this doesn’t just affect individual users—it also shapes how we communicate as a society. The DFG and FWF funded Research Unit “Communicative AI” (ComAI) explores what happens when AI systems increasingly take (…)
News & Events
News
The Effect and Importance of Campaign Posters: Stephanie Geise analyzes campaign posters from the Emsland region
In collaboration with the Lower Saxony regional newspaper NOZ, ZeMKI member Prof. Stephanie Geise has analyzed a series of election posters from Meppen, Lingen, and Papenburg for the upcoming local election on Sunday, September 13.
New publication by Vesi Vuković: Yugoslav (Trans)national Memory on Rural Spaces
ZeMKI member Vesi Vuković recently published an article in “Iluminace – The Journal of Film Theory, History, and Aesthetics” titled „Yugoslav (Trans)national Memory on Rural Spaces: Short Documentary Films Girls Without Boy(friend)s Girls Without Boy(friend)s (1963) and The Best Husband The Best Husband (1968) by Woman Filmmaker Vera Jocić“.
“Better Online”? On the Future of the Printed Daily Newspaper
On September 5, 2026, ZeMKI member Dr. Leif Kramp will participate as a speaker at the DJV Digital Conference “Better Online” at Radio Bremen. This year’s event is themed “Sovereign. Human. Connected.” and will address current challenges in digital journalism, including digital sovereignty, artificial intelligence, and new forms of journalistic collaboration.
Upcoming events
Prof. Dr. Emilija Gagrčin (University of Bremen) Anticipating and preempting polarisation: Ethnographic perspectives on democratic resilience as a communicative process in local wind energy conflicts
- 24.06.2026
- 16:15 Clock
- Linzer Str. 4 • Room 60.070
Felicia Loecherbach (University of Amsterdam): Inside the Feed: Data Donation and Political Behaviour on Social Media
- 23.06.2026
- 18:30 Clock
- Bremen Press-Club • Schnoor 27
Rafael Grohmann (University of Toronto, Canada): Worker-led AI governance in cultural industries
- 16.06.2026
- 18:30 Clock
- Bremer Presse-Club • Schnoor 27
Latest publications
No. 60 - Cornelius Puschmann, Hendrik Meyer: Gaging LLMs’ strengths and weaknesses in political content analysis
Abstract Recent innovation and growth in the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence have opened options for the scholarship of political communication. While large language models (LLMs) have much to offer to improve content analysis workflows (…)
10.06.2026
ZeMKI Policy Paper No. 1: "Resilient Journalism After Platformization"
This policy paper examines how precarious working conditions, platform dependency, the AI transformation and funding gaps are putting pressure on journalism in Germany, and sets out recommendations for strengthening the resilience of journalism by improving working conditions, developing editorial AI skills, promoting public-interest funding and fostering local communication ecosystems.
10.06.2026
No. 59 - Hillel Nossek: Who is afraid of fake news? Public attitudes on questions concerning the sources, distribution, and impact of fake news in Israel
This article analyzes public attitudes in Israel toward the definition, sources, distribution, and perceived impact of fake news. It draws on an online survey of 502 respondents aged 15 and above conducted during the March 2019 election campaign.
30.04.2026
No. 58 - Enrique Uribe-Jongbloed, Carlos Gutiérrez-González: Restoring audiovisual products sustainably: innovative approaches to work with audiovisual archives
The paper explores evolving definitions and practices surrounding archives and repositories in the digital era. It highlights the challenges of distinguishing between these terms and the political complexities inherent in defining archives. The discussion draws (…)
24.03.2026
