ZeMKI-News

From September 8 to 11, the 11th Conference of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) will take place in Brno (Czech Republic). The conference’s theme is “Paths, Connections, and Futures.” Numerous ZeMKI members will present their research.

The ECREA European Doctoral Summer School is currently taking place from August 3 to 9 at Södertörn University in Stockholm. ZeMKI member Prof. Christian Schwarzenegger is participating as a lecturer and discussant. In addition to providing feedback on several European dissertation projects, he is also offering a workshop on working with qualitative data. Patrick Frey and Luisa Runge are presenting their own dissertation projects and receiving feedback from international experts.

On the afternoon of 8 July 2026, members of ZeMKI gathered at Linzer Straße 4 for the ZeMKI Research Day 2026. This internal event format provides a forum for presenting ongoing projects from the eleven ZeMKI Labs, discussing methodological issues and bringing together perspectives across the boundaries of the individual Labs.

On 8 July 2026, the ZeMKI Research Day at the Linzer Straße 4 site segued directly into the ZeMKI Summer Party. Following the day’s academic programme, the discussions moved outdoors and continued there in an informal setting.

The IAMCR (International Association for Media and Communication Research) will take place from June 28 to July 2, 2026, at the University of Galway (Ireland). The theme of this year’s conference is “Peripheries and Connections: Media, Communication, and Transformation.” ZeMKI will be represented at the conference with several presentations.

ZeMKI is taking part in the University of Bremen’s Open Campus 2026 today. Under the motto ‘Opening up worlds – sharing knowledge’, the university is offering insights into research, study programmes and academic projects on campus.

The Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt) has published the report “The Role of AI in Counterspeech: Potentials and Risks,” co-authored by Cornelius Puschmann from ZeMKI. The study explores how artificial intelligence can be used to support counterspeech, that is digital responses to hate speech and disinformation.

We are delighted to announce that our ZeMKI member Hannah Marie Büttner successfully defended her dissertation, titled “Social Movement Power in Digitally Networked Protest: A Study of Anti-Covid Communities on Telegram,” on May 5, 2026.

ZeMKI member Prof. Dr. Cornelius Puschmann was a guest on the latest episode of the news podcast "im Loop". The interview focused on the current debate surrounding a social media ban for minors.

For 2026, the ZeMKI Steering Committee has selected seven international visiting scholars as part of the Visiting Research Fellowship program. Each fellow will spend at least four weeks collaborating with selected ZeMKI Labs.

In the article “Activists Preserving the (Multi-Platform) Environment: Advocacy Coalitions of #Lützerath Climate Protests,” Hendrik Meyer, Patrick Zerrer, Hannah-Marie Büttner, and Tim Schatto-Eckrodt analyze how digital platforms shaped the climate protests surrounding the village of Lützerath.

ZeMKI member Cornelius Puschmann appeared as an expert guest on Deutschlandfunk's media magazine @mediasres. The episode, entitled “Minneapolis: The Influence of Right-Wing Newsfluencers,” focuses on the question of what influence right-wing influencers have on political opinion-forming in the US.