ZeMKI-News (4)

The Use of Communicative AI: Between Educational Opportunities and Risks for Learning Bremen, June 13, 2026 – At the University of Bremen’s Open Campus 2026, Prof. Dr. Karsten D. Wolf from the Lab Media & (…)

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.

As part of the completed DFG-funded “Imaginaries of AI” project, the article “Who’s driving the AI hype in its formative phase? A longitudinal analysis of stakeholders in the US and German AI discourse on Twitter 2012–2021”, written by Dr. Vanessa Richter, Dr. Daria Dergacheva, Vasilisa Kuznetsova and Prof. Dr. Christian Katzenbach, got published in AI and Society.

Dr. Priyanka Pereira is a postdoctoral researcher in the Lab Media & Education and in the Lab Socio-Technical Systems and Critical Data Studies at the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI). Since May 2026, she is working within the project “Tools or Masters? On the hidden curriculum of AI appropriation in schools”, together with Prof. Dr. Karsten D. Wolf and Prof. Dr. Andreas Breiter. We are pleased to welcome Dr. Priyanka Pereira as a new member of ZeMKI and look forward to a fruitful collaboration!

As part of the Media Structures and Platform Governance seminar, on 26 May 2026, Prof. Tim R Samples (University of Georgia) joined us to introduce the Longitudinal Digital Terms Corpus (LDT Corpus), a comprehensive time series of 861 TOUs from 50 prominent digital platforms spanning 1999 to 2025.

Rejections and failures are not the exception in academic publishing — they are a core part of the process. That was one of the key takeaways from a recent ZeMKI PhD Programme workshop on publication (…)

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.

To mark the 200th anniversary of the Segeberger Zeitung, ZeMKI member Dr. Leif Kramp was invited to give an interview to the Kieler Nachrichten. In it, he discusses the importance of local newspapers in an era of growing disinformation and explains their vital role in a democratic public sphere. Leif Kramp also assesses the current situation of local newspapers, describes the challenges many face, and outlines prospects for necessary changes and future developments.

The 76th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) will take place from June 2 to 8 in Cape Town, South Africa. This year’s conference is themed “Communication and Inequalities in Context” and will (…)

ZeMKI member Dr. Philip Sinner was recently a guest on a Deutschlandfunk program hosted by Kevin Barth. The segment focused on Kika’s soccer broadcasts, in which children serve as presenters.

ZeMKI member Prof. Dr. Emilija Gagrčin will be the keynote speaker at the opening panel of ECREA26.

As part of the P1 ComAI project “Pioneer Communities: Imagining ComAI and its Possible Futures”, Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp has published the article “The Imaginative Landscape of AI: Locating Silicon Valley’s ‘quiet futuring’” in the Media, Culture & Society Journal. The article is open-access and is freely available to everyone.