The 75th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) will take place in Denver from June 12-16, 2025. This year’s theme “Disrupting and Consolidating Communication Research” invites participants to critically reflect on communication studies as a resilient and disrupted discipline that has a transformative and stabilizing force in society.

ZeMKI will be represented at ICA 2025 with numerous contributions. 

Friday, June 13, 2025

10:30-11:45 AM, Mineral D (Regency 3)
Andreas Hepp: Figurations of Digital Futures – or: Why We Need to Move From a Perspective of Consequence to One of Emergence

This paper advocates for integrating the concept of “digital futures” into media and communication research. “Digital futures” refers to visions of a society shaped by digital media and infrastructures as key forces of social transformation. Studying these futures should be central to an “emergence”-oriented research approach, shifting focus from the consequences of established media to the processes shaping future media realities.

12:00-13:15 PM, Quartz (Regency 3)
Andreas Hepp: The Digital Futures of Communicative AI: From Pioneers’ Visions to Societal Imaginaries

This paper examines how pioneer communities have shaped the development and public imagination of communicative AI. It traces early influences – such as the Whole Earth Network’s ties to SRI and MIT and ideas like the AI butler – and shows how newer groups like Hacks/Hackers and Reboot have carried this legacy forward. Through social theory and media ethnography, the paper analyzes these communities’ visions of AI and connects them to broader cultural frameworks like the “Californian Ideology.”

1:30-2:45 PM, Grays Peak B (Grand Conv Center 2)
Yuru Li: How to Identify Visual Frames on Climate Change via Effective Prompts

This study introduces a hybrid method for analyzing climate change visuals across Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok. Using image captioning and zero-shot classification on over 12,000 images, it identifies themes through general and prompt-based descriptions, refined via topic modeling across four theoretical dimensions. The analysis reveals 15 key visual frames, from environmental threats to policy responses. The proposed method is both accurate and scalable, offering valuable insights for climate communication and policy engagement.

3:00-4:15 PM, Mineral E (Regency 3)
Karima Küster, Erik Koenen, Christian Schwarzenegger: Back to the Past: Reviving Media History Through LLMs

This study explores the potential of large language models (LLMs) to reconstruct past everyday media life. Using LLMs as both empirical tools and theoretical models, researchers conduct synthetic interviews to simulate media experiences of specific eras and assess the authenticity of LLM-generated data and its implications. This method was also tested in seminar settings to support historical insight and qualitative research training.

Saturday, June 14, 2025

10:30-11:45 AM, Mineral B (Regency 3)
Philip Sinner, Joerg-Uwe Nieland, Thomas Neumann: Victims of Mediatization? Austrian Fitness Centers and Their (Social) Media Behavior After the COVID-19 Pandemic

The paper positions disruption and consolidation as central themes in the field of sports communication, providing a framework for understanding their impact on both organizational stability and adaptability in sports communication environments. Empirically, the paper explores how these processes impact organizational practices, communication strategies, and member engagement of Austrian fitness centers and sports clubs.

12:00-1:15 PM, Colorado A (Grand 2)
Andreas Hepp: Curating AI Into Being: Hacks/Hackers’ Visions of Data and Automated Journalism

Hacks/Hackers, a network of journalists and technologists, is reshaping journalism by promoting data and, more recently, automated journalism. This article explores how the group curates communicative AI “into being,” helping to establish AI-driven communication as a new journalistic paradigm. Based on media ethnography in Germany, the UK, and the USA, the paper identifies a three-step curation process: introducing AI as an emerging trend, reinforcing it with examples, and normalizing its use.

Sunday, June 15, 2025

9:00-10:15 AM, Capitol 6 (Regency 4)
Stephanie Geise, Anna R. Luther, Andreas Breiter: Shaping Social Media for Social Movements: Activists’ Expectations for Social Media Impact, Features, and Safety

This study explores the goals, challenges, and desired platform changes from the perspective of individual activists, based on 14 interviews with German participants from two international social movements. Key findings highlight the importance of security and practical design improvements for advocacy work. The research emphasizes the need for social media platforms to better support activists by addressing their specific needs and improving safety, visibility, and workflow tools.

10:30-11:45 AM, Mineral A (Regency 3)
Patrick Zerrer, Lisa Merten, Sebastian Stier, Frank Mangold, Cornelius Puschmann, Juhi Kulshrestha: Beyond Devices: The Multifaceted Nature of Online News Environments

This paper examines how news consumption differs by device (mobile vs. desktop) and access mode (browser vs. app), using behavioral tracking and survey data from 1,336 German participants over 21 months. The study finds that browsers – on both mobile and desktop – are the primary pathways for news access, while apps play a secondary role. Older, male, and politically engaged users are more likely to use both modes. Importantly, news diversity is higher via browsers, whereas apps tend to concentrate use around fewer sources, suggesting that browsers support more varied and balanced news consumption.

10:30-11:45 AM, Colorado A (Grand 2)
Hendrik Meyer, Patrick Zerrer, Hannah-Marie Büttner, Tim Schatto-Eckrodt: Activists Preserving the (Multi-Platform) Environment: Advocacy Coalitions of #Lützerath Climate Protests

This paper investigates how digital platforms shape the communication dynamics of climate protests. Analyzing around 300,000 German-language posts from Twitter/X, Telegram, and Mastodon during the 2023 anti-coal protests in Lützerath, the researchers discovered distinct ideological communities on social media. Each platform played a different role: Telegram was used for organizing and logistics by a small but committed group; Twitter/X hosted polarized debates between advocates and critics; and Mastodon featured mainly pro-protest voices, with little opposition presence.

12:00-1:15 PM, Mineral C (Regency 3)
Rebecca Scharlach, CJ Reynolds, Blake Hallinan: Competing Priorities: Identifying Value Gaps Between the Public and Private Governance of Social Media Platforms

This study investigates the (mis)alignment of value priorities expressed in the policies of social media companies and European governing bodies to understand the principles currently prioritized in platform governance and inform debates over which principles should govern our ecosystems of communication.

12:00-1:15 PM, Mt. Oxford (Grand 3)
Miira Hill, Cornelius Puschmann: Nostalgic for a Better Democracy? How German Right-Wing Social Media Commentators (Mis)remember Liberal Values

This study explores how German right-wing social media users express nostalgia and views on democracy in Facebook comments. Using an innovative mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative content analysis with AI-driven data interviews, the paper shows how the past is idealized as simpler and more unified – often in ways that support nationalist and exclusionary ideologies. These narratives frequently clash with liberal democratic values, revealing deep ideological tensions, and undermine pluralism.

1:30-2:45 PM, REGISTRATION 70 Centennial Foyer (Regency 3)
Katharina Schöppl, Christian Schwarzenegger: The Comfort of Victimhood: Emotional Engagement and Media Choices in Alternative Media Spaces

This study shows that feelings of victimhood strongly influence why people choose alternative media over mainstream sources. As trust in mainstream media declines, users turn to alternative media to validate personal grievances and feel part of a marginalized group. Based on a 3-year study, the research finds that emotional attachment – especially victimhood – shapes media habits more than trust, highlighting the emotional drivers behind media choices.

3:00-4:15 PM, Mineral F (Regency 3)
Stephanie Geise, Yi Xu: Through Different Lenses: Contrasting AI-Generated and Human Photojournalism in War Reporting

This study compares AI-generated war imagery with human photojournalism to understand how each portrays conflict differently. Using images from the World Press Photo Awards and AI-generated visuals created with Midjourney, the researchers analyzed visual framing, subjects, and aesthetics. The study highlights both the potential and the limitations of AI in journalism and emphasizes the continued importance of human interpretation in visual storytelling.

Monday, June 16, 2025

9:00-11:45 AM, Granite (Regency 3)
Vasilisa Kuznetsova: Too Hot to Handle? A Comparative Analysis of Platforms’ Moderation of Climate Content

This paper examines how major social media platforms approach and regulate communication about climate change. By conducting a qualitative analysis of platform policies and public communication, the study explores why, when and how social media platforms moderate climate misinformation and how the responsibility is constructed, negotiated and practiced by platforms. Findings reveal discrepancy between rules and public communication as well as strategies of depoliticization and governance-washing.

3:00-4:15 PM, Centennial H (Regency 3)
Heidi Schulze, Lisa Merten, Helena S. Rauxloh, Cornelius Puschmann: Fringe News Audience Fragmentation: A Longitudinal Audience Overlap Approach Combining Tracking and Survey Data to Investigate Audience Fragmentation in Alternative and Hyperpartisan News Use

This study investigates whether alternative media users exhibit audience fragmentation in their news consumption and how this varies by usage intensity and political leaning by analyzing tracking and survey data from 1,063 German participants over nearly two years. Results show little fragmentation among non-alternative news users but significant fragmentation within alternative media audiences, particularly occasional users. Political leaning was less influential, indicating alternative media appeal across the spectrum, with the highest fragmentation found among hyperpartisan users.

Further information about the ICA, publications and events can be found here.