On February 10, ZeMKI members Paula Goerke, Jule Jensen, and Prof. Dr. Andreas Breiter will speak  12 p.m. at UC Berkeley about “AI and Student Experience in German Universities” as part of a lecture series funded by the Center for Studies in Higher Education.

Die ZeMKI-Mitglieder Paula Goerke, Jule Jensen und Prof. Dr. Andreas Breiter sprechen am 10. Februar um 12 Uhr im Rahmen eines Vortrags, welcher vom Center for Studies in Higher Education afinanziert wird, an der UC Berkeley über „AI and Student Experience in German Universities“.

We are delighted that our ZeMKI member Hendrik Kühn successfully defended his dissertation entitled „Im Dialog mit Abwesenden“ (In Dialogue with Absentees) on February 5, 2026. In his work, he examines the construction and representation of the relationship between journalism and its audience through experimental media products in German pioneer journalism. He has developed a relationship concept for media content in order to analyze journalistic contributions and compare them with their production contexts. It has been shown that media products are the connecting link in media relationships, where tensions are also renegotiated. They are a central location for the communicative […]

Wir freuen uns sehr, dass unser ZeMKI-Mitglied Hendrik Kühn am 5. Februar 2026 seine Dissertation mit dem Titel „Im Dialog mit Abwesenden“ erfolgreich verteidigt hat.

Annual Lab Retreat: Datafication and Mediatization in Exchange At the beginning of this week, the ZeMKI Lab „Datafication and Mediatization“ came together for its annual, multi-day lab retreat at the educational center in Bad Zwischenahn. The retreat once again provided the lab members with ample time and opportunity to discuss current research and publication projects in a larger group, to exchange teaching experiences, and to receive valuable feedback on upcoming work. In addition, the time was used to reflect on achievements of the past year and to jointly identify new goals for the future. Thanks to the recreational (and sporting) […]

Zu Beginn dieser Woche traf sich das ZeMKI-Lab „Datafizierung und Mediatisierung“ zur jährlichen, mehrtägigen Lab-Klausur in der verschneiten Bildungsstätte Bad Zwischenahn. Dort bot sich den Lab-Mitgliedern wieder ausreichend Zeit und Gelegenheit, aktuelle Forschungs- und Publikationsvorhaben in größerer Runde zu diskutieren, Lehrerfahrungen auszutauschen und wertvolles Feedback für anstehende Projekte zu erhalten.

The new ZeMKI working paper by authors Kerstin Radde-Antweiler, Solange Lefebvre, and Gladys Ganiel, entitled “The Changing Role of Religion in Societies Emerging from Covid-19. Research Project Methodology,” is now available.

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.

ZeMKI-Mitglied Cornelius Puschmann war als Experte zu Gast im Medienmagazin @mediasres des Deutschlandfunks. In der Ausgabe mit dem Titel „Minneapolis: Der Einfluss von rechten Newsfluencern“ steht die Frage im Mittelpunkt, welchen Einfluss rechte Influencer:innen auf die politische Meinungsbildung in den USA ausüben.

Ein neuer Artikel von ZeMKI Mitglied Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp erscheint in einem von Christian Pentzold und Charlotte Knorr herausgegeben Thematic Issue des International Journal of Communication (IJoC) als Open Access.

A new article by ZeMKI member Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp is being published as open access in a thematic issue of the International Journal of Communication (IJoC), edited by Christian Pentzold and Charlotte Knorr.

ZeMKI member Dr. Rieke Böhling and Dr. Berber Hagedoorn (University of Groningen, Netherlands) receive seed funding from the Hanse University Alliances’s Impuls Forschung program to hold two workshops – one on the North Sea island of Spiekeroog (Germany) and one on Schiermonnikoog (Netherlands). 

ZeMKI-Mitglied Dr. Rieke Böhling und Dr. Berber Hagedoorn (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Niederlande) erhalten im Rahmen der Ausschreibung Impuls Forschung der Hanse University Alliance eine Anschubfinanzierung. Die Förderung ermöglicht die Durchführung zweier Workshops auf den Nordseeinseln Spiekeroog (Deutschland) und Schiermonnikoog (Niederlande). 

Our Fellowship Program invites international researchers to Bremen for four weeks to deepen and connect their research in the transformation of media, communication, and information. Please submit your application via our online form by January 30, 2026 (23:59 CET).

On February 7, 2026, from 4:00 to 4:45 PM, ZeMKI member Rieke Böhling will give a lecture as part of Genealogica, a virtual festival dedicated to genealogy. In her talk, Böhling will present initial findings from the research project “‘You Are Your History‘: Family Memory and Identity on Genealogy Platforms”, which explores how digital platforms such as Ancestry, MyHeritage, and WikiTree are shaping genealogical practices, collaboration, and self-understanding among family historians. The research highlights, among other things, that hobby genealogists work professionally and creatively with these platforms, often adapting or supplementing them, and that networking frequently extends beyond the platforms […]

Am 7. Februar 2026 von 16:00 bis 16:45 Uhr hält ZeMKI-Mitglied Rieke Böhling einen Vortrag im Rahmen der Genealogica, einem virtuellen Festival rund um Ahnenforschung.

A new Article by the Weizenbaum Institute introduces OpenQDA, an open-source tool for qualitative data analysis, developed at ZeMKI.