Welcome to the Blog of the Research Group Dynamics of Digital Mobilization of the Weizenbaum Institute and Freie Universität Berlin!
Our research group investigates the logics and interrelationship of digital information infrastructures, (transnational) mobilizations in networked digital publics, the dynamics of diffusion and manipulation of information under conditions of automation and algorithmic control, and the quality of public debates in Europe and on an international scale.
RESEARCH BLOG
- Final Event of the NEOVEX Research ProjectOn the 10th of December, our team members Annett Heft (Universität Tübingen, Freie Universität Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute), Kilian Buehling and Xixuan Zhang (both Freie Universität Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute) participated in the final event of the NEOVEX research project, which took place at the Representation of the State of Hamburg in Berlin. The event started with the presentation of the results of the subprojects. The IFSH Hamburg shared their findings from long-term and case studies on conspiracy theories and far-right ideologies. The colleagues of the TU Munich presented their conclusions on the (international) networks of actors during the COVID-19 crisis. Finally, the IDZ Jena presented its […]
- Visual Framing of Climate Denialism: Kilian Buehling at Collegium Helveticum WorkshopFrom November 26th to November 27th, Kilian Buehling (Freie Universität/Weizenbaum Institute) participated in a workshop about “Visual Aspects of Political Communication and Digital Platforms” organized by the Collegium Helveticum. The workshop was designed to create a dynamic interdisciplinary forum, bringing together researchers from diverse fields to explore the evolving challenges and opportunities in the discipline. Kilian Buehling had the opportunity to present his work on the visual framing of climate denialism, co-authored with Jing Zeng (University of Zurich) and Annett Heft (Universität Tübingen, Freie Universität/Weizenbaum Institute), on several platforms. He presented “Visual Framing of Climate Denialism: A Cross-Platform Analysis of Reddit, […]
- AoIR 2024 conference and pre-conference satellite event at the University of Sheffield, UKTwo DigiMoD Team Members, Daniel Thiele (Freie Universität/Weizenbaum Institute) and Miriam Milzner (Freie Universität/Weizenbaum Institute), participated in a satellite event of the Association of Internet Researchers Conference (AoIR 2024) that took place at the University of Sheffield, UK. On October 29th, Daniel Thiele presented “Suspiciously similar. An embedding approach to capturing multimodal coordinated behavior,” co-authored with Miriam Milzner at the Pre-Conference Workshop “Coordinated Sharing Behavior Detection Conference.” Our team members introduced a novel tool for detecting coordinated social media manipulation in this presentation—the R package coorsim. Coordinated social media manipulation denotes a phenomenon in which groups of accounts artificially amplify the visibility of social […]
- Workshop on Misinformation Research at the Weizenbaum InstituteFrom November 7th to November 8th, the DigiMoD team participated in a workshop at the Weizenbaum Institute titled “Contextualizing Misinformation Research: Theoretical, Empirical, and Legal Frameworks” that was organized by Elizaveta Kuznetsova and Martha Stolze of the research group “Platform Algorithms and Digital Propaganda.” The recent workshop on mis- and disinformation in digital political communication explored the sources, stakeholders, and political dynamics that shape these phenomena online and offline. To understand the underlying conditions that foster misinformation and to discuss potential frameworks, the event tackled topics like algorithms, traditional and “alternative” media, elections, and gender-based dynamics. The workshop brought a […]
- Workshop on Generative AI, Digital Publics, and Data Access at the Weizenbaum InstituteFrom October 24th to October 25th, the DigiMoD team joined a workshop the Weizenbaum Institute hosted titled “Generative AI, Digital Publics, and Data Access: Advancing Collaborative Research”. This international workshop brought together researchers from the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland Tech University and the Weizenbaum Institute. Through a combination of research presentations and breakout sessions, the workshop provided a fruitful opportunity to learn about new perspectives and find starting points for future collaborations. On the second workshop day, October 25th, Daniel Thiele (Freie Universität Berlin/Weizenbaum Institute) presented the paper “Manipulating climate change debates? Coordinated behavior on Twitter during COP […]
- ECREA 2024 – 10th European Communication Conference at the University of Ljubljana, SloveniaFrom September 24th until the 27th the DigiMoD-Team attended the 10th European Communication Conference (ECREA 2024) at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Under the theme ‘Communication & social (dis)order’ the ECC 2024 conference invited the participants to rethink the state of communication in light of ongoing political, economic, environmental, health, and technological disruptions, reflecting on their (dys)functional unpredictability and lasting societal impact. Attendees were also reminded that, although the rapid pace and scale of current communicative and social changes may create a sense of unprecedented transformation—this feeling is not unique to our time. In this light, our team members, and […]
- Right-Wing Election Campaigning on Telegram: “It Works Like a Media Outlet”In an interview with Leonie Dorn from the Weizenbaum Institute, Dr. Kilian Buehling and Baoning Gong (both Freie Universität/Weizenbaum Institute) explore how right-wing politicians used Telegram during state elections in East Germany to mobilize supporters. Their ongoing study combines quantitative and qualitative methods to understand how Telegram’s platform architecture enables extremist actors to manipulate their image and spread disinformation and conspiracy theories. For instance, Telegram’s unrestricted public channels function like independent media outlets, providing far-right groups with a direct line to their audience without interference from algorithms or censorship. Discussing challenges, the researchers highlight the growing difficulty of social media […]
- Studying Global Issues: Accommodating Context and Language Diversity when Employing Computational Text AnalysisDuring her fellowship in the DigiMoD Research Group, Dr. Fabienne Lind gave an interesting talk at the Weizenbaum Institute. On September 10th, she spoke on “Studying Global Issues: Accommodating Context and Language Diversity when Employing Computational Text Analysis.” Addressing and mitigating global issues, such as migration movements or climate change, necessitates collaborative efforts that extend beyond national borders. Understanding the communication dynamics among political actors, citizens, and organizations regarding these global issues is crucial, yet requires employing methods capable of analyzing communication in multiple languages. In her talk, Dr. Fabienne Lind provided an overview of methodological approaches for managing multilingual […]
- MISDOOM 2024 – Symposium at the University of MünsterOn the 3rd of September, our doctoral researcher, Miriam Milzner, participated in the 6th Multidisciplinary Symposium on Disinformation in Open Online Media (MISDOOM) held at the University of Münster, Germany. This event brought together an international community of disinformation researchers from diverse fields, including communication science, computer science, computational social science, political communication, and media studies. Miriam Milzner (Freie Universität/Weizenbaum Institute) presented her work “Coordinated Social Media Manipulation: State of the Art,” co-authored with Daniel Thiele and Baoning Gong (both Freie Universität/Weizenbaum Institute). The systematic literature review scrutinizes the emerging yet unsystematic research field of Coordinated Social Media Manipulation, mapping […]