This event was recorded without an audience. The podcast is no longer available on the WDR website.

There is a great deal of controversy about whether the results of the 2016 presidential election in the USA, in which Donald Trump prevailed, and those of the referendum on Brexit were decisively brought about by outside influence: Twitter and Facebook, in particular, had been the tools through which this influence had taken place. Both foreign powers, especially Russian intelligence, and those involved in the election (the Trump campaign via Cambridge Analytica; the initiatives that campaigned for Brexit) had made use of the tools and their potential for manipulation. The panel discussion will discuss where the line is drawn between appropriate and manipulative election advertising or influence via social media, and to what extent an "independent" formation of political will is still possible, which is constitutive of a democracy. The outcome of the presidential election in the U.S. last year is of great importance for further developments in the U.S. and also in the whole world, and the Bundestag election in Germany is coming up.

Discussing:

•     Prof. Sabine Sielke: Head of the Department of Literature and Culture of North America at the University of Bonn.
•     Prof. em. Martin Morlok: Professor of Public Law, Legal Theory and Sociology of Law at the University of Düsseldorf
•     Julius van de Laar: campaign and strategy advisor in Barack Obama's presidential election campaigns, among others
•     Ellen Ehni: Editor-in-chief at Westdeutscher Rundfunk radio station

Moderation:

    Dr. Michael Köhler from our cultural partner WDR 3

The first workshop in the series 'Fragmented Public Sphere' opens the interdisciplinary discussion by examining, in a narrower sense, questions of public sphere theory concerning the fragmented public sphere per se. Is the binding power of the old, classical mass-media public sphere dwindling - and with it the trust in media, politics and other institutions? Can mutual accusations such as fake news and conspiracy theories and the rise of new populisms be critically understood in the context of this fragmentation? The workshop combines perspectives from media studies, political science, economics, and law to discuss theoretical approaches and models of contemporary public communication. The workshop is aimed at interested parties from all disciplines and above all invites detailed and multi-voiced discussion.

The discussion will begin with impulses from:

    Prof. Dr. Dietrich Dörr, Media Law (Mainz)
    JunProf. Dr. Martin Fritze, Economics (Cologne)
    Dr. Steffen Krämer, Media Science (Constance)
    Prof. Dr. Isabell Otto, Media Science (Constance)
    Dr. David Salomon, Political Science (Hildesheim)
    Benjamin Schäfer, Media Science (Constance)

Moderation: Prof. Dr. Stephan Packard, University of Cologne

Registration for the workshop

This event was recorded without an audience. The podcast is no longer available on the WDR website.

Do citizens - users! - still have contemporary digital sovereignty on the Internet - that is, the ability to defend, use and shape personal or collective freedom and self-determination in a digitized society? Can users of social platforms still make meaningful, informed and effective decisions about the use of their data? Are there still accepted agreements about what communications are private, and is that privacy respected? Does our behavior change when privacy is lived in a digital context?

Two contexts are at the forefront here: on the one hand, social media such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok and mobile technological tools such as smartphones and tablets have established themselves as indispensable tools for managing the often very demanding and dense demands of daily life. We generally use the services on the Internet free of charge. 'Payment' is made in whole or in part via the personal data that is generated in every life situation and in every communication process. The major providers can evaluate this information using Big Data methods and create highly differentiated personality profiles of their users. In this way, they show the supposed 'customers' precisely tailored advertisements that their actual advertising customers place. On the other hand, as a result of the Corona crisis, web conferencing tools such as Zoom, Skype, WebEx and BigBlueButton have become central means of communication - for both private and public contacts, with the public ones also invading the private space of our home offices. In both of these respects, and many more, the question arises as to whether there can still be any talk of digital sovereignty - and how it can possibly be won or defended.

The panelists are:

•     Ulf Buermeyer - Chairman and Legal Director of the Society for Civil Liberties (e.V.), Fellow of the Centre for Internet and Human Rights at the European University Viadrina
•     Sabine Frank - Head of Governmental Affairs and Public Policy YouTube DACH/CEE
•     Petra Grimm - Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Stuttgart, Head of the Institute for Digital Ethics and member of the Big Data WG of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
•     Nadia Kutscher - Professor of Educational Support and Social Work at the University of Cologne, member of the Expert Group on Children's Rights in the Digital World advising the General Comment of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Germany.

Moderation: Dr. Michael Köhler

In this workshop on subjectivity and citizenship in the post-digital society, the question of changing conceptions of the citizen-subject and their political implications will be explored: What tensions emerge in ethical, legal, and pedagogical terms in the face of algorithmization and the digitization of the public sphere(s) with regard to privacy, agency, and participation? The focus will be on the associated structural challenges and dynamics, including the complex relationship between an idea of media education that shifts competence acquisition and responsibility to individual subjects on the one hand, and the social responsibility of state and commercial entities on the other.

The panelists are:

•     Prof. Dr. Mark Andrejevic, Monash University (Australia)
•     Dr. Harald Gapski, Grimme Institute
•     Prof. Dr. Dr. Frauke Rostalski, University of Cologne, Germany
•     Dr. Joanna Redden, Western University (Canada), Co-Director of the Data Justice Lab

Moderation: Prof. Dr. Nadia Kutscher, University of Cologne

Registration for the workshop

This event was recorded without an audience. The podcast is no longer available on the WDR website.

The exclusion and devaluation of people on the basis of their belonging to a certain group often takes place very subtly in everyday life - offline as well as online. In many cases, people who make racist statements in everyday life are not even aware of it. In addition, there is a seemingly growing number of people who put the exclusion and devaluation of people on their political agenda and spread it publicly. Thus, racist, sexist, homophobic and other derogatory statements are normalised, especially in the social media, and uninhibitedly moved into the realm of the sayable.

Against this backdrop, this panel discussion will explore the question of how exclusion works - especially in the digital context - and what strategies or approaches to efforts to curb it might be.

Discussed:

•     Sheila Mysorekar, journalist, board member of the "Neue deutsche Medienmacher:innen" (New German Media Makers)
•     Professor Dr. Karl-Nikolaus Peifer, lawyer and director of the Institute for Media Law and Communications Law at the University of Cologne, part-time judge at the Higher Regional Court of Cologne
•     Jürgen Rausch, graduate in education, project manager at the Lesbian and Gay Association of Germany: competence network "Naturally Diversity" to reduce homosexual, inter- and trans:hostility.     
•     Aycha Riffi, theatre, film and television scholar, director of the Grimme Academy. Project manager of the EU project BRICkS (Building Respect on the Internet by Combating Hate Speech).

Moderation: Dr. Michael Köhler (WDR)

International internet companies such as Amazon or Alphabet build infrastructures and services that can be described as systemically relevant and essential. Facebook, a private business company, proposes its own online currency. This establishes frameworks and structures that help to structure the public (s). Where these internet companies operate concrete public media and social networks at the same time, a special power competition arises - with consequences for our democracy and the public.

The panel discussion examines the extent to which these international companies can still be sensibly regulated by the state due to their size and to what extent they can compete with state actors due to their undeniable merits in reducing friction.

The panelists are:

•     Dr Frauke Gerlach, Director Grimme Institute, Marl
•     Peter Schaar, Chairman European Academy for Freedom of Information and Data Protection, former Federal Commissioner for Data Protection, Berlin
•     Dr. Tobias Schmid, Director of the State Media Authority (LfM) NRW, Düsseldorf
•     Prof. Dr. Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider, Chair of Civil Law, Information and Data Law at the University of Bonn, Bonn
•     Prof. Dr. Alexander Thiele, Chair of Public Law, in particular Constitutional and European Law, at the Business and Law School Private Hochschule (BSP), Berlin

Moderation: Dr. Michael Köhler (WDR)

Location: WDR Funkhaus / Kleiner Sendesaal, Wallrafplatz 5, 50667 Cologne, Germany

Time: 18.00 - 20.00

Registration necessary: via medien-apokalypsen(at)uni-koeln.de

With the introduction of private television channels in the nineties, critics observed a development according to which an all-German public that experienced a media event together was dissolving, as was the case, for example, with the broadcasting of Francis Durbridge detective stories ("Straßenfeger") or the programme "Wetten dass".

Today, it is often claimed that this fragmentation of the public sphere is massively accelerating - and that new media, especially social networks and messengers, are driving this development. Controversial terms like 'echo chamber', 'filter bubble' and 'homophily' are used to talk about communication on the internet becoming more esoteric and radical. New populist movements are taking advantage of the completely new reach of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Public discourse, on the other hand, is losing its binding force: trust in journalism, the state and also science is sinking. How it can be regained is one of the topics of this panel. Part of the discussion will also focus on the need for development of legal regulations, insofar as these are still based on the fiction of a common public sphere in society as a whole.

The panelists are:

• Frau Prof. Dr. Marlis Prinzing von der Hochschule Macromedia/Journalistik
• Lisa Merten, Leibniz-Institut für Medienforschung/Hans Bredow-Institut, Forschung zu Nachrichtennutzung in sozialen Medien, Hamburg
• Dr. Leonard Novy, Institut für Medien- und Informationspolitik, Köln
• Prof. Dr. Stephan Packard, Medienkulturwissenschaftler an der Universität zu Köln, Forschung zu Propaganda, Überwachung und Zensur

Moderation: Dr. Michael Köhler (WDR)

This workshop is about specific challenges for media education in the post-digital society - resulting, for example, from the shift of (political) debates of young target groups from the publicly accessible areas of the net to closed groups and more. In addition, the focus will be on the question of the possibilities and limits of pedagogical action in the face of social and political processes, structures and dynamics.

Speakers:

•     Rüdiger Fries, State Centre for Political Education Saarland, Saarbrücken
•     Nadia Kutscher - Professor of Educational Assistance and Social Work at the University of Cologne, member of the expert group on children's rights in the digital world advising the General Comment of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Germany.
•     Dr. Georg Materna, JFF - Institute for Media Education in Research and Practice, Munich
•     Gerda Sieben - Head of jfc Media Centre, Cologne

Aycha Riffi and Lars Gräßer (both Grimme Institute, Marl) will be the moderators.

Location: This workshop will take place online.

Time: 10.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m.

Registration for the workshop

It can currently be observed that political debates, especially among young target groups, are shifting back from the publicly accessible areas of the Internet to the private ones, such as Whatsapp or Telegram. Transparency and publicity are thus lost. Dealing with popular networks in an educational context means recognizing the value of the content as a formal and informal learning field for young people and, with a view to 'private social', possibly bringing classic forms of political media education back into focus and - very importantly - strengthening the courage for more civil courage on the net, because intervention options are limited.

The discussion will be:

•     Myrle Dziak-Mahler, Chancellor of Alanus University, former Managing Director at the ZfL Centre for Teacher Education, University of Cologne.
•     Lars Gräßer, Research Associate and Press Officer Grimme Institute, Marl
•     Prof. Dr. Dr. Frauke Rostalski, Institute for Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, University of Cologne
•     Daniel Seitz, media educator and managing director of Mediale Pfade - Association for Media Education, Berlin

Dr. Michael Köhler will be the moderator.

Venue: WDR Funkhaus / Kleiner Sendesaal / Wallrafplatz 5 / 50667 Cologne / 5 - 7 pm