News
Reports, Publications, Projects, Blog Posts & Podcasts from the Institute
Diversity, Intersectionality, and Gender in Journalism
The third issue of M&K in 2025 is a special edition on "Diversity, Intersectionality, and Gender in Journalism," edited by Margreth Lünenborg, Ana-Nzinga Weiß, Yener Bayramoğlu, and Bernadette Uth. The nine articles are available open access on the Nomos eLibrary.
Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Media and Freedom of the Press?
Matthias C. Kettemann developed a quiz for the Leibniz Association and t-online's "Ten Questions, One Expert — The Science Quiz" format. The quiz focuses on the key question: "How does the U.S. media landscape differ from that in Germany?"
Digital Constitutionalism Rethought
In a chapter of the Oxford Handbook of Digital Constitutionalism, Matthias C. Kettemann and Anna Sophia Tiedeke explore digital constitutionalism from the perspective of various normativities. These are the diverse rules, values, and organizing principles that shape the digital space.
Social Media Ban Only Possible at EU Level
Media legal expert Stephan Dreyer explains the legal hurdles to banning social media for under-16s in Germany. According to Stephan Dreyer, German politicians have no regulatory authority in this area due to the primacy of the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force in 2024. A ban could therefore only be implemented at EU level.
Babies and Toddlers as Family Influencers
The HBI is conducting a qualitative and quantitative study to examine how babies and young children under the age of five are portrayed on commercial German-language 'family influencing' profiles on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. A team led by Dr. Claudia Lampert and Dr. Stephan Dreyer is discussing the findings in relation to the existing legal framework and media ethics considerations.
2 Student / Research Assistants for Computational Social Science
The Leibniz-Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) in Hamburg is seeking to fill two positions as of October 1, 2025: Student / research assistants (m/f/d) for Computational Social Science – focus on social media, limited until 31.03.2026, monthly working hours 35-60 hours, location Hamburg
Law of Digitalization
Can the right legal framework meet the central challenges of digitization? This volume, edited by Prof. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann, explores important new areas of law, the regulation of AI, the role of digital services, and the characteristics of effective technology policy and sensible innovation law.
Christian Ollig Wins German Study Prize
Christian Ollig receives the first prize of €25,000 in the Humanities and Cultural Sciences section of the Körber Foundation's 2025 German Study Prize. In his doctoral thesis on media law, written at the Universität Hamburg and the HBI, he used the EU's Digital Services Act to examine how people can enforce their fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression, on online platforms.
Now also on Bluesky!
You can now find us on Bluesky at bredowinstitut.bsky.social. We like Bluesky because it is based on a decentralized protocol, which enables a federated architecture. Many of our friends and stakeholders are already on Bluesky, and the platform is growing. We would love to see you on Bluesky and connect with you there!
Event dates
Media Education Kitchen Talk #14
16. September 2025Dr. Stephan Dreyer will be a guest at the Media Education Kitchen Talk, hosted by FSM and GMK at the Museum for Communication in Berlin. The talk will take place from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., on the topic of "Between Usage Reality, Youth Protection, and Children's Rights: Why Differentiated Usage Concepts Are Needed Instead of Blanket Debates on Prohibition."
Feminist Perspectives on the Narrowing of Public Discourse in the Digital Age
16. September 2025Katharina Mosene will give a virtual presentation on the consequences of digital violence and discriminatory algorithms. She will explain how hate speech and digital violence marginalize marginalized voices in digital public spheres, thereby putting democratic discourse under pressure. She will also address the strategies needed to make digital discourse spaces more inclusive, safe, and fair.
Childhood and Young People Under the Influence of Artificial Intelligence
17. September 2025As part of the workshop, "I Prompt the World to Be the Way I Want It to Be: Childhood and Young People Under the Influence of Artificial Intelligence," Federal Minister for Family Affairs Dr. Karin Prien, Dr. Stephan Dreyer, and others will discuss how to support children and young people in a needs-oriented and age-appropriate manner as they grow up with artificial intelligence.
Universe of Media Education
19. September 2025Dr. Claudia Lampert will speak about the challenges of media education at this year's Universe of Media Education. The one-and-a-half-day event is themed "Back to the Future: Media Education for Today's Challenges."
DSA40 Data Access Days
25. September 2025Prof. Dr. Judith Möller will participate in a panel discussion on “The Big Picture of Data Access” during the two-day conference. The "Data Access Days" are taking place for the first time.
#LeibnizMediaLunchTalk
Fighting the Fortress with Arrows.
Civil Enforceability of Due Diligence Obligations for Large Online Services
7. October 2025
We welcome Dr. Katharina Wunner from the University of Bayreuth to this Leibniz Media Lunch Talk. She will speak about the civil enforceability of due diligence obligations for very large online services under Article 54 of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Digitalisation Research and Network Meeting 2025
6. November 2025The DigiMeet 2025 digitisation research and network meeting will take place online in November this year. It will focus on the topic of “Platform Governance & Power”. Doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers are invited to present their work. The submission deadline is 31 July 2025.