News
Reports, Publications, Projects, Blog Posts & Podcasts from the Institute
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!
Leonie Alatassi at the State Chancellery of Baden-Württemberg
Dr. Leonie Alatassi (née Wunderlich) gave the keynote speech at the cabinet evening on youth communication in the State Chancellery of Baden-Württemberg on July 21, 2025, in the presence of Minister President Winfried Kretschmann.
DSA Enforcement by the EU Commission
The problematic role of the European Commission in enforcing the Digital Services Act (DSA) and possible alternatives are the focus of a blog post published by Jan-Ole Harfst, Dr. Tobias Mast, and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz on 16 July 2025 on the Verfassungblog.
Community Data Trust for Sensitive Data
Jan Rau, Moritz Fürneisen, and Gregor Wiedemann co-developed the concept of community data stewardship to facilitate the collaborative creation and utilization of sensitive data in communication science. By using the example of research into right-wing extremist online communication, they demonstrate how community data stewardship can be structured.
On the Public Value of Public Service Media
"What Can Audience Research findings tell us about the public value of public service media?" This question explored by Prof. Dr. Uwe Hasebrink and PD Dr. Jan-Hinrik Schmidt, who published their insights in the issue 2/2024 of the journal UFITA.
Event dates
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."
#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.