Hamburg, June 3, 2026. An innovative project at the intersection of media law and computer science sheds light on how news spreads on digital platforms. Thus, it provides media regulators with a basis for developing regulatory approaches. A team of researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) and the Department of Informatics at the University of Hamburg carried out the project, which was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. You can find the project’s findings in a video on YouTube.
As part of the digital transformation, new players have emerged in the field of public communication. Algorithmic systems and other technologies are commonly used, which requires new approaches to media regulation. Whereas the primary goal used to be preserving media diversity, it is no longer individual actors but complex systems that determine the likelihood of a particular piece of content being noticed.
The project has developed a new “Socio-Technical Ecosystem Architecture Method” (STEAM) using the case studies of “Google News” and the American social networking platform “Parler.” STEAM provides a holistic view of news dissemination within ecosystems like Google’s and helps map these ecosystems, including the relationships between actors, data flows, and software components. This allows problems to be identified and opportunities for new regulatory approaches to be recognized.
Development of the Method
The project aims to develop a socio-technical ecosystem architecture methodology. This methodology builds on existing architecture concepts in computer science and complements them with normative concepts as well as frameworks with a legal and ethical background and horizon scanning approaches. This allows for a holistic description of an ecosystem, its actors and its action dynamics, and reveals risks to public communication as well as suitable starting points for counteracting them in a regulatory way.
Novel actors and technologies used by them, particularly related to artificial intelligence (AI), have gained relevance in the generation, aggregation, selection, curation, and prioritization of content. At the time a content item is displayed in an individual’s sphere of attention, numerous decisions are made beforehand that influence the content’s dissemination and the probability of ending up as part of the individual’s media repertoire. Specifically, various actors (e.g. content creators, digital platforms or content providers) involved in the entire process from content creation to content provision have influence on societal communication. In this relation, these actors also increasingly use algorithmic systems and, in particular, AI.
Using two examples, “Google News” and “Parler,” the STEAM method has demonstrated that existing mechanisms for protecting social communication and its essential functions are being called into question. Both cases demonstrate challenges to pre-existing mechanisms for safeguarding societal communication and its essential functions. The cases might hint at problems for relevant qualities of societal communication, which are not covered by the current communication law system. Therefore, we need to fundamentally rethink how we can continue to ensure that socially relevant communication takes place both openly and freely.
Information on the “Socio-Technical Ecosystem Architecture Method” (STEAM) Project
The project is one of seven consortia in the social and technical sciences that were funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. The projects were scheduled to run for three to four years, with each receiving approximately 1.5 million euros in funding. For more information on the Volkswagen Foundation’s initiative, “Artificial Intelligence — Its Impact on Tomorrow’s Society,” visit https://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/en/news/news/artificial-intelligence-nearly-10-million-euros-funding-new-projects.
Project Findings on YouTube
- Was ist STEAM? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtxqXDwQmwM (German)
- What is STEAM? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izCCiYCy8Bc (English)
- KI-Zusammenfassungen statt Journalismus? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E811_QvQWkM (German)
- AI Overview instead of Journalism? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI2WDqxNpLU (English)
Selected Publications from the Project
- Burmeister, Fabian; and Kurtz, Christian, „Toward an Interdisciplinary Method for Ecosystem Architecture-Guided Regulatory Reasoning“ (2024). In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction(pp. 247-262). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
- Burmeister, Fabian; Kurtz, Christian; Spürkel, Josefine; Mast, Tobias; Schirmer, Ingrid; and Böhmann, Tilo, „Interdisciplinary Architecture Modeling for Regulating Digital Business Ecosystems“ (2024). PACIS 2024 Proceedings. 3. https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2024/track06_dpe/track06_dpe/3
- Burmeister, F., Kurtz, C. & Schirmer, I. Governing Information Privacy in Data Ecosystems With Architectural Thinking. Electron Markets 35, 67 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-025-00808-5
- Kurtz, Christian; Burmeister, Fabian; Wittner, Felix; Jacobs, Marius; Semmann, Michael; Simon, Judith; Schulz, Wolfgang; Schirmer, Ingrid; and Böhmann, Tilo, „Interdisciplinary Boundary Spanning: Guidance for Collaboration Between the Disciplines of Information Systems, Law, and Ethics“ (2025). Business & Information Systems Engineering. pp 1 -12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-024-00920-4
- Kurtz, Christian; and Burmeister, Fabian, „From Opacity to Transparency: Legal Spotlight on Ecosystem Architectures“ (2024). AMCIS 2024 Proceedings. https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2024/ict_global/ict_global/3/
- Stratmann, Magdalena; Mast, Tobias; Spürkel, Josefine; Burmeister, Fabian; Kurtz, Christian; Soulier, Eloise: „Visualizing Regulatory Ecosystems: A New Approach to Mapping EU Regulations as Architectures – The Case of the AI Act“ (2026). Computer Law & Security Review (61/2026). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2026.106333
Contact
Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI)
Christiane Matzen
c.matzen@leibniz-hbi.de
About the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI)
The Leibniz Institute for Media Research │Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) examines media change and the related structural shifts in public communication. It combines basic research and research on knowledge transfer from cross-media, interdisciplinary and independent scholarly perspectives. Thus, the institute is a valued provider of problem-specific knowledge for politics, commerce and civil society. In 2019, the institute was admitted to the Leibniz Association. Learn more at https://leibniz-hbi.de/en/.
Information about the Department of Informatics at the University of Hamburg
The department is part of the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics, and Natural Sciences and is one of the largest computer science departments in Germany. It is distinguished by its broad and modern approach to teaching and research. We offer several interesting bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. Our commitment to high-quality teaching is supported by a system of student evaluations. Our research activities span a wide range of fields and include collaborations with partners in academia and industry in Germany and abroad. Our Transregional Collaborative Research Center on Cross-Modal Learning (CML) and our technology transfer organization, the Hamburg Information Technology Center (HITeC) e.V., are particularly noteworthy. Learn more at https://www.inf.uni-hamburg.de/en.
About the Volkswagen Foundation
The Volkswagen Foundation is Germany’s largest private, nonprofit science funding organization. Despite its name, it is not a corporate foundation. The foundation’s funding programs support the natural sciences, life sciences, engineering, humanities, and social sciences in Germany and abroad. Its headquarters are located in Hanover. Learn more at https://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/en.