Research

The ZeM’s research profile is continuously shaped by annual thematic foci and the activities of its members. They represent the full range of research interests and fields of study at the various participating universities.

The ZeM provides organizational and financial support for its members’ diverse research activities, makes its facilities available and offers technical support, and announces events on the ZeM website and in the ZeM newsletter. National and international collaborations are reflected in a wide range of events. Academic knowledge production is advanced through the awarding of scholarships to doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and visiting scholars.

		The current annual focus “Platformatizations” (2025/2026) aims to examine the media conditions of current challenges that are often referred to in general terms such as disinformation and propaganda, the post-factual age, but also the division of society and the fragmentation of the public sphere.
The annual focus “Control of Loss” (2023/2024) addressed an unease in the face of current phenomena of loss and the attempts to manage them with digital methods – inluding our ideas of planetary futures, shaped by media arrangements, into which the most diverse loss scenarios are inscribed.
		The first annual focus of the ZeM, “Digital Realities” (2022/2023), was based on the assumption that it seems less and less meaningful to make categorical distinctions between “online” and “offline”. Instead, we move through different realities that complement, replace, reinforce or play off each other.

ZeM’s science policy is guided by the goal of fostering networking among its members. This is promoted both through cross-university collaboration within Brandenburg and through strategic partnerships with universities in other states, representatives of professional associations, non-university research institutions, and knowledge transfer hubs. A particular focus is placed on networking among early-career researchers through initiatives such as the ZeM Forum for Doctoral Students and graduate conferences held as part of the annual thematic foci.