WHERE ARE WE NOW

Spent the evening yesterday in a flat in Hamburg with a soothing garden view while joining an extremist's livestream on TikTok. I gathered empirical evidence which means that i basically recorded several hours of a session, including threatening behavior and gruesome comments. Happy to discuss ethics but the material not only includes community guideline violations but criminally relevant material for sure.

It is part of a data gahtering process to prepare for the Digital Methods Summer School in Amsterdam that i got invited to. Thanks UvA! Together with a bunch of stellar colleagues we want to explore ways of actually analysing livestreams on TikTok. Something that is a) understudied b) relevant for extremist networking (creating a sense of community), active recruiting attempts through TikTok Live Battles and knowledge sharing (concerning certain dog whistle sounds and other).

Synthetic Propaganda

Well, i have written on that already. But i did a little guest workshop on the topic at HAW Hamburg yesterday and delved a bit deeper into accounts with a bunch of students (Thx!). Meanwhile an abstract on the topic got accepted, so i will do some more research and write an entire paper on "Synthetic Propaganda" while the entire discourse around AI & Fascism keeps speeding up. A lot to read, and a lot to dissect here. 

Participatory Propaganda

This is the other paper i need to write. An abstract is due in a week's time so i better get this started at some point. I will guest lecture and share some observations from the election campaign study i did together with Jolan on Friday at HHU Düsseldorf before my seminar on "Political Communication" continues. After the German General Elections together with the students i am now focusing on local elections.

Memetic Narratives

At some point the word "memetic narratives" slid into my texts, slides and conversations. I am not entirely sure what that means but it seems to resonate. People in coversations took notes. Lol. I have been circling around memes like forever. At last i will somehow structure ideas and readings on the topic and do a proper seminar on "Memes as a means of strategic communication" at TH Köln in the next semester building up on a presentation i gave at the Political Tech Summit in Berlin a couple of months ago. The Sound of Disonformation paper together with Tom was all about audio memes and i have helped Marloes with a bookchapter on "Malicious Earworms" but this seminar means more groundwork and preparing a reading list plus lots of student presentations. Looking forward to that.

Thirst Trap Propaganda

Tom and i received blunt but helpful feedback and need to rework our paper until the end of the month. While the entire situation in Gaza has been unbearable for months i somehow cling to the thought that our paper will help to get a bigger picture. Even if our work is a grain of sand – if any. 

Postdigital 

Still my working concept to bind together the free floating papers on various aspects of propaganda in the early 21st century. Let's see if it will still be useful in the fall, when the so called Dachschrift will be the only thing left to write for me to hand in the dissertation at last. My personal deadline: Mid-December. 2025. We will come back to that.