Public lectures, methods workshops and panels — in Munich, online and on the road.
At the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum 2026 held at the World Conference Center in Bonn, Sahana Udupa joined Nora Witt (Seff Bonn) and DW journalists Jasper Steinlein and Kristin Zeier to discuss the growing restrictions on press freedom in the AI age and ways to defend democratic freedoms.
Read more →What have social media and AI media done to our social and politial life? In a series of immersive workshops, the SMALLPLATFORMS project team members explored this with young social media and AI users. The workshop in Nairobi drew a fantastic group of media professionals, media students, policy experts, and AI entrepreneurs.
Read more →The Global Disruptions preconference brings scholars together to analyze how media and communication reshape power, democracy, and resistance worldwide. Through four specialized tracks ranging from disinformation and youth movements to authoritarianism and platform capture, participants will engage in interactive dialogue and networking. This full-day event provides a vital platform for interdisciplinary exchange, helping researchers and graduate students refine their work and build lasting collaborative networks.
Read more →In an invited talk at the DRUMS (Distortions, Rumours, Untruths, Misinformation and Smears) Conference organized by the Centre for Excellence for National Security, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Sahana Udupa will speak about trends in information landscape.
Read more →At the Zentrum für Medien-, Kommunikations- und Informationsforschung (ZeMKI) Anniversary Conference, to be held at the House of Science Bremen in Bremen, Germany, Ira Solomatina delves into the political and industrial landscape of AI-generated romance, particularly the trajectory of mediated intimacy within the context of the conference’s theme: “20 Years into the Future: What is our vision of media, data, and society?”
Read more →Later that day, Craig Ryder presents ethnographic insights into how Sri Lankan social media users emerged as prominent voices of resistance during the 2022 Aragalaya movement. His online talk examines the interplay between activism, influencer culture, and digital capital in repressive media environments, offering a broader lens for understanding political participation online.
Read more →At the 26th Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR2025), Craig Ryder joins virtually and explores how fringe platforms served as key spaces for the circulation of “digital banter” during the UK riots. His presentation investigates how irony and humor functioned as both camouflage and catalyst for extremist expression, shedding light on the blurred boundaries between online play and political provocation.
Read more →At the 26th annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers to be held on the Campus Gragoatá in Niterói, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil, Sahana Udupa will moderate a roundtable on AI and disinformation with Marcelo Alves Dos Santos, Herman Wasserman, Tatiana Dourado and Michael Best. She will also present a paper at the panel organized by Raquel Recuero and Afonso Albuquerque.
Read more →At the 26th annual meeting of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR2025), to be held on the Campus Gragoatá in Niterói, Brazil, by the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Ira Solomatina presents her research on representational patterns of repeating femininity on larger and smaller platforms. Her presentation is based on her work on SMALL PLATFORMS.
Read more →At the 26th Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR2025), to be held on the Campus Gragoatá of Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) in Niterói, Brazil, Job Mwaura examines how AI-generated content is reshaping activism, fueling new forms of dissent, and provoking state repression in Kenya. His presentation highlights the tensions between digital innovation, political control, and grassroots resistance in an era of rapidly evolving online movements.
Read more →At the VOX-Pol Next Generation Network Conference 2025, to be held at Charles University in Prague, Craig Ryder presents his cross-platform analysis of the “5G Plandemic” conspiracy theory. His talk examines how different digital environments shape the narrative’s evolution, highlighting the ideological affordances of each platform and the socio-technical dynamics that facilitate the spread of conspiratorial content.
Read more →At the Tenth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies (#ICCMS25), to be held at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris, France, Ira Solomatina presents her research on Feminism as an aberration: anti-feminist discourses of tradwife influencers, within the frame of the event on the intersection of democratic aesthetics and digital culture.
Read more →DW Akademie hosts a DW Freedom Talk on 4 September 2025 from 17:00–18:30 at DW’s Berlin headquarters, examining how encrypted messaging platforms influence global public discourse and political dynamics. Speakers Sahana Udupa, Herman Wasserman, and Oliver Linow discuss the cultural, technical, and ethical dimensions of encryption, privacy, and the misuse of closed communication networks based on the book “WhatsApp in the World”.
Read more →The University of Amsterdam’s Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis hosts the book launch WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption and Extreme Speech on Monday, September 1, 14:00–16:00 (Room 0.03, Building BG1). Editors Sahana Udupa and Herman Wasserman present the volume’s global, field-based insights into WhatsApp’s role in disinformation and extreme speech, followed by an open discussion.
Read more →In this visionary keynote at Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi, Job Mwaura explores how AI and emerging technologies can foster inclusive development and sustainable innovation across the African continent. Drawing on community-led initiatives and local knowledge systems, the talk highlights strategies to ensure that technological progress supports equity, participation, and long-term impact
Read more →At the International Media Policy Summer Institute organized by Nicole Stremlau at the Program for Comparative Media Law and Policy, Oxford University, Sahana Udupa delivered a lecture on encrypted messaging and extreme speech.
Read more →Navigating the delicate balance between moderating harmful content and preserving social status on Discord, visiting scholar Jonatan Mizrahi-Werner explores these dynamics in a virtual talk hosted by the Center for Digital Dignity.
Read more →Center for Advanced Studies at LMU Munich hosted a special lecture by Sahana Udupa as part of the CAS Research Group on encrypted messaging and extreme speech. In this talk, Udupa presented the concept of “deep extreme speech” and how intimate channels of communication on WhatsApp are channelized for divisive discourses.
Read more →At the 75th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference in Denver, Colorado, USA, Sahana Udupa organized a panel on encrypted messaging and extreme speech with Dani Madrid-Morales, Martin Riedl and Stephanie Tong.
Read more →At the 75th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference in Denver, Sahana Udupa delivered the keynote address, “Public Scholarship Under Pressure” for the ICA PreConference on Science Communication organized by Bernhard Goodwin and Andreas M. Sheu.
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