Institute of Communication and Media Studies (icmb)

icmb

  • "Putins Online-Kämpfer fluten die Schweiz mit Propaganda". Tagesanzeiger, 4.4.2022
     
  • "Die russische Manipulation hat die Kriegsverbrechen möglich gemacht". Interview mit Dr. Mykola Makhorthykh. Berner Zeitung, 7.4.2022
     

  • The Multidisciplinary Center for Infectious Diseases (MCID) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Bern dedicated to researching and addressing the health, societal, ethical and economic risks posed by infectious diseases. The MCID brings together excellent researchers with the aim of exploring the causes of infectious disease risks, preparing for and managing risks. In a call for project funding, the MCID awarded 17 of 40 submitted projects at the end of December. Among them is the ikmb project "Preparing the mainstream media for the next pandemic - when does mainstream media content foster belief in conspiracy theories?". The project starts in June 2022 and lasts 3 years (funding amount around CHF 180,000).

  • Ani Baghumyan has been working as a PhD student at the ikmb since 1 February 2022. She completed her Master's degree in Communication Studies at the University of Vienna with the thesis: «Longitudinal Effects of Parental Mediation Styles on Children's Social Well-Being and Self-Esteem: The Role of Perceptual Discrepancy and Children’s Social Media Use».

  • Maryna Sydorova has been supporting the icmb since 1.12.21. She is a data scientist with deep knowledge in machine learning and AI and more than 3 years of experience in predictive modelling, natural language processing, data processing and engineering, and data mining. She will support the icmb in the SNF project "Populist radical-right attitudes and political information behaviour".
     
  • Dr. Franziska Keller is joining the icmb as a postdoctoral researcher since 1st January 2022. She completed her PhD in Political Science from the Department of Politics at the New York University. The title of her dissertation is: "Networks of Power. Using Social Network Analysis to Understand Who Will Rule and Who is Really in Charge in an Authoritarian Regime. Theory, Method, and Application on Chinese Communist Elites (1982-2012)". Prior to her position at the icmb, she taught and researched at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
     
  • Ernesto de León has been elected as the Student and Early Career (SEC) Representative of the Political Communication Section of the International Communication Association (ICA). His term will begin in May 2022 and his main role will be to represent the interests of the SEC in the planning of upcoming ICA conferences.
     
  • Dr. Victoria Grace Walden (University of Sussex) and Dr. Mykola Makhortykh (University of Bern) are organising a series of workshops on machine learning and artificial intelligence: https://pro.europeana.eu/event/machine-learning-ai-and-holocaust-memory
     
  • Dr. Mykola Makhortykh received funding from the Alfred Landecker Foundation for his project "Algorithmic turn in Holocaust memory transmission: challenges, opportunities, threats". The duration of the project is five years and the project sum is Euros 500,000.
     
  • In addition, Prof. Dr. Silke Adam, Dr. Mykola Makhortykh, Maryna Sydorova (all icmb Bern) together with Dr. Aleksandra Urman (Social Computing Group, University of Zurich) have acquired a further project: "Algorithmic content selection in Switzerland - a study of Google and YouTube", which is funded by BAKOM with a sum of around CHF 70,000. The project will be realised in 2022.