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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for MediaWell
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Madrid:20260921T000000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Madrid:20260925T235959
DTSTAMP:20261013T010424
CREATED:20260702T153311Z
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UID:516626-1789948800-1790380799@mediawell.ssrc.org
SUMMARY:INMA Media Innovation Week
DESCRIPTION:INMA’s Media Innovation Week returns to Madrid in September 2026 — uniting Europe’s most ambitious media leaders at the intersection of data\, product\, audience\, and revenue. \nMadrid will convene the people setting the pace for Europe’s news industry. Alongside established voices\, you’ll hear from the innovators building what comes next — the creators rewriting engagement\, the product minds driving habit\, and the commercial architects opening new revenue pathways. It’s a programme infused with fresh thinking and next-generation leadership\, designed to surface the ideas that will shape European media for years to come. \nExperience the strategies powering Spain’s top newsrooms\, explore breakthrough audience growth playbooks\, and connect with the people transforming European media: \nEuropean news media conference: INMA’s signature European conference is the broadest\, fastest\, and most practical look at how to grow and transform at the intersection of media and tech. \nTwo-day Madrid study tour: Visit the newsrooms and innovation labs of Spain’s leading media companies\, gaining first-hand insights into their strategies for audience growth and revenue diversification. What they are doing to grow audience\, brand\, reader and advertising revenue. We’ll visit Prisa Media (El Pais)\, Unidad Editorial (el Mundo)\, Vocento\, ElDiario\, Mediaset\, and RTVE. \nThe very best of Madrid: Beyond the conference\, immerse yourself in Madrid’s legendary hospitality. From tapas tours in historic neighbourhoods to exclusive evenings at iconic venues\, INMA will open doors to the best of Spanish culture and networking opportunities. \nClick here to learn more and register to attend.
URL:https://mediawell.ssrc.org/event/inma-media-innovation-week/
LOCATION:Hotel Riu Plaza España\, Gran Vía\, 84\, Centro\, Madrid\, 28013\, Spain
CATEGORIES:Conference
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20260922T000000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20260925T235959
DTSTAMP:20261013T010424
CREATED:20260413T205244Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260413T205259Z
UID:516031-1790035200-1790380799@mediawell.ssrc.org
SUMMARY:CRC Critical Data Autumn School 2026 | Synthetic Social Media: Studying Platform-Embedded AI
DESCRIPTION:Social media platforms are increasingly shaped by the integration of generative AI alongside long-standing analytical and predictive models. Today’s algorithmic systems are moving from the background infrastructure to the forefront of digital social life – intervening in the content feeds as conversational agents like xAI’s Grok\, reshaping identity through synthetic likenesses of OpenAI’s Sora-2\, and expanding the social ecosystem itself through projects like Butterflies AI and Moltbook\, where autonomous AI agents operate in coexistence with (or independently of) human users. As these developments rapidly outpace existing research frameworks\, the need for mixed critical methodologies grows more urgent. \nSynthetic social media research takes as its starting point the recognition that platforms shaped by generative AI are not simply data-processing systems but cultural environments organized through algorithms\, interfaces\, and shared ways of feeling and knowing. Analytically\, the attribute “synthetic” implies more than artificial arrangements of collective agency. Rather than treating AI as a radical rupture\, it situates generative systems within broader arrangements of human-machine co-creation that amplify specific imaginaries\, values\, and concerns. Methodologically\, it foregrounds ambiguities in how AI platforms recalibrate meaning and how users develop a practical “feel” for algorithmic systems while negotiating their constraints. \nCritical digital methods have responded to these developments by treating chatbots and generative systems as part of the research design as well as objects of inquiry in their own right. Synthetic text\, images\, and sounds are no longer exceptional artifacts but common platform vernaculars\, sustained by entangled practices of prompting\, remixing\, and circulation. Within platform studies\, interface methods\, visual digital methods\, and emerging forms of synthetic ethnography\, AI systems have been repurposed for formatting\, summarization\, annotation\, labeling\, and the generation of synthetic data\, while being interrogated for how they shape knowledge production. This work has foregrounded questions of method: Are we merely studying AI slop\, distracted by the automated excess of content stripped of context and meaning\, or are we witnessing the redefinition of social media itself along with its affordances and cultures of use? \nThe 2026 Autumn School edition of the CRC “Media of Cooperation” tackles this question by focusing on generative AI as an infrastructural\, cultural\, and regulated component of social media platforms across three intersecting dimensions: At the cultural level of everyday use\, it refers to the routinized practices of prompting or interacting with platform-embedded generative systems through multimodal inputs. Infrastructurally\, it signals a shift in agency\, as platforms keep multiplying affordances that nudge us into co-producing synthetic outputs. Finally\, it foregrounds research techniques for probing AI models in their entanglements with the platform governance and moderation regimes. \nAgainst this background\, we invite participants to submit short contributions inspired by\, though not limited to\, one of the following “how to” prompts: \n\nHow to repurpose AI personas as research personas\nHow to rethink walkthrough methods in light of platforms’ generative affordances\nHow to approach cultural biases conditioned by AI systems and prompt cultures\nHow to study AI moderation as platform policy in action\nHow to explore platform agency and its steering ideologies\nHow to integrate screenshots as a method for capturing synthetic situations\nHow to account for the ambiguities emerging from human-machine co-creation\nHow to develop non-extractive approaches to researching AI platforms\n\nParticipants are invited to submit a short abstract (maximum 500 words excluding references) outlining how their work relates to the event’s theme. Presentations should raise questions or provocations rather than present finished research. Accepted abstracts will be grouped into thematic sessions and discussed in a collaborative\, dialogue-focused format. \nSubmit your proposal by 30. April 2026 \nNotification of acceptance by 15 May 2026 \nRegistration by 15 June 2026 \nThe event opens with a one-day conference and moves into hands-on workshops and project work. Accepted abstracts will be grouped into thematic sessions curated by the organising team. Presenters will be connected via email ahead of time to coordinate their contributions. The first day is about presentations and discussions. The next three days are dedicated to exploring and developing methods – hands-on! We invite you to join a team of interdisciplinary scholars and data designers in probing new methodological combinations. Each of our project teams will present a research question alongside a specific method to be collaboratively explored. Please bring your laptops. The project titles will be announced soon. The event is free of charge\, though attendees are responsible for arranging and covering their travel and accommodation in Siegen.
URL:https://mediawell.ssrc.org/event/crc-critical-data-autumn-school-synthetic-social-media-studying-platform-embedded-ai-2026/
LOCATION:University Siegen\, Herrengarten 3\, Siegen\, 57072\, Germany
CATEGORIES:Conference
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260925T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260925T235959
DTSTAMP:20261013T010424
CREATED:20260702T154251Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260702T154251Z
UID:516640-1790294400-1790380799@mediawell.ssrc.org
SUMMARY:AI x Investigative Journalism Forum at The New York Times | Hacks/Hackers
DESCRIPTION:​From document analysis to pattern detection to verification\, AI is changing how investigative journalists dive into research and how fast they can move. The question now is how to scale those skills and put them in the hands of reporters to do more accountability journalism under deadline. \n​Join Hacks/Hackers at The New York Times for a full day of case studies and hands-on skill-building with investigative reporters\, data journalists\, editors and engineers. You will leave with real techniques ready to use in your newsroom. \n\nClick here to learn more and register to attend.
URL:https://mediawell.ssrc.org/event/ai-x-investigative-journalism-forum-at-the-new-york-times-hacks-hackers/
LOCATION:The New York Times\, 242 W 41st St\, New York\, NY\, 10036\, United States
CATEGORIES:Conference
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260925T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260925T235959
DTSTAMP:20261013T010424
CREATED:20260922T184200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260922T184200Z
UID:517911-1790294400-1790380799@mediawell.ssrc.org
SUMMARY:Call for Submissions: Digital Competition Conference 2027
DESCRIPTION:The rapid diffusion of AI and the emergence of AI agents capable of independently accessing tools\, initiating processes\, and acting on users’ behalf may fundamentally reshape how information and economic activity are organized online. These developments are raising new questions about market power\, entry\, innovation\, and control across the technology stack. At the same time\, the regulatory and enforcement disputes that have defined competition policy in tech in recent years continue to evolve\, as the implications of incumbent platform power become increasingly consequential. \nThe Digital Competition Conference 2027 (DCC ‘27)\, taking place February 9-10\, 2027 in Washington\, DC\, will examine all of these developments through a broad inquiry into competition in digital markets. Building on the success of DCC ‘26 – which brought together participants from 37 countries – the conference will continue to serve as a forum for rigorous\, interdisciplinary discussion on the future of competition in the digital economy across key sectors and jurisdictions. The conference aims to advance a shared understanding of competition in AI and digital markets among researchers\, policymakers\, regulators\, business\, litigators\, technologists\, and civil society experts. \nDiscussion will center on research results and methods\, what stakeholders know and still need to learn about competition challenges and remedies\, and how to create a virtuous cycle where research more effectively informs policymaking and enforcement while regulation enables more effective research. The conference will feature research talks and policy discussions focused on a range of technology markets – as they have been traditionally offered\, and as they are being reshaped by AI – including markets for search\, chatbots\, and AI assistants; consumer and enterprise software\, including browsers\, apps\, harnesses\, and cloud services; advertising; social media; messaging; and connected devices. \nCall for Submissions \nWe are soliciting expressions of interest in researcher participation\, including early-stage or draft research papers\, prepublication papers\, and recent or accepted publications. The program committee will select and curate research talks and poster presentations from the submissions received. With the authors’ consent\, we expect to post accepted submissions on our website prior to the conference. \nResearch talks at the conference will be short and should illuminate competition issues\, remedies\, or research methods. Selected speakers will be asked to stimulate dialogue about the practical application of research findings to policymaking and enforcement. The conference is open to all disciplines\, including economics\, computer science\, law\, public policy\, business\, and behavioral sciences. \nPlease submit your paper through the submission link by September 25\, 2026.
URL:https://mediawell.ssrc.org/event/call-for-submissions-digital-competition-conference-2027/
LOCATION:Knight-Georgetown Institute
CATEGORIES:Call for Paper or Proposal,Conference
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