The 68th International Conference “Communication Automation and Automated Media: Challenges and Media Studies” was held in Bremen (Germany) from May 18 to 20. Alla Yarova, associate professor of the department of journalism and philology of the FРSС Sumy State University, presented a report devoted to the problem of Russian disinformation in Germany, and also appealed to the European scientific community to initiate joint research that would dispel the Russian imperial grand narrative.

DGPuK – as this prestigious scientific event is abbreviated – is organized annually by the German Society for Journalism and Communication together with the University of Bremen, in particular the Center for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), an influential European center for research on media and communication changes at the interface between cultural studies and social sciences, on the one hand, and technical sciences, on the other. The conference became a discussion platform for the latest research on the problems of the digital society, in particular the challenges related to the algorithmization of communication and the automation of data.

This year, the keynote speeches were delivered by Elena Esposito, a professor of sociology at Bielefeld (Germany) and Bologna (Italy) universities, a researcher of social systems, an expert in social theory, media theory and memory theory, as well as the sociology of financial markets, and Mark Andrejevic, professor at the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University (Australia), member of the Australian Academy of Humanities, principal researcher of the ARC Center of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society.

Ms. Professor Esposito offered her thoughts on “How to Communicate with Machines That Don't Understand.” The problem is that the latest algorithms, developed on the basis of advanced machine learning methods and capable of processing big data, remain not sufficiently transparent, which obliges the researcher to have the skills to work with this “opacity”.

Professor Andreyevich prepared the report “Granular biopolitics and the recession of the public”. It focuses on the social implications of the widespread deployment of real-time automated mass identification using facial recognition and other biometric technologies. Based on the theory of biopower, the scientist studies how biometrics changes the relationship between the individual and society in such a way that it affects the strategies of surveillance, management and control.

The conference featured several discussion panels, including Research Software for Measuring Media Use, Research Issues in Algorithmic/Automated Media Communication, Journalism and Its Limits, From Human-Machine Interaction to Communicative Artificial Intelligence. A special panel, organized in cooperation with the Volkswagen Foundation, presented Ukrainian research on the problem of disinformation, in particular Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine, focused on the European and global space. The discussion was moderated by Lars Rinsdorf, a professor of communication sciences at the Technical University of Cologne, and Ralf Hohlfeld, a professor of communication sciences at the University of Passau. Anna Sarmina from the University of Passau “Russian Propaganda in the Ukrainian Wars of 2014 and 2022” and Anna Verbytska from the University of Wittenberg-Halle “Emotional journalism: the case of a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine” gave speeches.

Alla Yarova, representing Sumy State University and Stuttgart Media University, prepared the report “Russian disinformation in Germany: themes, elements, narrative design.” The researcher summarizes: “We can talk about five types of Telegram channels that spread Russian disinformation or pro-Russian propaganda in Germany. Some of them were deliberately created after the full-scale Russian invasion, some after the ban on the propaganda media "russia today" and "sputnik", some channels have German geolocation and Russian-language content, and some have Russian geolocation and German-language content. There are German-language channels based in Germany. Together, they form a single network that aims to spread disinformation about the war in Ukraine, as well as manipulate public opinion in Germany.”

Summarizing the work of the “Ukrainian” section, Dr. Cora Schaffert-Ziegenbalg, who heads the scientific program “Social Transformations” of the Volkswagen Foundation, said that she feels happy because her organization helps conduct such significant research on social changes that will help overcome aggression and human rights violations for true information.
It is nice to state that in the fight for true information, the contribution of the scientists of the Department of Journalism and Philology of the FРSС of Sumy State University is also significant.