Digitale Medien (Digital Media)

Talks and debate in cooperation with the Lower Saxony State Centre for Political Education, featuring

Anke Domscheit-Berg, Member of the Bundestag

Writer and politician, Fürstenberg/Havel

Julia Krüger

Freelance writer for netzpolitik.org and Fellow at the Center for the Internet and Human Rights of the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Pörksen

Media scientist, University of Tübingen

Moderator
Professor Dr. Volker Lüdemann, Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, Head of the Lower Saxony Data Protection Center (NDZ)

“It is apparent that a new sphere of power and influence has in fact emerged, a fifth estate that has muscled in alongside the executive, the judiciary and the legislature and the fourth estate – traditional journalism.” Bernhard Pörksen

Many still have high expectations of “social networks,” the internet, and digital media in general, resulting in a gold-rush mentality with regard to the commercial opportunities involved. Colorful promises of happiness and liberty spring from the buzzword “digitalization”: text, sound, and images can be shared with an unlimited number of people. News, information, and knowledge are freely accessible, as are all kinds of games and entertainment.
“Power” is mentioned when the public media is shown to be changing: New actors demand attention, hate and agitation erupt, and people lose trust in what used to be “legacy media.” Will individual users get a slice of the “power pie”? Does emancipation from paternalistic structures beckon? Or do the legislature and the judiciary need to step onto the playing field to restore order? Who dominates the digital media? Users can learn the techniques involved “intuitively”: Pretty much all that’s needed is a click of the mouse and a swipe of the screen. But what does “media literacy” even mean? How can we learn to distinguish what is beneficial, and what is harmful? Can we be taught, or is it a matter of trial and error in the digital world?

February 14, 2018, 7 pm, University Auditorium, Neuer Graben 29 / Schlosser Universität, Neuer Graben 29 / Schloss