Online Talk Series

Behind the Scenes –
Conversations on Empirical Platform Governance Research

An Online Talk and Discussion Series

Hosted by:
Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen
Christian Katzenbach, Paloma Viejo Otero

Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen
João C. Magalhães

When and Where:
Usually Tuesdays, 3-4pm CET (monthly, sometimes day and time differ!)
Online via Zoom

Platform governance has received extraordinary public, scholarly, and policy attention in recent years. Knowledge and information about how platform powershapes public communication is critical for informed public debates and evidence-based policy-making. At the same time, researchers seeking to investigate content moderation and other platform activities with academic rigour and empirical consistency face substantial challenges, most prominently with regard to data access. Yet, there is a growing community of scholars doing empirical research in this domain.

This series of talks invites scholars in this topic to share their experiences and views, fostering community exchange about how we can study platform governance in this challenging context. How can we cope with precarious or non-existent data access? How do we manoeuvre confidentiality and sensitivity of critical information? How do we deal with grappling decisions that we face in our empirical research?

Format

We are bringing the emerging expert community together to talk about these challenges and options. We meet regularly (monthly) for a 1-hour online session. The format puts exchange and conversation front and center. Each session starts with a short input talk by a scholar portraying a method or recent empirical study in the field of platform governance. After the talk there is a (at least) 30 mins moderated discussion.

The hosts Christian Katzenbach, Paloma Viejo Otero, and João C. Magalhães are bringing the emerging expert community together to talk about these challenges and options, once a month for 1-hour online sessions. The format puts exchange and conversation front and center. Each session starts with a short input talk by a scholar portraying a method or recent empirical study in the field of platform governance. Presentations will be followed by a moderated discussion.

This online series is part of a set of broader activities of ZeMKI, the PGMT lab, and the Center for Media and Technology to foster community formation and exchange in the field of platform governance, such as the Platform Governance Archive (PGA) and the Platform Governance Research Network (PlatGovNet).