THE 2025 DDC SPRING RESEARCH RETREAT
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Over the past 2 days, the DDC core group, along with some of our current fellows and members of the steering committee spent time in Nyborg by the sea to update each other on the various research projects we are involved in.
These range from the ways newsrooms are adapting to AI use, how new technologies can improve media literacy, how children can learn to spot misinfo, how LLMs can be used to explain the law, platform-based disinfo and intolerance, and how programming languages are becoming part of ever more complex political power struggles.
We are especially proud of all the junior researchers, from PhDs to (soon-to-be) Postdocs who presented their work.
There was also an inspiring talk by our invited speaker Theis Gaarde Engmann, on how Danish newsrooms can use AI tools to their advantage.
We were also joined by members of the current TrygFonden fellows who gave updates or outlooks on their projects, ranging from media literacy programs to tech podcasting, journalism reform programs, and the use of community notes as a tool for fact-checking.
While democracy is globally in decline with new technologies often seeming to play an increasingly negative role across many societies, as the opening words by our director Claes de Vreese reminded us, these highly interdisciplinary research projects tackle a multitude of aspects that seek to not only address but also mitigate some of the negative dynamics we see unfolding.
In between presentations, we marveled at the view, walked & talked, and (some of us) even went for an early morning dip in the sea — a team-building exercise enabled and made safer via our brand-new DDC flip-flops!
A huge thank you to everyone who was a part of this trip!
And a special thanks to our Centre coordinator Lars Henrik Pedersen for expertly organizing the event!
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