CDMM Workshop 13 November 2026

Democratising Digital Methods

Online - after the deadline you will receive an email with Zoom information.

Time:

Friday November 13 2026 at 09:00 - 12:00 

Sign-up Deadline:

Wednesday November 11 at 23:59

Sign up for the workshop here

- - Please notice the additional event two hours later, at the bottom of this page - -

Digital methods have become widely adopted as a distinctive approach for studying online cultures, platforms, and infrastructures. Using ‘natively digital’ methods, objects and resources of digital media, researchers have developed a broad range of innovative ways of analysing hyperlinks, search engines, social media, platform data, and digital traces. Today, however, the landscape of digital methods is changing and undergoing significant transformations. The pluralisation and sophistication of the field itself, the rapid integration of artificial intelligence in research, and the broader user groups of digital methods approaches raise new questions about how digital methods can remain distinct and accessible. New approaches such as vibe-coding new tools, quali-quantitative methods for visual and cross-platform content, or new participatory methodologies expand the digital methods research toolbox and areas of application.

With this half-day workshop the Centre for Digital Methods and Media (CDMM) at Aarhus University is celebrating its 5th anniversary. We want to interrogate and map the democratising potential of digital methods approaches to investigate digital online cultures, infrastructures and discourses. We are especially interested in engaging with developers and researchers, journalists and civic technologists who un-blackbox digital media, support critical engagement through digital methods, and create new resources or pedagogies. Join us in rethinking how digital methods can be democratised, who can profit from them, how we can develop tools, resources and approaches together that are committed to open and critical investigations of digital media in an age of AI proliferation. 

Programme

9:00-09:15: Welcome and Scoping (Christoph Raetzsch, AU)

9:15-10:00

• Sercan Kiyak (KU Leuven, BE). Democratising digital methods through shared research infrastructures. The iCANDID core facility at KU Leuven
• Sebastian Randerath (University of Bonn, DE). “Lost and Found. Infrastructures of Online Self-Learning Units on Digital Methods”
• Alexei Tsinovoi (Aarhus University, DK). Developing critical proximity in language model-based digital methods

10:00-10:15: break

10:15-11:15

• Samaneh Koohestani Soorchani (UC Louvain, BE): “Studying Micro-Celebrity Culture in Restricted Digital Environments”
• Lukas Lautenschlager (Aarhus University, DK) “Vibecoding the Youtube Playlist Surfer”
• Marilou Polymeropoulou (University of Oxford, UK) “Using Vibe Coding as an Assistive Method for Data Collection via Spotify’s API”
• Discussion: Potentials of AI-powered and creative methods and tools

11:15-11:30: break 

• Closing joint discussion. Plan for proceedings in CDMM white paper

Programme and Abstracts

Please notice:

Two hours after the workshop follows this event, which may be of additional interest to participants in the CDMM Workshop:

Friday Lecture: Introducing the Public Tech Media Lab-Aarhus
A panel discussion on the theme, "Translating Research into Innovative Public Interest Journalism"

This event takes place at 14:00-16:00

Sign-up for online participation and further information is available here:

Friday Lecture and PTML Launch