Digital methods play an increasingly central role within studies of media and journalism. This development is visible in several agenda-setting international initiatives; and a growing number of staff members at the Department of Media and Journalism Studies at ARTS/IKK working with and developing the use of digital methods within their research and teaching. The great variety of approaches in this field encompasses very different understandings of what digital methods are and how they are employed. Computational social science of large data assets, analyses of archived web content or semi-automated content analyses all have different yet sometimes overlapping procedures for handling, organising, analysing and processing data in its various forms.

To enhance the dispersed and individual existing initiatives in different domains of media and journalism studies, CDMM seeks to integrate and disseminate both theoretically informed and practically tested approaches for research and teaching. To enhance the national and international visibility of these approaches and research in the field, CDMM collaborates with research communities, companies, cultural heritage institutions and the wider public.

A core research interest lies in defining the specific demands for digital methods in media and journalism studies, with their traditional orientations towards media texts, media audiences and media institutions being somewhat challenged by the increasing platformization and convergence of basic categories. The centre advocates a domain-specific approach to e.g. digital humanities, studies of the archived web or journalistic news, while seeking to translate and develop core computational skills for the analysis of digital media from other domains. In line with this ambition, the Centre holds workshops on specific platforms or types of media, to address research challenges from the perspectives of more as well as less experienced researchers in this field.