This year, Anja Salzmann, our new Postdoc at SLATE, has become a member of the committee that manages the daily organization of the Junior Scholars Network on AI, Media and Democracy.

The Junior Scholars Network on AI, Media and Democracy is a new initiative that launched in February of 2023. The network aims to connect and support junior scholars who are doing research related to the development and use of AI by media, and its potential impacts on democracy. The goal of the network is to stimulate cooperation, interdisciplinarity, inspiration and knowledge sharing among junior scholars who have different backgrounds, but who still share similar research interests.

The network is supported by the AI, Media and Democracy Lab at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Digital Democracy Centre (DDC) at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and the University of Bergen (UiB). It builds on an already existing self-organized network based on ‘Automated Journalism’, which was set up in 2019 during a Multidisciplinary PhD Workshop on Automated Journalism. From 2023, the network will have increased institutional support to help organize both online and physical events.

The organization committee of the Junior Scholars Network on AI, Media and Democracy is comprised of three members of the network, one from each of the sponsoring institutions. In 2023, the three committee members are Dr. Anja Salzmann, our new Postdoctoral Fellow at SLATE at UiB, Dr. Hannes Cools, a Postdoctoral Fellow at both the Digital Democracy Center at SDU and the AI, Media, and Democracy Lab at UvA, and Anna Schjøtt Hansen, a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Humanities at UvA.

Throughout the year, the network will organize different online activities, such as reading seminars of new relevant research, peer-review sessions, invited speaker sessions with influential scholars in the field, workshops with internal or external speakers, and social events. In addition, the network will organize one physical event each year, with financial support from UvA, SDU and UiB.

To be a member of the Junior Scholars Network on AI, Media and Democracy, you must be a PhD candidate or Postdoc at either UvA, SDU or UiB, and you must be working on a topic related to AI, Media and Democracy. Alternatively, you must be a PhD candidate or Postdoc who was part of the ‘Automated Journalism’ network. All members of the Junior Scholars Network on AI, Media and Democracy must also be willing to actively take part in organizing activities in the network.

If you have any questions related to the Junior Scholars Network on AI, Media and Democracy, or if you wish to become a member, you can contact them at youngscholarsAIMD@proton.me.

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