On September 26, 2024, research into digital democracy was the focus of a high-profile event at the Representation of the State of Baden-Württemberg in Berlin. The central question of the evening: How can we use digital technologies to strengthen democracy instead of jeopardizing it? Academics, politicians and journalists discussed the challenges posed by disinformation and polarization and the opportunities to use technology to counteract these developments. In a super election year in which over half of the world’s population is exercising their right to vote, social tensions are on the rise, exacerbated by disinformation campaigns and global crises. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and social networks are also contributing to the dynamics of these developments.
State Minister Olschowsky welcoming the attendees.
Current results from our research project SOSEC – Social Sentiments in Times of Crises were presented at the event. In her speech, Petra Olschowski, Minister of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg, emphasized the relevance of this research, especially in times of crisis: “With the House of Participation, the Karlsruhe Research Institute of Technology has created a place where experts in computer science can meet with scientists from the field of democracy research. At a time when we are experiencing rapid upheaval, I think it is particularly important to analyze how people are doing and how relevant events affect our opinions and behavior.” In his presentation, Hendrik Lehmann from the Tagesspiegel Innovation Lab, with whom we are cooperating as part of SOSEC, gave insights into the work of data journalism and presented research data from SOSEC that has found its way into Tagesspiegel articles. Afterwards, Minister Olschowsky, Gilda Sahebi, journalist and author, and Dr. Jonas Fegert, Head of the FZI House of Participation, engaged in a panel discussion moderated by Dinah Riese (taz). They addressed the political and social challenges posed by increasingly digitalized communication spaces. They also discussed the contribution that digital technologies (such as AI) and data-based approaches in research and journalism can make to a resilient democracy.
Dinah Riese, Gilda Sahebi, Dr. Jonas Fegert, Petra Olschowsky (left to right)
Dr. Jonas Fegert, Dinah Riese, Gilda Sahebi, Hendrik Lehmann, Prof. Christof Weinhardt
The event impressively demonstrated how important interdisciplinary research and technology-based approaches are for a resilient democracy. Especially in times of increasing division, it is crucial to accompany these developments with scientifically sound approaches and to develop solutions. SOSEC plays an important role here. With its unique study design, which combines comprehensive survey data with AI-driven analysis of news events and social media monitoring, developments in German and US society can be tracked. In this way, the social sentiment is observed and evaluated in order to derive recommendations for action that promote democratic structures from the insights gained.
Following the panel discussion, guests had the opportunity to deepen the discussion in personal conversations with stakeholders from science, industry and political institutions and to find out about current research projects at various demonstrators. Among other things, participants were able to find out about the results of the ongoing panel survey at the SOSEC dashboard. The dashboard, which is currently under development, allows participants to interactively engage with the survey data.
The House of Participation – HoP for short – is a competence center that promotes cooperation between the public, politics, science and development in order to actively shape digital democracy. It researches and develops digital participation processes and platforms and brings decision-makers from various sectors into dialog.