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**AI4media** aims to develop new, trustworthy, ethical AI solutions for the media.

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The **AI-CODE** mission statement: To identify and understand synthetic content on next generation social platforms – and to provide professionals with tools and guidelines for the new media landscape they're facing.

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**KID** is about fighting mis-/disinformation and fostering media literacy with the help of AI and digital tools.

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**news-polygraph** aims to develop a multimodal verification platform that relies on artificial and human intelligence to analyze digital content.

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**SERMAS** – short for Socially Acceptable Extended Reality Models and Systems – wants to make XR more human-centered and companion-driven. At the same time, the consortium aims to create next generation tools and concepts.

The project's official logo: Two adjacent hexagons in green show an abstract representation of a neural network (left side) and a magnifying glass (right side). Below, small letters spell out: vera dot ai, also in black (vera) and green (ai).

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**vera.ai** is dedicated to analyzing disinformation and building AI-supported verification tools/services. It continues the work of the completed H2020 project WeVerify.

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The **XReco** consortium is building a cutting-edge, data-driven XR ecosystem for the entire content industry.

**Hala Attig** is an engineer focused on machine learning applications. She is particularly interested in using NLP and data analysis to make information more accessible. Before joining DW as an Innovation Manager, Hala worked as a software developer and R&D project manager for other media companies.

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**Ipek Baris Schlicht** is a computer scientist and innovation manager with both university and industry research experience in AI. A lot of her work is about using technology to facilitate fact-checking processes. In general, she loves to derive meaningful questions (and answers) from social data. Next to her work for DW, Ipek is pursuing her Ph.D. on early detection of fake news and hatespeech in the health domain.

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**Julia Bayer** is an investigative journalist who dives deep online using OSINT. As a ReCo innovation manager, Julia is involved in a number of verification projects. She also trains journalists in OSINT techniques and digital verification.

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**Ruben Bouwmeester** brings concept development skills, profound graphical expertise, and an urgent drive to get things done. He has a background in project management, concept development, and design, holding a B.A. from The Hague University. As a ReCo innovation manager, Ruben specializes in UGC, verification, and HLT. He also trains journalists at DW Akademie.

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**Andy Giefer** is a ReCo innovation manager in love with good design and new technology. He creates smart, artistic applications and has a background in telecommunications engineering. Before joining DW, Andy worked for the BBC’s R&D department.

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Nico Heise‘s focus is on interdependencies between social media and news. At DW ReCo, he has also specialized in drones. Nico is a former media industry top executive, holds a PhD in European law, and has worked as a media lawyer for more than 15 years. He teaches as a Professor for Media Law in Potsdam.

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A web developer at DW ReCo, **Hina Imran** is crazy about Linux and likes to work with angular.js and react.js. With great passion, she develops data-driven web applications such as dashboards, maps, and charts. Hina was also involved in the development of Datawrapper.

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**Lynn Khellaf** is a data scientist with a background in AI. They have a passion for smart applications, computer vision, neural network design, and making sense of complex data systems. In the past, Lynn has mainly worked at universities and is now happy to apply their skills in the domain of disinformation detection and other projects here at DW.

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As innovation manager at DW Lab, **Marie Kilg** has found her dream job at the intersection of product management and journalism. Passionate about words and machines, she has birthed bots for media companies and universities, helped create the German personality for Amazon’s Alexa, and co-founded the Turing Agency (which aims to encourage conversations about AI in society). In her free time, Marie enjoys reading, live music and practicing martial arts.

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**Tim Koch** has worked with the DW ReCo team since the early days. He has extensive knowledge in fundraising and the management of EC co-funded projects. Tim holds a diploma in mineralogy, which makes him the steady rock in the surf of innovation. 

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**Eva Lopez** is an innovation manager at DW ReCO and also part of DW’s data journalism team. She’s fascinated by numbers – and a news junky, absorbing what’s going in the analogue and digital world. No wonder she decided to go for an interdisciplinary education that allowed her to dive in to the world of natural sciences, analytics, and journalism. Eva holds a Master’s degree in data journalism from Tilburg University.

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**Mirko Lorenz** is a hands-on journalist with software development skills. For the last 15 years, he has worked on technologies for newsrooms. In the international DDJ community, he is best known for launching the acclaimed chart creation tool Datawrapper. Mirko is also a co-author of the Data Journalism Handbook. Before joining DW, he worked for a variety of media companies in Germany and the US.

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**Kay Macquarrie** is an innovation manager for DW ReCO and holds a Master’s in multimedia production. He is very much into archives — and unlocking their power with state-of-the-art digital technologies.

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**Tilman Miraß** is a full-stack developer and innovation manager for the ReCo team. Combining hands-on experience in web technology with an academic background in political science is at the core of his approach. Before joining Deutsche Welle, Tilman was a freelancer (and volunteer) for a number of social, cultural, and political projects.

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A prolific creator of concepts and tools, **Nico Patz** has carried out research projects for ages. His focus is usually on topics like e-learning, interactive media, collaboration, and inclusive user experiences. Nico’s M.A. in English literature and History of Arts goes back to his passion for storytelling, his skills in AV production originate from more than three decades in the performing arts. Prior to his job at DW innovation, Nico worked for public service broadcaster rbb and TU Berlin.

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**Alexander Plaum** is an online editor, concept creator, and media consultant with a keen interest in IT, pop culture, and politics. Before joining DW ReCo as an innovation manager, Alex worked for several other organizations in the media, tech and education business. Ages ago, he also obtained an M.A. in literature studies, sociology, and political science.

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**Axel Primavesi** is a journalist. He has worked for DW for more than a decade, putting a focus on adventurous reporting in recent years. As much as adventure, Axel loves innovation. At ReCo, he gives projects a journalistic reality check and brings his storytelling skills to the table.

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As the head of DW’s ReCo team, **Wilfried Runde** is responsible for the overall planning and coordination of projects and budgets – and always striving to improve journalism’s creative toolset. Wilfried worked as an information specialist, freelance print and TV journalist, and online editor before joining DW. In his leisure time, he loves to “spin a tune”.

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**Anna Schild** is an innovation manager for DW ReCo and holds a degree in media and communication studies. She believes in the power of verification with OSINT. Anna is always eager to manage projects that translate research into practical tools: for journalists, human rights activists, and everyone else who needs to verify information.

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As a senior editor, reporter and producer, **Ksenia Skriptchenko** has developed and managed very successful social media formats for DW. As an innovation manager, she focuses on extended reality (XR) and human language technology (HLT) projects, aiming to enhance user experiences and drive innovation within the journalism ecosystem. Ksenia holds a diploma in industrial engineering and management from TU Berlin.

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**Jochen Spangenberg** is the deputy head of DW’s ReCo team. He has been involved in dozens of R&D projects for DW in various capacities since 2003. Previous to that, Jochen worked for the BBC in London and had an exciting time in the new (media) economy at the turn of the century. His passions are (digital) journalism, verification, media literacy, and human rights issues. Jochen also lectures at Freie Universität Berlin.

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**Daniela Späth** is a project manager at DW Lab – and a DW-trained reporter, video journalist, and social media editor. She loves to experiment with new platforms, technologies, and code. Prior to joining DW, Daniela freelanced for SPIEGEL Online and Gruner + Jahr. Daniela is a fellow of MIZ, DAAD, FCP, and a graduate of the Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Journalism, Media and Globalisation.

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**Olivia Stracke** is a journalist, literary scholar (B.A.), and Master's student of cultural anthropology. She's very much into immersive media and joined DW Innovation to support the team's XR projects. Olivia has studied in Hamburg, Nantes, and London – and freelanced for a number of renowned German media including UNI SPIEGEL, DIE ZEIT, and NDR.

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**Peggy van der Kreeft** joined DW EU projects even before the innovation team was formed. She is a brick in the wall when it comes to language, thesauri and user validation. In her leisure time she teaches French and English.

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**Tilman Wagner** is an explorer of the deep sea of internet data – and an innovation manager at DW ReCo. He is always on the lookout for treasures like new tools, gems of information visualization, best usability practices and audiovisual jewels. With a diploma in media technology and a Master’s in international media studies, he combines tech savviness with a sound knowledge of the media landscape and current trends.

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Accessibility

AI, short for artificial intelligence, is hard to define. Some jokingly refer to it as cool stuff computers can't (or couldn't) do, some equate it with machine learning (ML) that leads to sophisticated pattern recognition, recreating, and remixing. Pretty much all experts agree AI has a lot to do with teaching software how to be autonomous (i.e. perform complex tasks without guidance at some point) and how to be adaptive (i.e. perform better by learning from experience). If something is based on a lot of (rather straight-forward) scripts and queries, it's not AI, but automization – at least by today's standards. In media tech, AI and automization (a.k.a. news algorithms) are almost everywhere now, namely in content monitoring, creation, distribution, provision, personalization, moderation, exploitation, and archiving.

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AI & Automization

A blockchain is – first and foremost – a digital directory of transactions, a kind of modern ledger that can be used for all kinds of purposes (not just for crypto currencies like Bitcoin). Individual entries/blocks are joined together like links in a chain (hence the name of the technology). Every transaction/change in the chain is checked and validated by a (substantial) number of other computers in a peer-to-peer network. The idea is to create a safe, distributed database for parties who don't know each other or don't trust each other or can't come up with an official admin – or all of the above. There are different types of blockchains, and there are also different types of distributed/digital ledgers (DLTs). The opposite of a blockchain (or a DLT) is a regular, centralized database. In media tech, blockchain tech is often used to solve IP challenges ("how can we access content in a smart way and make sure creators get paid for it?") and verification issues ("how can we prove this content is legit and has not been tampered with"?).

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Blockchain & DLT

DDJ is short for data-driven journalism. The term refers to stories that focus on numbers, statistics and visualizations thereof (e.g. in charts and infographics), but also to the very process of going through and analyzing (large) sets of data – usually with the help of digital tools – in order to create such content. DDJ, which can be closely linked to data science, has continuously evolved and now includes all kinds of sources, ranging from "traditional" research on the web to vast digital file dumps to internet of things (IoT) sensor recordings or satellite images and earth observation (EO) data.

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HLT stands for human language technology and is basically a mix of applied linguistics and applied computer science. HLT people use computers to aggregate, analyze, produce, alter, or react to human text and speech. This is also known as NLProc or NLP (natural language processing), which is then combined with computational linguistics (CL) and app development. HLT has become a pillar of digital media and makes prominent use of AI approaches. There would be no automatic transcription, translation, subtitling, and voice-over generation without HLT – and no chat bots, voice assistants, meta data generators, and summarization tools.

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In journalism and media, verification refers to a number of different, but related processes concerned with finding the truth ("veritas" in Latin). It's about investigating the facts/details of a story (fact-checking), examining pieces of content with regard to their validity, and establishing if the narrative holds up. Nowadays, journalistic verification is usually done with the help of search engines, digital maps, and lots of other tools. It has become increasingly complex, and there's a fair amount of overlap with other disciplines, e.g. digital forensics or the broader field of OSINT (open source intelligence, which refers to publicly available sources of information, not open source software).

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Verification

This is a very broad term, but also one that's easy to explain. Visual journalism encompasses all methods and techniques of novel, digital storytelling that heavily rely on (powerful) images and symbols. Examples range from avantgarde drone cinematography to elaborate scrollytelling to gaudy vertical video.

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Visual Journalism

XR is a hypernym that resolves to "extended reality" and includes the categories of AR (augmented reality), MR (mixed reality), and VR (virtual reality). These technologies, which often overlap, aim to do one or several of the following things: add information on top of the real world, blend objects into the real world, create a virtual world and transport viewers into it, replace the real world. The general idea is to provide content that is (a lot) more immersive than regular AV content and takes viewers to an exceptional place and/or puts them in the shoes of somebody else, thus fostering a particularly engaging and absorbing experience. When XR is used to tell a story, provide insights, and explain the world, it becomes immersive journalism. Increased levels of immersion can also be achieved via 360° degree videos, sophisticated 3D models (viewed in 1st person mode), and binaural sounds.

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XR & Immersive Journalism

This category collects blog posts that look at media tech R&D from a meta perspective. Questions discussed include: How do you run a project? How do you run a team? What do modern ideation, concept creation, and management tools look like? It's a smorgasbord of tips, tricks, and insights.

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Best Practice

Interview

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DW Innovation = DW ReCo + DW Lab. We explore emerging technologies and their impact on journalism, media, and audiences.

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Innovators and technology providers – apply now!

XR/AI Funding: SERMAS launches second open call

Alexander Plaum

Applicants will have to form a small sub-consortium (2-3 partners), cover a domain that hasn't been addressed in the [SERMAS pilots](https://sermasproject.eu/how-does-it-work/) yet, and exploit at least some modules of the the SERMAS software toolkit – including the new applications developed in the first open call.

The application deadline is 26 June 2024 (17:00 CEST).

For more information, documents, and the application form, head over to the official [SERMAS Open Call #2 Landing Page](https://sermasproject.eu/open-call-2-demonstrate/).

Project SERMAS ("Socially acceptable extended reality models and systems") was kicked off in late 2022 and is funded by the EU. It combines XR/immersive tech, AI/NLProc, robotics, and social sciences.