VMCI Research

Within our research at the Vienna Media Change and Innovation (VMCI) Lab, we focus on four main research areas: 

1. Growing up with artificial intelligence: We explore how AI and related technologies affect the socialization of children and adolescents. Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important part of children's and young people's lives. Prominent examples of this are the use of ChatGPT for homework, algorithmic curation of content on social media or the use of digital voice assistants in everyday life. In more detail, we examine three areas where AI and related technologies can have an impact: a) learning and information acquisition, b) social relationships and c) identity formation of children and young people. In each of these areas, it is important to examine both the benefits and risks of AI. In addition, it is crucial not to look at the role of AI in isolation, but embedded in the family and peer group context, because AI places completely new demands on children's education and social communication. Therefore, we also investigate in this area how innovative technologies affect family relationships, which areas of conflict arise through new technologies and how parental competence and self-efficacy can be strengthened.
2. Intergroup relations in virtual environments: In our second research area, our aim is to explore how AI and related technologies perpetuate prejudice and stereotypes, but also how they can be used to strengthen social cohesion. Today, AI is already able to provide real-time translations in more than 60 languages, making it easier for people to connect with other nationalities. So the question we ask ourselves is: Can we bring people closer together when language is no longer a barrier? However, we don't exclusively focus on overcoming language barriers. New technologies such as VR also make it possible to gain an insight into the lives and surroundings of other people around the world - in schools in particular, virtual environments can offer a wide range of opportunities to gain an insight into other cultures and realities of life and thus support learning and, if necessary, break down prejudices.
3. Political engagement in digital environments: In our third research focus, we conduct research on novel actors in the field of political communication that have emerged through digital environments. In terms of content, we are interested in whether and how opinion leaders in digital and virtual environments such as social media influencers or virtual personalities contribute to political opinion formation and democratic participation or whether, on the contrary, they promote news avoidance and political apathy. Although our focus in this area is on young people, who are particularly impressionable due to their ongoing identity development, we investigate processes of political opinion formation in digital environments across the lifespan. In this area, we also conduct cross-national comparative research. Another research interest is the investigation of misinformation by actors and formats that the digital transformation has produced, such as social bots or deep fakes, and their effects on institutional mistrust and political cynicism.
4. Digital media literacy and autonomy: Finally, we investigate how media users (re)gain autonomy in digital environments. Here, our research shifts the perspective from viewing the individual as a passive victim of digital technologies to a role as a responsible actor who can exercise control over their environment. Based on this perspective, we investigate how individuals can (re)gain autonomy, knowledge and control in new media environments and how this ability to act can be strengthened through media literacy, perceived behavioral control or self-determination. Methodologically, we use innovative methods that do justice to the highly dynamic "high-choice media environment" by combining linkage analyses, data donation, measurement burst designs and multiple exposure studies.