GRK Das Dokumentarische. Exzess und Entzug

Katja Grashöfer, M.A.

 

Universitätsstr. 105
44789 Bochum
Room: UNI 105, 3/28

Phone: +49 (0) 234/32-27234
E-Mail: katja.grashoefer@rub.de

 

Title of the Dissertation

Lemmas 2.0 – Documenting Events in Wikipedia

Project Description

This PhD-project focuses on the analysis of a special kind of lemma in the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia: It deals with those lemmas that describe events of the recent past. One example of such an article is the Wikipedia entry “Love Parade disaster”. Lemma and article document an event for which no other comparable article exists in a conventional, printed encyclopaedia. The remarkable online publication of the lemma in Wikipedia is not only the result of a modified editing process, but also of a fundamentally changed understanding and new concept of the encyclopaedic form itself.

Both new technologies, which facilitate the production of user-generated content, and a writing process based on the ideas of collaboration and collective intelligence lead Wikipedia towards the creation of a corpus that gives rise to new criteria of encyclopaedic knowledge. Everyone can add and edit content. Articles proliferate along with the interests of their authors. The excessive, immediate and constantly ongoing documentation of events within Wikipedia illustrates the effort to prevent withdrawal, which would otherwise lead to a loss of information.

Technical and content-related aspects interact in this connection: Wikipedia is a database and Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia. The genesis and effects of the documentary form become visible through the analysis of event-lemmas, their stored article versions, and related author discussions. They exhibit the procedures and performances of  documentary. The collective writing process of these articles can be regarded as a form of collective remembrance referring to the depicted event. Collective memories are part of social narratives. They influence present decision-making processes. Therefore, the analysis of event-lemmas leads to an understanding of transformed conditions of social consensus. It will help to describe and characterize the self-conception of a diversified, digital community.

Scholarly Career

  • Since 10/2016: Doctoral Student Member of the DFG Graduate Research Group on “Documentary Practices. Excess and Privation”, Ruhr-University Bochum
  • 02/2016 to 10/2016: Research Assistant at the Institute of Media Studies, Chair for Theory, History and Aesthetics of Digital Media (Prof. Dr. Peter M. Spangenberg), Ruhr-University Bochum
  • 11/2015 to 02/2016: Research Assistant at the Institute of Media Studies, Coordinator of the Mentoring Programme for B.A. and M.A. students, Ruhr-University Bochum

Publications

Monographs

  • Neue Medien in der Grundschule. Das Praxisbuch, in cooperation with: Gunnar Sandkühler/Jost Schneider, Auer Verlag, Augsburg 2016.
  • Neue Medien in der Sekundarstufe. Das Praxisbuch, in cooperation with: Gunnar Sandkühler/Jost Schneider, Auer Verlag, Augsburg 2015.

Essays

  • YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia. Repräsentationen des Holocaust im Web, in: Heindl/Sina (Ed.): Notwendige Unzulänglichkeit. Künstlerische und mediale Repräsentationen des Holocaust. LIT Verlag, Münster [in preparation].
  • Wikipedias Wissen. Vom Wandel einer Mediengattung als bildungspolitischer Herausforderung, in: Simanowski, Roberto (Eds.): Grundlagen der Medienbildung. Szenarien und Potentiale, dichtung-digital – Journal für digitale Ästhetik (Online-Journal), April 2014.
  • Planking – Von einem Phänomen und seiner Dysfunktionalität, in: Spangenberg/Westermann (Eds.): Im Moment des ‚Mehr’. Mediale Prozesse jenseits des Funktionalen, LIT Verlag, Berlin 2012.

Talks

  •  “Phantom Algorithmus? Warum ein Gegenstand in Mode ist und gleichzeitig opak bleibt” Workshop, Annual Conference of the Society for Media Studies, Berlin 2016 (Moderation)
  •  “Kritik und Praxis: Spielräume digitaler Utopien” Workshop, Annual Conference of the Society for Media Studies, Bayreuth 2015 (Moderation and Talk „Wissen, was zählt – Das Projekt ‚Wikipedia‘ zwischen Utopie und Praxis“)
  • “Bot-Activity. Unbehagen vor Kontrollverlust”, Aller guten Dinge sind frei? Utopie und Unbehagen in der technisierten Welt – Conference at Theodor-Heuss-Akademie, Gummersbach 2015
  • “Unbegrenzte Möglichkeiten und die Grenzen der Möglichkeiten. Das Web 2.0 und seine Erkenntnispotentiale”, Annual Conference of the Society for Media Studies, Lüneburg 2013
  • with Peter M. Spangenberg: “Videor ergo sum. Identität und Selbstdarstellung im Medienzeitalter”, K20, Düsseldorf 2012
  • “Fundiertes Wissen – Spekuliertes Wissen. Wikipedia sei Dank?”, Annual Conference of the Society for Media Studies, Frankfurt a. M. 2012
  • “Shared Commons – Shared Memories? Wikipedia’s Function in Remembering Events”, Lightning Talk and Poster at Wikipedia Academy, Berlin 2012
  • “Wissen 2.0 – Transformationen des Enzyklopädischen bei Wikipedia”, Meeting of the Working Group on Media Culture and Education, Marburg 2012
  • “Überbietung und Auflösung monofunktionaler Medien im Web 2.0”, Annual Conference of the Society for Media Studies, Potsdam 2011
  • “Ins Antlitz geblickt – Ansätze einer philosophischen Bildethik”, Workshop of the Working Group on Media Philosophy, Potsdam 2011

University Courses

  • Summer term 2016: Seminar “Identitäten im Netz – Zwischen Profilbildung und Profilneurose”, Institute for Media Studies, Ruhr-University Bochum
  • Winter term 2011/12: Seminar “Alles ein Ereignis – Medien(Un)Sinn?”, Institute for Media Studies, Ruhr-University Bochum
  • Summer term 2011: Seminar “Modellierungen des Gedächtnisses im Web 2.0 – Wikipedia, Netztagebücher und kommentierte Fotosammlungen”, in cooperation with Peter M. Spangenberg, Institute for Media Studies, Ruhr-University Bochum

Miscellaneous