In my talk, I am going to introduce, in a first step, the concept of media memory work through which relations to the past are accomplished and enacted. In a second step, the online encyclopedia is employed to show what kinds of insights about the contingent and potentially conflictual constitution of mnemonic texts become possible. Finally, I take a look at the twofold temporal orientation of media memory work that is not only happing in retrospect since all references to the past implicate a space of possible future developments.
I’m Chair and Professor of Media and Communication in the Department for Communication and Media Studies at the University of Leipzig. Before that, I worked in the Center for Media, Communication and Information Research at the University of Bremen and at Chemnitz University of Technology. At Leipzig, I’m one of the co-directors of the Center for Digital Participation. I’m broadly interested in the construction and appropriation of digital media and the roles information and communication technologies play in modern society.