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"MemeAgency – Understanding AI in Social Media"

"MemeAgency – Understanding AI in Social Media"

Seminar type
Topic seminar
focus
Digitalization and democracy
TikTok is an everyday space and thus a sphere of activity for many young people. What messages and values ​​are conveyed there? How do algorithms work, for example, in the recommendation function? What interests do social media monopolists like TikTok have in keeping users on their platforms and collecting their data? Understanding AI in social media is fundamental for political participation in the digital society.

Communicating the complexity of artificial intelligence and providing guidance for one's own actions requires new approaches. In a collaborative seminar with medialepfade.org, an association for media education, students from Friedensburg School playful, exploratory, discursive, and media-practical methods, which are intended to be shared as best practices.

Katrin and Robert from medialepfade
Katrin Hünemörder and Robert Behrend from medialepfade.org

Memes are the dominant form of communication, especially on TikTok—but also on other social media platforms—for influencers from all fields and users of all ages. What role do values ​​and their communication play in this? Where are the hidden messages lurking alongside or within all the fun memes? What values ​​could be conveyed through creating one's own memes? In the "TikTok Lab" and the "Meme Agency," participants explored these questions practically by analyzing and reflecting on memes and their mechanisms, and by developing their own memes.

In the TikTok Lab: How TikTok works, e.g., recommendation algorithms, what are memes, feed analysis and evaluation criteria, how data processing works by TikTok (exercise "How does the AI ​​kick?")

A playful exercise on AI functionality at TikTok, developed by medialepfade.org

In the MemeAGENTUR Part I: Meme culture on TikTok, value auction: which values ​​are important to us, introduction to meme production on two to three self-selected values, start of film and photo documentation of the seminar

Robert Behrend from medialepfade pins cards, each with a value written on it, to a pinboard.
A bulletin board displaying values ​​collected by the group. The values ​​are written on cards. There are approximately 40 cards. They include things like love, solidarity, trust, and the common good.
Katrin Hünemörder from medialepfade stands in front of a pinboard covered with cards, each bearing a value. She holds up a card. The value written on this card has just been auctioned off.
Three values ​​most important to a group, which they acquired at auction: culture, freedom, friendship
Two values ​​most important to a group, which they won at auction: peace and humor
The three values ​​most important to a group, which they won at auction, are: health, safety, and equality
Value auction: Which values ​​are important to you? After bidding on values ​​in small groups, participants had to choose two or three of the values ​​they had won. They then used these values ​​to further develop the content of the memes.
One boy sits in front of a computer, another boy stands next to him. They are both editing a documentary film about the seminar on the computer
Film editing in the documentary film group
A girl has a camera in the seminar room and is filming with it.
Filming during the seminar

In MemeAGENTUR Part II: Input on personality rights, the right to one's own image, copyrights and special features of TikTok copyright.

At the Meme Carousel: Processing of memes from the previous day related to one's own values ​​with discussion/reflection during each handover to the next small group, reflection on meme and value culture on TikTok.

Seminar participants sit in small groups in the room, working on their meme projects. They use iPads for this. Robert, the instructor, walks around the room observing their work. One participant films the group.
A girl is writing her ideas for a meme project on a large flipchart sheet. The sheet is lying on the parquet floor.
Three teenagers are working on their meme project at a table on the terrace using an iPad. A fourth teenager is filming them for a documentary
On a notepad is written: How can your value become reality?
Meme development, further development and reflection on the processed values
A hand-painted poster. It reads: Welcome to the documentary film premiere today at 3 p.m. We look forward to seeing you.

Presentation: Meme show and documentary film about the seminar.
The memes created by the participants, along with the knowledge and insights gained, were presented to guests at various stations at the end of the seminar.

During the seminar, a film group produced a documentary about the learning process. This was also shown and can be viewed here.

The methods tested in the collaboration between medialepfade.org and wannseeFORUM will be documented and disseminated. They will, for example, be incorporated into further seminars that focus on engaging with social media and AI as prerequisites for digital political participation.

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The seminar was funded by the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family.
It took within the framework of the "Political Youth Education in the AdB" within the "Social Issues and Political Participation" , funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
The wannseeFORUM Foundation is an accredited provider of programs by the Federal Agency for Civic Education.