University of Wisconsin–Madison
Members of the Public Tech Media Lab will be heading to the Association of Internet Researchers Annual Conference in Mexico City, October 14–17, 2026. Here’s what’s coming up: Wednesday, 14 October Thursday, 15 October Friday, 16 October Saturday, 17 October Stop by if you’re attending to find out more about these studies and what else …
Isthmus has a new policy in place that governs our use of artificial intelligence by Judith Davidoff In an opinion column titled “Let the Bond Market Speak” that ran recently in The Wall Street Journal, billionaire and former hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller argued that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent should not intervene in the bond market. After …
The UW Public Tech Media Lab helps journalists use new tech ethically. By Margaret Shreiner The rise of artificial intelligence technologies is changing the way journalists report on some of the most pressing issues. But while AI remains controversial, it also has the potential to be a valuable tool for newsrooms, provided those working in …
Members of the Public Tech Media Lab will be presenting their research at the 11th European Communication Conference, hosted by the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) in Brno, Czech Republic, from 8–11 September. Below is a rundown of our upcoming talks: 9 September 11 September If you’re at the conference, come say hello …
AI is already helping reshape journalistic practices across five stages of news production: coming up with story ideas, sourcing information, verifying content, telling stories, and distributing news. By Seth C. Lewis, Rodrigo Zamith and Tomás Dodds In Journalism in the Age of AI, Rodrigo Zamith, Tomás Dodds, and I make the case that artificial intelligence is reshaping how we create, …
This May, the Public Tech Media Lab (PTML) hosted a Digital Investigations Bootcamp, the first intensive, hands-on open-source intelligence (OSINT) training program in the Midwest. The two-day, in-person bootcamp was designed specifically for journalists, OSINT practitioners, editors and newsroom researchers and aimed to equip attendees with the critical skills necessary for digital investigations. “We designed this bootcamp to …
On April 8, 2026, the Public Tech Media Lab hosted its first pre-conference, Journalism, Platforms, and Public Interest Technologies: Applying PIT to Rebuild Trust, Infrastructure, and Civic Purpose in Journalism, at the University of Groningen ahead of the ECREA Journalism Studies Section Conference 2026. The event brought together an international community of researchers, practitioners, and …
The Public Tech Media Lab hosts a boot camp training for open-source investigation techniques. by Aaron R. Conklin June 8, 2026 Back in 2017, Mexico City was devastated by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that leveled parts of the city and beyond, killing nearly 400 people and injuring more than 6,000. For Gisella Peréz de Acha, who was living there …
Call for Papers The Routledge Handbook of Open Source Investigations Open source investigations (OSINV) leverage the widespread availability of natively digital or digitized data to build narratives about “what actually happened” that rely on source and methodological transparency and replicability to convince readers. Given their close ties to the digital subcultures that emerged on the …