Now it is official! 🌻

2026 is already full of events for Hype Studies with recently presenting a great discussion panel at EASST in Krakow (soon online with Jacek Mańko, Kornelia Konrad, Harro van Lente and Annika Aebli), getting our heads around the Hype Glossary with more than 120 contributing authors, curating the Tech Policy Press hype series, or signing up as a legal association!

But great news for 2027 ahead: Hype Studies will be hosted by the Center For Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum as a fully funded research group for two weeks in April to work on a prototype of a:

🚨 HYPE OBSERVATORY 🚨

The Tech Hype Observatory is to be designed for both diagnostic 📊 (analysis of existing hypes) and preventive 🐌 (development of resilient communication strategies) purposes.

This aligns with our dedication for creating societal hype literacy. Because:

➡️ What perspectives and tools for analyzing, reflecting on, and shaping tech hype are needed to combat attention frenzies effectively?

➡️ How can we sensitize decision-makers in politics, journalism, education, and civil society to the strategic nature of hype, deconstruct narratives, and develop alternative and more realistic scenarios?

At the moment, academia does not give enough satisfying answers to these questions. We are up to confront them!

A great team consisting of Dani Shanley, Andreu Belsunces Gonçalves, Wenzel Mehnert, Jascha Bareis, Ola Michalec, Pierre Depaz, Vassilis Galanos, Chinar Mehta - and guests like data methods expert Maximilian Roßmann, and investigative journalist Christo Buschek, we will try to crack this hard nut 🪴

Of course, all insights will be shared publically on our webpage. Stay tuned 🔆