V MeLCi Lab Autumn School 2025 – AI Research Practice and Media and Communication: Science bootcamp to improve research hands-on skills

Dates: 11th-14th November 2025

Location: Online | Organised by CICANT – MeLCi and AISIC Labs | Lusófona University, Portugal 

Recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in developing Large Language Models (LLMs) such as GPT-4 or Gemini, are reshaping the research landscape across disciplines. In communication, media studies, and audience research, AI technologies are increasingly used for tasks ranging from literature searches and data annotation to audience segmentation and discourse analysis (Natale, 2021). These tools offer unprecedented speed, scale, and efficiency, but also raise significant methodological and ethical challenges concerning transparency, bias, and the implications of AI-generated knowledge (Ferrara, 2024).

At the same time, the broader media environment is undergoing a profound transformation driven by algorithmic mediation, datafication, and the personalisation of information flows. This context demands that researchers adopt new methodological tools and critically engage with AI’s political, social, and ethical consequences in media ecologies.

Bridging the use of AI in research with critical inquiry into its societal impacts requires an integrative, interdisciplinary approach. Therefore, researchers must develop technical competencies with AI tools while maintaining a reflexive stance towards the broader power structures and biases these technologies can perpetuate. In this light, the 2025 MeLCi Lab Autumn School intends to offer a platform to address these dual imperatives – fostering methodological innovation alongside critical literacy about the role of AI in communication and media studies.

The school will be held in English.