Digital Methods Summer School and Data Sprint 2026 Media Studies, University of Amsterdam 29 June - 3 July 2026 Call for Participation The Digital Methods Initiative (DMI), Amsterdam, is holding its annual Summer School on 'Visual AI for internet research? On and beyond slop'. The format is that of a (social media, web and AI) data sprint, with training tutorials as well as hands-on work for telling stories with data. There is also a programme of keynote speakers. It is intended for advanced Master's students, PhD candidates and motivated scholars who would like to work on (and complete) a digital methods project in an intensive workshop setting. Visual AI for internet research? On and beyond slop This year’s Summer School builds on the theme of using chatbots for internet research, particularly visual AI. Slop currently dominates the discussion of visual AI, especially given its routine use at the top of the US government, be it to denigrate street protestors demonstrating against policing policies or to depict the chief executive in a variety of costumes from the papal to the kingly. It’s also associated with other vocabulary attached to the effects of the deployment of generative AI in image and video: from brain rot to rage and engagement bait, including its accompanying creative and dark participatory cultures. To date the exploration of chatbots for internet research has been related to text rather than still and moving images. It has included how-to’s and research-with-AI critique concerning prompting, annotation, classification, bias, guardrail sensitivity as well as ‘reference anxiety’, or how chatbots remix sources to create new lineages of ideas and concepts. But how to consider the work visual AI can do for research across the social sciences and the humanities? One approach — studying its biases as well as using it as a prism for societal ones more generally — has been undertaken through creative prompting and reverse prompting. How to determine its offensiveness, sensitivities as well as hierarchies of concern? Apart from just prompting it, visual AI proclivities may also be teased out through inserting their output into content moderation APIs as well as other trained AI. But can visual AI be otherwise repurposed? The annual Digital Methods Summer School takes up this question for visual AI both for the frontier models as well as others in cross-cultural perspective. Applications: Key Dates There are rolling admissions, and applications are now being accepted. To apply please send a letter of motivation, your CV, a headshot photo, 100-word bio as well as a copy of your passport (details page only) to summerschool [at] digitalmethods.net. Notifications of acceptance are sent 1-2 weeks after application. Final deadline for applications is 22 May 2026. The full program and schedule of the Summer School are available on or about 22 June 2026. Tuition Fees The fee for the Digital Methods Winter School 2026 is EUR 795, and upon completion all participants receive certificates of completion or transcripts (worth 6 ECTS). Full call for participation and all additional information is here: https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2026 Prof. Richard Rogers Media Studies University of Amsterdam R. Rogers (ed.) (2026) Content Moderation across Social Media Platforms. Routledge. T. Venturini & R. Rogers (2025) Digital Methods: A Short Introduction. Polity. R. Rogers (2024) Doing Digital Methods. Sage. 2nd edition. R. Rogers (ed.) (2023) The Propagation of Misinformation in Social Media: A Cross-platform Analysis. Amsterdam University Press. R. Rogers (2023) Métodos Digitales. ITESO - Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara.