Prof. Dr. Ranty Islam

Professor Campus Cologne // Deputy Head of the MA in Artificial Intelligence and Societies

MA Artificial Intelligence and Societies (Deputy Head of Program)
MA Digital Journalism 
BA Journalism and Communications  (German)

Ranty is a journalist, digital anthropologist and educator. His teaching focuses on digital innovation in journalism, particularly the role of artificial intelligence. AI is a core theme in many of his courses and teaching projects, where students explore the promise and challenges of AI and its applications but also the “big” questions: What’s the impact of AI on human communications, memory and identity? How does it change culture and society?

Before joining MU Ranty had worked as a reporter and editor for a number of media outlets in Germany and the US. For more than 5 years he had been a multimedia editor at Deutsche Welle where he co-founded Global Ideas – an international award-winning multimedia platform covering climate change and the environment. Oh yes, Ranty was an astrophysicist until 2003, and had worked on huge data sets a long time before big data became cool.

Teaching

  • Converging Journalistic Media (MA)
  • Converging Technological Trends (MA)
  • Introduction to Neural Networks (MA)
  • AI in Journalism (MA)
  • Digital Trends & Tools (BA)
  • Online Journalism (BA)

Research and Teaching Focus

  • Constructive / Solutions Journalism
  • AI in Journalism
  • Data & Interactive Journalism
  • Digital Culture and Media

Curriculum Vitae

  • Education

    2016

    MA Social- and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin
    2005

    Journalism Certificate, Axel Springer School of Journalism, Berlin
    2003

    DPhil Astrophysics & Cosmology, Oxford University
    1999

    MSci Physics, Imperial College London

  • Work Experience

    2010 - 2016

    Deutsche Welle, business & science desk. Multimedia Editor for Global Ideas, an international, award-winning multimedia magazine covering climate change and the environment.
    2015

    Berlin Social Science Center (WZB). Journalist in Residence.
    2006 - 2010

    Deutsche Welle, international desk. Freelance editor and reporter.
    2005 - 2009

    Freelance science reporter / editor for media in Germany and the US, including Vanity Fair (Germany), The Christian Science Monitor, Die Welt, Spiegel Online, Berliner Zeitung, United Nations Dep. of Public Information
    2004 - 2005

    Axel Springer SE. Trainee editor at science desk of Die Welt newspaper. Internships at Bild Zeitung and Springer’s global business development.

Projects (Selection)

AI powered identification of news relevance (2024) – For a major German media organization MU students extensively tested a new LLM-based AI tool for automated identification of news relevance in wire copies.

Constructive AI Compass (2024) – With several partner organizations MU students developed and tested AI prompting strategies for use in constructive journalism. Partners: Bonn Institute, RTL, Deutsche Welle, Aarhus University Constructive Institute.

Newsroom re:publica (2018, 2019) – Student run multimedia newsroom for Europe’s largest digital society festival in Berlin.

Talks & Presentations (Selection)

Rittel, C., Islam, R., Dröge, D. (2024). How to use AI constructively in the newsroom. Panel debate at Global Media Forum, Bonn.
Islam, R. (2024).

AI prompt engineering for journalism. Presentation at Bonn Institute for Journalism.
Borchardt, A., Hölig, S., Islam, R., Lammert, V. (2023).

News avoidance – self-protection or danger for democracy? Panel debate at Konrad-Adenauer Foundation.
Faltermeyer, J., Rampelt, B., Islam, R. (2023)

News fatigue – a question of personality? Presentation at b-future conference Bonn.

“Zur Zukunft des Journalismus in postfaktischen Zeiten” (2017) Keynote & panel at Deutscher Stiftungstag, annual conference of German foundations.

“The Apocalypse has been called off: How Constructive Journalism can save the World” (2017) Joint presentation with Maren Urner, given at re:publica 2017 convention in Berlin.

“Developing a curriculum for environmental journalism in Vietnam.” (2015 – 2017) Organizer and presenter of a seminar and workshop series for journalists and journalism trainers in Vietnam. In cooperation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Hochschule Darmstadt.

“Der Weltuntergang ist abgesagt. Konstruktiv berichten über Umweltthemen.” (2016) Talk given at Umweltpolitik 3.0. Das Festival der Zukunft organized by BMUB, Berlin.

“Big Data-ism – Cutting through the big data hype.” Talk given at Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin WZB (2015).

Publications (Selection)

R.Islam & Harper, S. Konstruktive Community im Journalismus. Media for Peace Podcast, Episode #16 (2023)

Islam, Ranty “Viele Daten, zu wenige Fakten: Die Wissenschaft sollte sich dem Kern der BigData-Probleme zuwenden.” WZB Mitteilungen No. 148 (2015), Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin.

Islam, Ranty “Geschichtenerzähler einer globalisierten Welt.” Cargo Zeitschrift 32 (2013)

Islam, Ranty R. “Cyberspace and the Sacred.” In Virtual Environments and Cultures, eds. U. Undine Frömming. (2013) Peter Lang Verlag

Islam, Ranty R. “Believing to Recover: The Role of Religion in the Recovery Phase of Natural Disasters.” Anthropos H. 1 (2012): 209–217.

7 research papers on theoretical astrophysics. If you really want to take a look – go here.

Dr. Ranty Islam on Bluesky