Knowledge Exchange Workshop 2024 in Brussels

Last week, on January 26^th, 2024, we successfully organised our first Knowledge Exchange Workshop, kindly hosted by the VRT in Brussels. We would like to thank all of our speakers and participants for their valuable contributions and their openness to discussing VoD strategies, research, personalisation practices, and the development of public service algorithms. We’ve learned a lot and hope to have opened new opportunities for dialogue and future collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and the industry.

The full-day programme included:

🔎 A series of presentations on the PSM-AP project and the work done in WP1 on Policy and Regulation and WP3 on Personalisation. This included an overview of the PSM-AP project by project leader Catherine Johnson, a talk by postdoctoral researcher Catalina Iordache titled ‘Towards future-proof Public Service Media?’, and a presentation on due prominence and public service media by principal investigator Tim Raats.

Photograph of Catherine Johnson presenting an overview of the PSM-AP project.

Photograph of Tim Raats presenting on Due Prominence.

🎤 A very interesting discussion panel on the topical issue of Due Prominence of PSM and Public Interest Content. The four panelists included PSM representatives Karen Donders (VRT) and Thomas Granryd (SR), as well as researchers María Trinidad García Leiva (University Carlos III of Madrid) and Michèle Ledger (University of Namur). The panel was moderated by our project leader Catherine Johnson.

Image of the panelists and moderator during the discussion. — The panel discussion on Due Prominence of PSM and Public Interest Content. From left to right: María Trinidad García Leiva, Michèle Ledger, Thomas Granryd, Karen Donders, and Catherine Johnson.

📊 A highly engaging afternoon session discussing personalisation and public service algorithms with PSM representatives from multiple European countries. Public broadcasters in attendance included VRT (Belgium), RTBF (Belgium), BBC (UK), Channel 4 (UK), NPO (Netherlands), YLE (Finland), SR (Sweden), ZDF (Germany), and RAI (Italy).

Photograph of Andreas Grün talking about public service algorithms at ZDF. — Andreas Grün presenting about public service algorithms at ZDF during the afternoon session.

📖 The launch of our first Policy Brief entitled: ‘Towards Future-Proof Public Service Media? Lessons from a comparative analysis in seven media markets’, which is co-authored by Tim Raats, Catalina Iordache and Catherine Johnson. The brief is available for download here: https://smit.vub.ac.be/policy-brief-72-towards-a-future-proof-public-service-media-lessons-from-a-comparative-analysis-in-seven-media-markets

Photograph of a number of copies of the first policy brief stacked on a table.

Photograph of the VRT broadcast tower and offices.

Photograph of the PSM-AP team in the VRT offices. — The PSM-AP team nearly in full. From left to right: Michał Głowacki, Colin Frank, Catalina Iordache, Antonio Nucci, Tim Raats, Katarzyna Gajlewicz-Korab, Julie Mejse Münter Lassen, Catherine Johnson, Serra Tinic, Jacek Mikucki, Massimo Scaglioni, and Filip Świtkowski.