< Back 1 Nov 2024 New report "From Value Networks for Recorded Music to Music Ecosystem" The latest report from the Fair MusE Project - "From Value Networks for Recorded Music to Music Ecosystem" - dives deep into how Music Streaming Services (MSS) and User-Generated Content (UGC) platforms are reshaping the music industry’s value landscape. This shift in the industry is about more than just a digital transformation; it's fundamentally changing how power, access, and revenue flow through the music ecosystem. A New Layer of Gatekeeping With the rise of MSS platforms like Spotify and UGC platforms like YouTube, traditional routes for accessing and promoting music have been redefined. These platforms now serve as powerful gatekeepers, determining which artists and tracks gain visibility. This influence reshapes who has control over exposure and, ultimately, success. Rather than simply distributing music, these platforms filter content through algorithms, strategically showcasing certain songs while others remain hidden, based on complex calculations that prioritize user engagement and platform profits. Navigating and negotiating the new landscape Despite the power of these platforms, traditional stakeholders, particularly major record labels, are finding ways to adapt. Labels are leveraging their vast artist rosters and music catalogues to secure valuable partnerships with MSS and UGC platforms. By doing so, they maintain a degree of influence over what listeners see and hear, reinforcing the competitive dynamics in the industry. The relationships between labels and streaming platforms can be seen as a balancing act, as both sides negotiate control, exposure, and revenue shares. A shift from value networks to a music ecosystem Approaching the music industry as an interconnected ecosystem reveals the complex interdependence between streaming and UGC platforms, labels, artists, and audiences. This ecosystem perspective helps contextualize the ongoing evolution, but it also exposes fairness concerns. For example, algorithmic curation tends to spotlight content from major labels, reinforcing their dominance. The current payout models on platforms like Spotify and YouTube often favor big players, leaving smaller artists and independent labels in a more precarious position. ➜ Full Report If these insights spark your interest, the Fair MusE report also has a systematic review of academic literature on music streaming including case studies on both Spotify and YouTube. For the full tracklist of findings and analysis, check out the complete Fair MusE report: https://fairmuse.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/D3.1_Value-Networks.pdf Previous Next New report of the Fair MusE project

< Back Multistakeholder challenges and opportunities of news recommender systems in newsrooms: a comparative systematic literature review Errando, A., Vandenbroucke, H., & Kulig, M. (2026). Multistakeholder challenges and opportunities of news recommender systems in newsrooms: a comparative systematic literature review. Annals of the International Communication Association In today’s digital environment, where audiences seek relevant news across platforms, news recommender systems (NRS) personalize news feeds, presenting both opportunities and challenges for different stakeholders. Despite increasing industry and academic interest in NRS, a comparative perspective across media systems remains absent. This systematic literature review addresses this gap by exploring the opportunities and challenges related to NRS studied across media systems in Western Europe and the United States (U.S.) and highlights current research gaps. Using Hallin and Mancini’s framework and Brüggemann et al.’s clustering for our comparative analysis, as well as Smets et al.’s multistakeholder perspective, we perform an in-depth analysis of 59 publications from Web of Science, Scopus, and Litmaps. Our findings reveal that (a) NRS research is concentrated in the U.S., Netherlands, and Belgium, (b) more interdisciplinary studies are needed to understand the nuanced effects of NRS across media systems, and (c) research on NRS implementation in newsrooms is not a one-size-fits-all process. Previous Read the article Next

< Back Publishing public service media on demand: A comparative study of public service media companies’ editorial practices on their VoD services in the age of platformization Bruun, H., Johnson, C., Lassen, J. M., Nucci, A., Raats, T., & Świtkowski, F. (2025). Publishing public service media on demand: A comparative study of public service media companies’ editorial practices on their VoD services in the age of platformization. Journal of Digital Media & Policy . This article contributes to the emerging empirical research on the editorial practices of video-on-demand (VoD) publishing in European public service media (PSM). It presents results from a comparative study of the editorial practices visible on the VoDs from ten PSM companies across six countries: United Kingdom, Belgium, Poland, Italy, Canada and Denmark. The aim of the article is to map and compare the editorial practices in the ‘prime space’ of the VoD services and the ‘prime time’ of the companies’ main linear channels. The analysis is based on data from a sample week of 13–19 November 2023. The article contributes to research addressing the key issue of universality in terms of content and discusses the conceptualizations of the audience that seem to be at work in the transition towards an online PSM identity. Public Service Media, Platforms Previous Read the article Next

< Back 15 Jul 2025 Commissioned by the Flemish Minister of Media, this research report investigates findability, discoverability, and due prominence for audiovisual and auditive media services. We’re pleased to announce that the study conducted by Prof. Dr. Tim Raats , Dr. Adelaida Afilipoaie , Pieter Van der Elst , and Noëmie Forest for the Flemish Minister of Media and the Department of Culture, Youth and Media has now been officially published. The report, titled Study on appropriate prominence, visibility and findability for audiovisual and auditive media services of general interest in Flanders , is now available via the Department’s website. 📄 Read the full study (in Dutch) here: 👉 https://www.vlaanderen.be/publicaties/studie-omtrent-passende-aandacht-zichtbaarheid-en-vindbaarheid-voor-audiovisuele-en-auditieve-mediadiensten-van-algemeen-belang-in-vlaanderen The study addresses a pressing policy question: How can we ensure that audiovisual and audio media services of general interest remain findable, discoverable, and appropriately prominent in the digital media environment — and what additional policy measures might be needed in Flanders to achieve this? As part of our academic work on media policy and platform regulation, we developed this research as a contribution to the Flemish media policy agenda. The report: Maps the current Flemish landscape on the matter Compares with international practices and emerging regulatory approaches across Europe And formulates recommendations for a future-proof policy framework . We’re also pleased to see that the report has already had direct policy impact : it served as a reference work for the Department in drafting new plans around prominence and findability, which were approved by the Flemish Government in early July . These plans make Flanders one of the first smaller media markets in the EU to introduce a legal framework explicitly addressing prominence for media services of general interest — a notable development in the implementation of Article 7a of the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). This project reflects the broader media policy research of our SRP Media team at imec-SMIT. An academic publication on the topic of due prominence for media services of general interest — authored by Pieter, Adelaida, and Tim as part of Pieter’s ongoing PhD research on the platformization of public service media — is also forthcoming. Stay Tuned! https://www.srpmedia.be/team/adelaida-afilipoaie Previous Next Report Published: How to Ensure Visibility and Prominence for Media Services of General Interest in Flanders

< Back Media policymaking and multistakeholder involvement: Matching audience, stakeholder and government expectations for public service media in Flanders Van den Bulck, H. & Raats, T. (2023). Media policymaking and multistakeholder involvement: Matching audience, stakeholder and government expectations for public service media in Flanders. European Journal of Communication , 38 (2), 132-147. https://doi.org/10.1177/02673231221112199 This contribution analyzes government, opposition, public service media, media stakeholders and audience views regarding the role and remit of public service media in the run-up to and their impact on the renewal of the 2021–2025 management contract between public broadcaster VRT and the Flemish Government. Results show that, despite a shifting media ecosystem and academics and government pushing for fundamental reform, audiences and most stakeholders’ views stick to a centralised, broad and multiplatform public media institution. Moreover, they expect public service media to solve ever more media and societal issues (e.g. fake news) within a shrinking budget. The case illustrates how mature, evidence-based multistakeholderism pushes public service media to meet an increasingly challenging set of expectations, hampers both public service media and government to build a well-balanced, long-term vision of public service media's role and, instead, pushes them to pursue their own agenda. Lastly, an evidence-based process also suffers from issues of validity of the data. Stakeholders, Platforms, Public Service Media Previous Read the article Next

< Back 20 Jan 2026 Online Book Launch for the Handbook of Platform Urbanism The Handbook of Platform Urbanism (Edward Elgar Publishing) brings together leading international scholars to explore how digital platforms are (re)shaping contemporary urban life. This volume presents a critical and interdisciplinary examination of the role that digital platforms play in data-driven cities. Edited by Annelien Smets and Pieter Ballon , the handbook provides a comprehensive overview of platform urbanism as a key lens for understanding how cities are increasingly organized, managed, and experienced through digital infrastructures. 📖 The Handbook of Platform Urbanism examines how digital platforms such as Uber, Airbnb, and Google Maps mediate access to public services, reorganize economic activities, and reshape social interactions in cities. All chapter abstracts are available online and provide a detailed overview of the book’s scope and contributions ➡️ Want to know more? Have a look at the one-pager attached! This also includes a 40% discount code valid for the entire handbook via Edward Elgar Publishing. Smets Handbook Flyer DISC .pdf Download PDF • 449KB To celebrate the publication of the handbook, we invite you to join the online book launch and panel discussion: 📅 Date: 2 March 2026 ⏰ Time: 10:30–12:00 CET Register for the online book launch and submit your questions for the Q&A here : https://sites.google.com/view/platformurbanism/book-launch Previous Next Out now: Handbook of Platform Urbanism

< Back 9 Dec 2025 The RePim Doctoral Network is looking for 12 PhD positions The Revisioning Public Interest Media (RePIM) Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) Doctoral Network is starting! We are recruiting 12 fully funded PhD positions, which are due to begin in May 2026 across eight leading European universities. RePIM’s research addresses key transformations in the media landscape, spanning content and format innovation, platform infrastructures, organisational change, audience engagement, and policy development. The 12 Doctoral Candidates will, supported by a comprehensive training programme, work across five thematic clusters: Content production and Distribution Infrastructures Organisation Policy and Regulation Audiences Each PhD project focuses on a specific dimension of Public Interest Media transformation, ranging from AI-assisted content creation, emerging storytelling formats, and recommender systems, to organisational restructuring, sustainable operational models, audience inclusion, and platform-era regulation. Successful applicants will join a vibrant, interdisciplinary community committed to ensuring that Public Interest Media can thrive and innovate in the digital age! Deadline for applications: 31 January or 8 February 2026 (depending on project) Interested in how Public Service Media and other quality media are affected by technological changes? Want to study the impact of AI on content development and distribution strategy, their infrastructures, and the implications for policy and audiences? Do you want to become one of 12 PhD students in a Europe-wide EU-project? How to apply Previous Next 12 PhD positions available

< Back 1 Oct 2024 The SRP team presented their work at the ECREA 2024 Conference The 10th edition of the European Communication Research and Education Association Conference (ECREA) took place on 24-27 September 2024 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The VUB’s Communication Sciences department had a large delegation of over 25 researchers at the conference, including several SRP team members. On Wednesday 25 September, Tim Raats presented a paper entitled ‘ Ensuring visibility of European public service media. An analysis of policy, industry and academic views on prominence measures in Belgium ’, as part of the session ‘Public service and the public interest in European Media’, in the Communication, Law and Policy section. The presentation was based on research conducted together with SRP colleagues Adelaida Afilipoaie and Pieter Van der Elst . On Thursday 26 September, Catalina Iordache presented research conducted together with Catherine Johnson (University of Leeds) on ‘ Balancing the scales between public service algorithms and editorial curation , the cases of BBC and VRT. The presentation was part of pre-constituted panel on ‘Comparative approaches to public service media disruption: The transformation of values, norms and prevailing structures in the age of platforms’, hosted by the Public Service Media in the Age of Platforms ( PSM-AP ) project. And on the final day of the conference, Friday 27 September, Noëmie Forest presented the paper ‘What will we be streaming tonight? And why? An analysis of motivations for VOD consumption in Belgium’, co-authored with Isabelle Puskas, Wendy Van den Broeck and Tim Raats. The presentation was part of the session on Audiovisualities and Audiences, in the section Audience and Reception Studies. Tim Raats and Catalina Iordache also presented their ongoing work on assessing discoverability and prominence on VOD services as part of the roundtable ‘ Re-conceptualising the television 'text' for the platform age: textual analysis, texts and interfaces ’, organised in the Television Studies section. As part of the business meetings, Catalina Iordache and Tim Raats have also be re-elected as vice-chairs of their respective sessions Media Industries and Cultural Production and Communication, Law and Policy . Previous Next Our presentations at ECREA

Unveiling groundbreaking research, innovative projects, and insights on Streaming, Recommender Systems, and Platformization (SRP) in European Media Markets. Streaming, Recommenders and Platformization in European Media Industries S trategic Research Programme at imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel SRP Media In our digital age, understanding the interplay between technology, society, and economics is crucial. Our research aims to analyze and ensure the economic and cultural sustainability of content production, aggregation, and consumption in an era of streaming, recommenders and platformization in European Media Industries. SRP Media is part of the Media Economics & Policy unit at imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel . Our research Latest news updates NEW BOOK: Streaming Europe Serendipity Cards Out now: Handbook of Platform Urbanism 12 PhD positions available Impressions of IBC 2025 AI Summer School 2025 Report Published: How to Ensure Visibility and Prominence for Media Services of General Interest in Flanders Ciao from EMMA in Rome! More updates Contact us Pleinlaan 9, 1050 Brussels, Belgium Submit Thanks for your message!

< Back Understanding Algorithmic gatekeepers to promote Epistemic welfare ALGEPI Technological and economic developments have led to the availability of an overwhelming quantity of digital content. Therefore, it has become crucial, in particular for media content providers, to incorporate algorithmic gatekeepers, which filter, rank and recommend content. Are these algorithmic gatekeepers undermining media’s contribution to epistemic welfare? In ALGEPI, we start from the novel concept of epistemic welfare, defined as the individuals’ right to know and be exposed to trustworthy, independent and diverse information while respecting individual rights to their own data. By connecting legal, political, technological and sociocultural perspectives, we will develop a conceptual framework for epistemic welfare. This framework will allow us to understand the effects of algorithmic gatekeepers on epistemic welfare. The new interdisciplinary research program will build on multi-method empirical research applied to algorithmic gatekeepers. Thanks to the theoretical and empirical findings, we will be able to develop normative instruments to align algorithmic gatekeeping with epistemic welfare. Taking the novel concept of epistemic welfare as a starting point allows all project partners to embark on a joint, integrated exploration of the concept. This may lead to a paradigmatic shift in the conceptualization of the impact of algorithmic gatekeepers in media sectors, proposing to expand the notions of media pluralism and consumer welfare to epistemic welfare. Multistakeholder challenges and opportunities of news recommender systems in newsrooms: a comparative systematic literature review 2026 Read You Might Also (Not) Like … : Newsroom Wariness to News Personalisation? 2026 Read Researchers on this project Aina Errando PhD Researcher Adelaida Afilipoaie Postdoctoral Researcher Heritiana Ranaivoson Research Professor Consortium partners Namur Digital Institute HUMAN-IST ReSIC Center de recherche Namur Digital Institute 1/6 Tags Artificial Intelligence, Platforms, Regulation, Media Policy Previous Next

< Back 31 Mar 2025 Ulysse attended the conference and presented at the AXAI workshop Pristine beaches, a bright turquoise sea, impressive rock formations and pink flamingo’s… Cagliari has it all. Despite the undeniable beauty of Sardinia’s capital, the most memorable element of my stay was however related to Intelligent User Interfaces. You read that right: I was lucky enough to attend the yearly conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) - which turned out to be an exceptionally inspirational and instructive experience. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that my interest was sparked by the central theme - the conjunction between Artificial Intelligence (AI), and how User Interfaces (UI) can optimally accommodate for them. But the real experience went above and beyond my initial expectations. In this article, I break it down in 3 key elements. 1. The overarching theme: AI should benefit the user Believe it or not, but the word “user” was mentioned even more often than “LLM” (see paragraph 3; “There is no escaping LLMs”). Shouldn’t be too surprising for a conference focusing on user interfaces, right? Well, it struck me that this community really tries to model user preferences and -needs accurately, for which it draws a lot more often from cognitive and behavioral research than is common in computer science. As I’m also considering to conduct user experiments to evaluate the effects of explanations on the complex experience of the system, this focus meant that I learned a lot about suitable methodologies. During the course of the week, my belief in the importance of putting the user central has been fortified as well. Now more than ever, it is important to guard user agency and autonomy, and to prevent over-reliance on increasingly capable and connected AI systems. The current generative AI boom raises a lot of concerns among various affected stakeholders. Sometimes, it feels like these tools are at least partly exploitative in nature - a concern that was vividly expressed by professor Giulio Jacucci in his opening keynote at the HAI-GEN workshop. 2. The AXAI workshop: Explanations should be adaptive to be impactful Throughout the presentations in the AXAI (Adaptive eXplainable AI) workshop session, I learned that adaptivity can be geared towards multiple users and use cases, and is therefore often interpreted differently by various researchers and fields. Some focus on adapting explanations to the user at hand, in terms of content, or complexity. Others consider adaption to context. In any case, it seems that LLMs offer a great avenue to increase the level of adaptation in many cases, although this may spark concerns regarding trustworthiness. Related to that topic, I presented our paper ( link ), co-authored with Lien and supervised by Annelien. What set it apart was mainly its ridiculously long title: “Mitigating Misleadingness in LLM-Generated Natural Language Explanations for Recommender Systems: Ensuring Broad Truthfulness Through Factuality and Faithfulness”. Not exactly the title of Sabrina Carpenter’s next hit, but it certainly sparked some lively discussion. I opened my presentation with a straightforward example of gender bias in a job recommender: it generated the exact same “high-quality” explanation for two different users—a female designer recommended design jobs and a male designer steered toward management roles. This example served as a way to illustrate the benefit of incorporating uncertainty and interactive counterfactuals into explanations, to enable greater transparency and scrutability. I recognized a similar call for communicating uncertainty as a means to obtain transparency in Prof. Q. Vera Liao’s keynote on Thursday. I was also pleased to see Prof. Turchi present “Talking Back - human input and explanations to interactive AI systems“, an inspiring study on interactive counterfactuals using SHAP values as sliders. It sparked my interest in further exploring the integration of interactive explanations with SHAP in content-based recommender systems. My presentation then proceeded with stating the difference between explanations and justifications, and how LLMs enable the generation of plausible justifications at scale. This can pose a problem of unfounded trust in recommender systems, especially since earlier research has shown that the mere presence of explanations already enhances the trust and item acceptance. This underscores the importance of truthful explanations - which brought me to the core of my presentation: to assess “truthfulness”, we should agree on a definition and an operationalization. This is where I propose to frame truthfulness as “providing accurate information”, consisting of both factuality and faithfulness. Unfortunately, we often see that different research disciplines consider different aspects of truthfulness: while computer science works often focus on factuality, social science merely investigates faithfulness. Luckily, as Krzysztof Gajos mentioned in Wednesday’s morning panel, the field of IUI is well-positioned to bridge these different perspectives into truly useful interfaces. Slide from AXAI presentation: "Defining truthfulness" I proceeded with mentioning the 4 evaluation perspectives to assess explanation quality in recommender systems, as proposed by Ge et al., while also mentioning the 7 explanation goals as defined by Tintarev in 2007. I was curious if the audience would deem this evaluation method useful outside of recommender systems as well, and it indeed proved to be fertile ground for discussion. While most workshop participants agreed that the dimensions could be useful, the explanation goal of “persuasion” was contested, as this should be seen as a side-effect or external result, not something to optimize for. To end my presentation, I went over some possible mitigation strategies that focus on prompting, interface and model-based approaches (all are further discussed in the paper). Slide from AXAI presentation: "Mitigation strategies for LLM-generated misleading explanations" Besides the "Talking back" paper, the presentations most relevant to my area of interest in this session were "Toward a Human-Centered Metric for Evaluating Trust in Artificial Intelligence Systems" and "'Loss in Value': What it reveals about WHO an explanation serves well and WHEN". By the way, in the morning, I attended another great workshop: HAI-GEN, in which the shift to an intent-based paradigm was stressed multiple times. I was very happy to hear this, as I’m also convinced that we are effectively moving to a new way of interaction with our systems, were we move from command-based interaction towards a more natural way of communicating our goals to digital systems. As far as I’m aware, the term “intent-based interaction” was coined by Jakob Nielsen in a now-famous blog post . I find this very inspiring and consider it one of the main guiding threads for my research. There is no escaping LLMs As announced in the opening talk, I indeed noticed that LLMs were ubiquitous. From self-improving LLM-agents that learn to play Minecraft, to LLMs that optimize meeting schedules: a lot of authors (including myself) reported on the promises and perils of incorporating language models to enhance interactivity, accessibility or automation. The popularity of LLMs should however not be mistaken for devotion. Many times I realized, as a scientific community, we have the privilege to be critical, and look beyond the hype - so that we can report on both the opportunities as well as the limitations of LLMs. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be excited about the seemingly endless possibilities of this new technology of course. But as was rightfully highlighted by Prof. Burnett, we should consider it in a responsible way. By doing so, we can provide valuable insights that help to steer the development and implementation of AI-models beyond purely profit-driven goals. Conclusion: An inspiring conference at the heart of my research interests This post could have been much longer if I had included all my notes. I'll end it here for now, but in the coming weeks, I hope to frequently revisit these notes to reignite the inspiration I felt from attending the conference, listening to speakers, admiring impressive research projects, and meeting some of the most influential HCI researchers. Two memorable encounters will forever remain in my mind: the first was a lunch conversation with Professor Ted Selker, the creator of the well-known red pointing stick on my ThinkPad (though there's a more familiar term for it; if you know, you know). The second? A close encounter with a startled yet adorably cute beaver during a run around Cagliari’s stunning salt mines. I hope to reconnect with many of the inspiring individuals I met at the conference in the future. In the meantime, let’s continue our ongoing pursuit of the perfect intelligent interface. Previous Next Looking back at IUI 2025

< Back 23 Oct 2024 Sharing our reflections on the ACM RecSys Conference 2024 Some researchers of the SRP Media team recently attended the 18th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys 2024) in Bari, Italy. Known for its stunning coastline and sunny weather, Bari provided the perfect backdrop for a gathering of both academic and industry experts in recommender systems. Beyond indulging in the delicious Italian cuisine and navigating the city’s chaotic traffic, our team traveled to Bari to share our latest research, gain insights from the inspiring talks, and engage with the Recsys community. SRP Media's Contributions at RecSys 2024 A previous blog post already summarizes all of the SRP Media team's contributions to the conference. Annelien and Lien each gave a learning session at the RecSys Summer School, which took place the week before the conference. Ulysse attended the Summer School and then stayed another week in beautiful Bari to present a demo poster at the conference. During the conference, Brett participated in the doctoral symposium, where he presented his initial findings and received valuable feedback from leading experts. In addition, there was also a poster for Hanne and Annelien's paper which got shortlisted for the Best Short Paper Award! The RecSys Summer School: Gaining Insights Although RecSys 2024 officially kicked off on October 14th, some of our team members arrived in Bari a week early to attend the ACM Europe School on Recommender Systems. On the program there was Lien Michiels 's lecture on Best Practices for Offline Evaluation and Annelien Smets ' course on Digital Economics and Recommender Systems . Their insights offered a refreshing perspective amidst the buzz around transformer-based algorithms. Ulysse, as a participant in the Summer School, had the chance to connect with fellow researchers from around the world, fostering an environment of collaboration and learning. The Main Conference: Workshops, Presentations, and Keynotes The RecSys conference consists of two parts: on Monday and Friday, a series of workshops and presentations took place at the Politecnico University of Bari. From Tuesday to Thursday, the main track continues with an extensive program of lectures, presentations and posters at the magnificent Teatro Petruzzelli. Some of our highlights: Ulysse's highlights For Ulysse, one of the standout moments was the CARS workshop led by Dr. Rishabh Mehrotra from Sourcegraph. Drawing on his experience at Spotify, Dr. Mehrotra presented a thorough analysis of eight real-world recommendation challenges, offering invaluable insights into the practical applications of recommendation systems. Ulysse also appreciated a keynote from Mounia Lalmas, also from Spotify, as well as events like the Women in RecSys session, the Normalize workshop, and Netflix’s “Raising a Recommender System”—although his duties as a student volunteer required him to follow these online. Brett's reflections Brett's experience at the doctoral symposium was the outstanding highlight of the week. Thanks to valuable feedback from experts such as Julia Neidhardt, Markus Zanger and Bart Knijnenburg, Brett gained new clarity on his PhD project, particularly his development of the "Serendiptionnaire" a tool designed to evaluate how recommender systems promote serendipity. Throughout the main track, Brett found himself both impressed and challenged by the industry presence. While captivated by the venue and delighted by the food, he noted a strong focus on technical issues, which sometimes overshadowed a more human-centered approach. Mark Riedl’s keynote resonated with this perspective, particularly the idea that recommender systems should enhance user agency. Workshops like RecSoGood, AltRec , and the POPROX project emphasizing the importance of considering the societal implications of research on recommender system. Hanne’s first RecSys Attending the RecSys Conference in person for the first time was an exciting and enriching experience. The conference brings together researchers and industry practitioners from a wide range of sectors, creating a vibrant and open-minded community. The empowerment of women in this traditionally male-dominated field, with the Women in RecSys breakfast and session is very valuable to facilitate connections. Her own contribution, a short paper titled “It’s (not) all about that CTR: A Multi-stakeholder Perspective on News Recommender Metrics” was shortlisted for the Best Short Paper award. This nomination, together with the encouraging feedback on the poster, is a testament to the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in recommender system research. The need for bridging the gap between academia and industry echoed throughout the week. Final Thoughts: A Rich Exchange of Ideas and Inspiration RecSys 2024 in Bari offered not only an incredible learning experience but also an opportunity to engage with great minds in the Recsys field. From insightful workshops and keynotes to helpful feedback and new connections, our team left the conference feeling motivated and inspired. As we look ahead, the key takeaway is clear: recommender systems must evolve beyond technical optimization. The importance of fostering user agency, promoting social sciences in the research on recommenders, and bridging the gap between academia and industry applications is more pressing than ever. Previous Next Looking back at RecSys 2024