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< Back LLMs and Recommenders Ulysse Maes PhD Researcher My four-year PhD program embarks on an insightful journey to explore the influence of foundational models, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), on recommender interfaces. This research aims to bridge the gap between cutting-edge technology and user-centric design, focusing on how AI can enhance the user experience in recommender systems, thereby contributing to the rapidly evolving field of intelligent user interfaces, The first phase of my research delves into the transformative role of LLMs in shaping more interactive and engaging recommender user experiences. Here, I map out how these advanced models can redefine user interaction, making it more intuitive and appealing. Central to this phase is not only the exploration of the potential of LLMs but also a critical examination of the risks involved. Ensuring the ethical application of these technologies in real-world scenarios is a cornerstone of my study, as it balances innovation with responsibility. Shifting gears in the second phase, the research will pivot towards the creation and evaluation of user interfaces. This phase is dedicated to experimenting with novel layout and presentation patterns, rigorously assessing them both quantitatively and qualitatively. The goal is to uncover design strategies that align with the diverse objectives of various stakeholders in the recommender system domain. By intertwining state-of-the-art AI research with the underexplored realm of user interaction in recommender systems, my project aims to make significant contributions to the discourse on ethical AI applications. The insights gained are expected to fuel discussions around AI ethics in recommender systems and inspire professionals to adopt more user-friendly and effective design patterns. Ultimately, this research seeks to set a new benchmark in how we integrate generative AI technologies into user interfaces, ensuring they are not only advanced but also ethical and user-centric. Publications Not One News Recommender To Fit Them All: How Different Recommender Strategies Serve Various User Segments 22/09/2025 GenUI(ne) CRS: UI Elements and Retrieval-Augmented Generation in Conversational Recommender Systems with LLMs 08/10/2024 Supervisors Annelien Smets Research Professor Tim Raats Associate Professor Related news 2 Impressions of IBC 2025 Ulysse’s Impressions of the International Broadcasting Convention 2025: Shaping The Future. 2 Looking back at IUI 2025 Ulysse attended the conference and presented at the AXAI workshop 2 Looking back at RecSys 2024 Sharing our reflections on the ACM RecSys Conference 2024 Previous Next

< Back Challenges and opportunities for recommender systems in media markets Ranaivoson, H., Smets, A. & Ballon, P. (2024). Challenges and opportunities for recommender systems in media markets. In U. Rohn, M. Rimscha & T. Raats (Ed.), De Gruyter Handbook of Media Economics (pp. 215-228). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110793444-015 Recommender systems have become omnipresent in media markets, fromproduction to distribution and consumption. What is often overlooked, however, isthat the multi-sided nature of contemporary media markets implies that recom-mender systems need to balance the needs and requirements of actors on differentsides of these markets, such as content providers and end-users. Starting from an overview of the rapidly growing literature on recommender systems in media mar-kets, and emphasizing their multi-sided nature, we first describe the main typologies of recommender systems and analyze how various stakeholders might adopt particular strategies to have these systems create novel market opportunities. Then, we discuss media market dilemmas that result from these stakeholders’ often competing objectives in terms of biases, notably filter bubbles, management dilemmas, and is-sues around privacy and transparency. We argue how revisiting these concerns from a multi-stakeholder perspective opens up new angles to understand recommender systems’ impact on contemporary media markets. Recommender Systems Previous Read the article Next

< 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 Valdy Wiratama Researcher valdy.wiratama@vub.be Growing up during the Web 2.0 era, the Internet left a favorable impression on my engagement with content. From dissecting events through discourses on Twitter to discovering new music on MySpace, the Internet enabled me to access a wider range of information and adjust my preferences at a reduced rate. While I can easily comprehend these effects as a media consumer, I can only imagine the ramifications on actors, musicians, and even print journalists. Lower barriers to entry amplify their competition, while the resulting oversupply threatens the exposure of smaller creators. With a current comprehension that requires more observations, my professional work is dedicated to understanding the supply side of the media industry and its relationship with the Internet. Particularly, I am invested in recorded music and its ever-evolving response towards platformization, online intermediaries, and the long tail hypothesis. As for the foundation that guides my outset in rationalizing phenomena, the baseline principle that I commonly work with is economics. I earned a Bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Indonesia in 2018 and a Master of Arts degree (M.A.) in cultural economics and entrepreneurship from Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2022. To obtain the latter, I completed a thesis with the title ‘Backstage at the Pandemic: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Music Production, Distribution, and Promotion among Unsigned Musicians in the United States.’ After defending the thesis, I joined an independent record label in The Netherlands before transitioning to a role that centers around fairness in the music industry (the FairMusE project) at imec-SMIT, VUB in 2023. Visit my research profile

< Back Towards a Pragmatic Approach for studying Normative Recommender Systems Binst, B., Vandenbroucke, H., Li, D., Puskas, I., Van der Elst, P., & Smets, A. (Accepted/In press). Towards a Pragmatic Approach for studying Normative Recommender Systems: Exploring Power Dynamics in Digital Platform Markets. In Proceedings of the the First Workshop on Normative Design and Evaluation of Recommender Systems . Recommender systems (RSs) have become an integral part of digital platforms, helping users to navigate through the abundance of online content and services. This paper argues that the study of normative RSs should go beyond the mere conceptualization of normativity and examine the conditions and contextual factors that might foster normative RSs. RSs often operate within multisided markets, involving multiple stakeholders who influence and are influenced by the RS. Ideally, developers of RSs aim for value alignment among diverse stakeholders, fostering a win-win scenario. However, in practice, system providers hold more power over the design, often optimizing for their own objectives and neglecting the needs and values of other stakeholders. These imbalanced power dynamics in digital platform markets pose significant challenges to the design. This paper critically examines two key economic dynamics in digital media markets that challenge the development of normative RSs. The first hurdle describes the susceptibility of digital platform markets to lock-in and monopolization due to network effects, which skews the power balance in favor system. A second hurdle critically examines the pervasive \"attention economy\" and corresponding engagement-centric logic in the design of RSs that might diverge from explicit or long-term users' preferences despite the success in increasing engagement. To illustrate the importance of these dynamics in real-world RSs, we present how these hurdles manifest in the domains of video-on-demand and news media. In conclusion, this paper advocates for a more pragmatic approach to studying normative RSs by considering the two hurdles affecting the RS development in contemporary digital platform markets. Furthermore, it highlights the fruitfulness of this pragmatic approach by proposing policy recommendations to tackle normative challenges in RSs’ design. Recommender Systems Previous Read the article Next

< Back Challenges and requirements for implementing due prominence: aligning stakeholder interests in Flanders Van der Elst, P., Afilipoaie, A., & Raats, T. (2025). Challenges and requirements for implementing due prominence: aligning stakeholder interests in Flanders. Frontiers in Communication, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2025.1569132 Since the introduction of Article 7a in the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), which enables Member States to impose measures that ensure prominence of general interest services on user interfaces, discussions within media policy on the need of these measures have increased markedly. In Member States such as Germany, France, Italy and Ireland, commitments were already imposed on players offering user interfaces to audiovisual—and in some cases also audio—media services and content of general interest. This article presents the findings of a study examining the desirability and feasibility of implementing due prominence measures in Flanders (Belgium). The research adopts a media policy analytical approach and examines the (i) positions of the different stakeholders on the desirability and feasibility of a revised prominence regime, (ii) the extent to which interests across different stakeholders can be aligned and (iii) the considerations governments need to take into account when developing due prominence measures in Member States. The research is based on a stakeholder consultation conducted with broadcasters, television distributors, streaming services and hardware manufacturers operating in the Flemish market. The research is complemented with interviews with representatives of different market actors. The study identifies considerable oppositional logics between broadcasters and hardware manufacturers and raises challenges in defining the scope of ‘general interest’, the addressees of prominence measures, contextual factors such as markets size and path-dependency in media policy, and the commensurability between different existing legal frameworks at the national and EU level. The authors argue for clearer, more explicit guidelines at the EU level regarding the interpretation of Article 7a. Stakeholders Previous Read the article Next

< Back Elevating Customer Value of media recommendations through Enhanced User Satisfaction and Development Media recommender systems often fall short by prioritizing behavioral data over user perception and experience, resulting in a disconnect between user preferences and actual consumption. The intricacy of multi-dimensional user preferences poses a challenge, compounded by an intention-behavior gap in high-quality media consumption. Unintentional content consumption can be exacerbated by recommendations geared towards engagement or revenue goals, potentially leading to misguided outcomes. Consequently, there is a critical need to refine recommender system designs from a user-centric perspective, accounting for nuanced preferences and intrinsic needs. This project takes a user-centric approach, delving into the role of media recommender systems in aligning user needs, preferences, and consumption. The overarching aim is to cultivate the generation of healthier, more beneficial recommendations, ultimately enriching user satisfaction and overall development. Researchers on this project Dongxiao Li PhD Researcher Consortium partners China Scholarship Council China Scholarship Council 1/1 Tags Recommenders, User studies Previous Next

< 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. 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 Promoting Fairness of the Music Ecosystem in a Platform-Dominated and Post-Pandemic Europe Fair MusE The overarching goal of Fair MusE is to promote fairness for music creators and stakeholders from an interdisciplinary perspective, thus leading to a more transparent, competitive and sustainable music ecosystem in Europe. Fair MusE focuses specifically on the domination of online platforms and their algorithms and will investigate: the legal responses that have been proposed in the EU the changes these platforms have brought to the music industry and music professionals the impact of such algorithms on music consumption. Fair MusE will provide an interdisciplinary analysis of fairness in the music industry involving music creators and stakeholders in the research; promote and enhance transparency concerning music industry practices and standardisation in data collection in the European music ecosystem; and assess the risks created by the reinforced dominance of the largest online platforms prompted by COVID 19 as well as making policymakers, stakeholders and the general public aware of such risks. To do so, Fair MusE will provide an innovative, strong and future-proof set of co-created responses and solutions: the ‘Music Copyright Infrastructure’, a data-sharing model agreement enhancing transparency; a ‘Music Data Dashboard’ of statistical indicators on the economic and societal value of the European music sector; the ‘Fairness Score’, a tool to assess music services and social media in terms of fairness’ multiple facets; and a ‘White Paper’ embodying policy recommendations to enhance competitiveness, sustainability, transparency and fairness of the EU music ecosystem. Our consortium is a carefully designed interdisciplinary group of academic and industry partners with strong expertise in the fields of law, economics, political science and computer science, supported by an Advisory Board composed of a highly qualified and broadly representative group of industry experts. Researchers on this project Valdy Wiratama Researcher Heritiana Ranaivoson Research Professor Consortium partners Universidade Católice Portuguesa Católica Research Center Verifi Media Limited Universidade Católice Portuguesa 1/12 Tags Artificial Intelligence, Copyright, Media Policy, Music Industry, Platforms Previous Next

< Back Heritiana Ranaivoson Research Professor heritiana.renaud.ranaivoson@vub.be While digital technologies have been here for quite some time already, I am still amazed by the changes they keep triggering in the cultural and media industries and how they allow (or constrain) these industries to innovate. I am particularly interested in the impact these changes have on the diversity of the content these industries produce and recommend. And eventually the policies that are needed in this new environment. I analyse these changes using my background in industrial economics, business modelling and media policy, with a peculiar interest in combining quantitative and qualitative research. I obtained my PhD in Economics (Université Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne) in 2008 on cultural diversity in the recording industry. I also studied Economics and Management at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan (France). Since then, and notably since I joined imec-SMIT-VUB in 2010, I have led several research projects at international and national levels for the European Commission ( H2020 , study contracts ), the Unesco , Google , etc. I have published extensively in the fields of cultural and media diversity , media innovation , media policy, audiovisual platforms , and the economic impact of digital technologies on creative industries . Visit my research profile

< Back Adelaida Afilipoaie Postdoctoral Researcher adelaida.afilipoaie@vub.be I am a senior researcher in the field of media policy, with an affinity for electronic communications networks and services, and online platforms. I am part of the Brussels-based imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel research group, more specifically part of the Media Economics and Policy Unit. In 2016 I graduated from my BA. in Media Studies and Television in the United Kingdom. After gaining theoretical knowledge and hands-on production experience in the media industry, I decided to pursue a MSc. in Communication Studies at the VUB in Brussels from which I graduated in 2018. Right after graduating I started working at imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, where, by combining economic platform theories and media policy research, I conducted my PhD on the regulatory frameworks at the EU and Member States level, and their ability to address the online platform power concerns, which I finalized in 2023. Currently, I am conducting postdoctoral research for several projects (Fair MusE, ALGEPI and GMICP). Considering the domination of online platforms and their algorithms, these projects tackle the various concerns of the European music ecosystem, the impact of algorithmic gatekeepers on individuals’ epistemic welfare and the media markets concentration trends. When I am not involved in research, I am a guest lecturer for the Digital Media in Europe Master’s programme at the VUB and I act as a master’s thesis supervisor. During my time as a PhD candidate, I acted as a Teaching Assistant for the MSc. course European Media Markets and facilitated several workshops part of the now discontinued Postgraduate in Media Economics programme at the VUB (2018-2020). I have experience with European projects as I was a contributor to the SMART 2018/0066 study on the implementation of the new provisions in the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and CNECT/2020/OP/0099 study on the Media Plurality and Diversity Online, both funded by the European Commission’s DG CNECT. Visit my research profile

< Back Close Contact for Context: Qualitative Methodological Considerations for Assessing Prominence and Discoverability Iordache, C., Leiva, M. T. G., & Raats, T. (2025). Close Contact for Context: Qualitative Methodological Considerations for Assessing Prominence and Discoverability. Media Industries, 12(1), 111-132. https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/mij/article/id/7625/ This article advocates for a “close contact for context” approach as a crucial step before, or in combination with, automated data collection and comparative analyses to assess the prominence and discoverability of European works in video-on-demand (VoD) catalogs. Grounded in media industries research, the method emphasizes the importance of close observation within the dynamic interface environments of VoD services. To this end, we present a set of reflections based on an exploratory study conducted on four US-based subscription VoD services in Spain and Belgium and propose three key sets of methodological considerations to be integrated in future assessments of prominence and discoverability tools and practices. First, a broader analysis of market characteristics and their interrelations is essential for conducting comparative research and understanding the strategies of transnational players within each market. Second, VoD services must be treated as individual cases shaped by specific industry practices and business models. Third, we recommend “getting personal” with the object of study through detailed analyses of interface architectures and consumption affordances, and propose the concept of a title’s discovery arc to analyze its spatiotemporal placement. This approach underscores the value of contextual, qualitative insights to complement quantitative evaluations. Previous Read the article Next