Zoekresultaten

< 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 Aina Errando PhD Researcher aina.errando@vub.be With a background in journalism, she has studied a master’s degree in Political Science: International and European Governance (VUB), an Advanced Master’s in European Integration (BSOG), and a Master’s in Digital and Data Journalism (Nebrija Univeristy). As a PhD researcher in the ALGEPI project (understanding ALGorithmic gatekeepers to promote EPIstemic welfare), she works analysing some of the most pressing challenges facing the media industry today. Her research focuses on algorithmic gatekeepers and media strategies, exploring why and how algorithms are designed to fit and influence media consumption. In an algorithmic media environment, it is crucial to understand which mechanisms help retain or regain trust in media as well as to assess how algorithmic gatekeepers can contribute to or hinder media diversity. Visit my research profile

< Back Tim Raats Associate Professor tim.raats@vub.be Most of us have grown up with public service broadcasting and linear television as the focal point for news, entertainment and TV drama. While television and public broadcasting still exist today, and still take up crucial positions in the European media landscape, the entire audio-visual constellation has – and is – changing at a rapid pace. My research interests lie on the crossroads of these changes and continuities. In my work, I combine policy research, production studies and media economics to analyse shifts in small audio-visual ecosystems. My expertise areas are public broadcasting policies and strategies on the on the one hand, (with specific attention for public broadcasting partnerships) and the sustainability of television industries in small markets, where I specialized in financing and production of TV drama. I currently lecture various media policy courses (political economy of the creative industries, media policy, EU Media Policy) at the Communication Studies Department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. I obtained a PhD in 2014 on the role and position of public service media in a networked society. As a senior researcher at imec-SMIT, I have been involved in contract research for various stakeholders (including VRT, the Flemish Sector Council), either as researcher, lead researcher or supervisor. Recent projects I was involved in include MeCETES (2014-2016) which analysed patterns of film and TV distribution in Europe, a 2016 stakeholder evaluation of the Flemish Game Fund, and a study examining the effectiveness of support mechanisms for television in Flanders (2016-2017) (in collaboration with Econopolis). Visit my research profile

< Back What is Serendipity? An Interview Study to Conceptualize Experienced Serendipity in Recommender Systems Binst, B. , Michiels, L. & Smets, A. , 2025, (Accepted/In press).What is Serendipity? An Interview Study to Conceptualize Experienced Serendipity in Recommender Systems. Proceedings of the 33rd ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization Serendipity has been associated with numerous benefits in the context of recommender systems, e.g., increased user satisfaction and consumption of long-tail items. Despite this, serendipity in the context of recommender systems has thus far remained conceptually ambiguous. This conceptual ambiguity has led to inconsistent operationalizations between studies, making it difficult to compare and synthesize findings. In this paper, we conceptualize the user’s experience of serendipity. To this effect, we interviewed 17 participants and analyzed the data following the grounded theory paradigm. Based on these interviews, we conceptualize experienced serendipity as a user experience in which a user unintentionally encounters content that feels fortuitous, refreshing, and enriching. We find that all three components—fortuitous, refreshing and enriching—are necessary and together are sufficient to classify a user’s experience as serendipitous. However, these components can be satisfied through a variety of conditions. Our conceptualization unifies previous definitions of serendipity within a single framework, resolving inconsistencies by identifying distinct flavors of serendipity. It highlights underexposed flavors, offering new insights into how users experience serendipity in the context of recommender systems. By clarifying the components and conditions of experienced serendipity in recommender systems, this work can guide the design of recommender systems that stimulate experienced serendipity in their users, and lays the groundwork for developing a standardized operationalization of experienced serendipity in its many flavors, enabling more consistent and comparable evaluations. Recommender Systems Previous Read the article Next

< Back Brett Binst PhD Researcher brett.binst@vub.be Brett Binst currently works on the ‘Serendipity Engine’ project as a PhD student. In this project, he studies serendipity in urban recommender systems. More specifically, he studies why system providers would design for serendipity, how they can design for it (through an affordances perspective) and the experience of serendipity in users of these urban recommender systems. Brett Binst acquired a Bachelor of science in Psychology at the VUB in 2020. Next, he completed his Master’s degree in Sociology in 2022. His masterthesis was a study into the preconditions and inequality of having an opinion about AI, inspired on Bourdieu’s theoretical framework laid out in La Distinction. Before starting on the Serendipity Engine project, he worked on the Barometer project, on behalf of the Koning Boudewijn Foundation in which he mainly performed quantitative analyses, comparing the labour market situation of migrants and natives. Visit my research profile

< Back Welcome to the Metrics Jungle: Organizational Stakeholder Perspectives on Evaluation of News Recommender Systems in Industry Vandenbroucke, H., Michiels, L., & Smets, A. (2025). Welcome to the Metrics Jungle: Organizational Stakeholder Perspectives on evaluation of news recommender systems in industry. ACM Transactions on Recommender Systems, Highlights of RecSys ’24. https://doi.org/10.1145/3778173 News recommender systems (NRS) are increasingly implemented in news industry to enhance digital distribution, yet their development and evaluation are shaped by a complex interplay of organizational stakeholders with diverse objectives. This study investigates the real-world complexities of NRS implementation, considering the multitude of objectives on the NRS provider side by exploring how different stakeholder groups —from journalistic, commercial and tech logic— conceptualize NRS goals and assess their performance. Through 22 semi-structured expert interviews across four news organizations in Europe, we uncover a `jungle of metrics' where an overabundance of data insights does not necessarily lead to better decision-making. While traditional accuracy-based metrics like click-through rate (CTR) remain widely used, they fail to capture the broader strategic objectives that guide NRS adoption in industry. This paper identifies a critical gap between current academic evaluations of NRS and the business key performance indicators (KPIs) used in practice. Rather than evaluating NRS in isolation, stakeholders assess their contribution to overarching organizational goals, including reach, engagement, conversion, and retention. Our findings highlight the need for a more nuanced, multi-stakeholder approach to NRS evaluation that aligns with both business imperatives and journalistic values. Newsmedia, Recommender Systems, Stakeholders Previous Read the article 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