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< Back Pieter Van der Elst PhD Researcher pieter.van.der.elst@vub.be Pieter Van der Elst joined imec-SMIT as a PhD candidate in 2023. Researching on the broader topic of algorithmic recommenders in the Flemish media industry, his thesis focuses on how the public service broadcaster VRT positions itself within a contemporary media context. His academic interests lie mainly in media economics and datafication of media. Before his start at imec-SMIT he briefly worked as a consultant for one of the leading social bureaus for artists (SBK’s) in the Flemish cultural industry, providing services exclusively to VRT. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and subsequently a Master’s degree in Communication Studies. Visit my research profile

< Back Calling all music lovers! 28 May 2024 Help us by providing your music listening data Your playlists have the power to drive change. By donating your favourite tunes to the Fair MusE project, you're not just sharing good vibes – you're supporting artists who deserve fair recognition and compensation! SMIT , the research group at imec & VUB, is part of a wider interdisciplinary team of academic and industry partners whose mission is to raise awareness about how music algorithms, data collection, and exploitation models of social media and streaming platforms influence music creators and audiences. In a nutshell, the three-year Horizon EU funded project aims to promote fairness for a more sustainable and competitive music ecosystem in Europe. If you are a user of Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube Music, be part of the change and donate your music streaming data here ! Let's build a more inclusive and equitable music industry, one playlist at a time! For more information you can reach out to info@fairmuse.eu . For updates stay tuned on LinkedIn . Previous Next

< Back Diversity in VOD services: Seminar highlights from Madrid 28 Oct 2024 Throwback on the international seminar on diversity and VOD services Tim Raats and Catalina Iordache participated in the international seminar on diversity and Video-on-Demand (VOD) services in Madrid, hosted by the Diversidad Audiovisual research group at University Carlos III Madrid. This event brought together scholars, industry experts, and policymakers to discuss the challenges and opportunities for promoting diverse content in the increasingly globalized VOD landscape. Tim Raats contributed to the discussion on quotas for European works, presenting on October 24 during a panel focused on promoting European and Spanish content. His talk examined the importance of quota regulations and content prominence to ensure visibility for European productions, underscoring how these measures can support local cultural diversity on international streaming platforms. Catalina Iordache also presented on the same day, addressing the financial impact of foreign streaming platforms on European fiction series. Speaking in a panel on investment and financing of European works, she shared insights into how international players like Netflix and Amazon Prime are contributing to and reshaping the European audiovisual ecosystem by funding local productions. The seminar recordings and a full list of panels are available on the Diversidad Audiovisual website , offering a wealth of information on the dynamics of diversity in the digital streaming era. Previous Next

< Back Catalina Iordache Guest Professor catalina.iordache@vub.be Coming from an Eastern European background, my life completely changed in the early 1990’s when the colours and fast-moving images of cable TV reached our living room, and I experienced an instant fascination with film, television programmes and music videos. Through my studies, I became interested in the market forces behind audiovisual media and the cross-border flow of content. At SMIT, I have the opportunity to apply qualitative methods in investigating the production and distribution of content, as well as its consumption by diverse audiences. I have been working at imec-SMIT-VUB since 2014, where I obtained my PhD on the transnational flow of media content in the online environment in 2022. I am currently conducting postdoctoral research on the platformisation of Public Service Media (PSM) and am also a Guest Professor and co-titular of the course Media, Culture and Globalisation Theories, for the Digital Media in Europe Master’s programme at the VUB. During my time at SMIT, I have also conducted research on the topics of media literacy, digital literacy and e-inclusion, and acted as Teaching Assistant for the Bachelor in Social Sciences programme. Before joining academia, I worked as a project manager in the cultural field with a community arts organisation based in Edinburgh. I then moved to Brussels and followed the international MSc in Communication Studies at the VUB. I also hold a BA in International Relations, European Studies. Visit my research profile

< Back Policy Brief on Public Service Media in Belgium 27 Mar 2025 Findings and recommendations on the organisational and cultural challenges facing PSM in Belgium In this new policy brief Tim Raats and Cataline Iordache share results from the latest research conducted during the second year of the PSM-AP project . Their findings show that Public Service Media (PSM) organizations in Belgium, being RTBF (French-speaking) and VRT (Flemish) face growing competition from global tech giants such as Netflix, Apple, Google, and Amazon. This requires a transition into fully digital, online-first broadcasters. While both are integrating digital tools and skills, structural barriers rooted in traditional broadcasting, such as bureaucracy and departmental silos, slow down this transformation. They are adapting their commissioning and distribution strategies to better meet audience needs while maintaining their public service mission and managing brand perception. However, their digital transition differs: VRT is positioning VRT MAX as the central platform for content, whereas RTBF struggles to rebrand Auvio beyond a catch-up service, as linear TV is still dominant for reaching audiences. Their study identifies the following four key factors that shape the way in which both Belgian PSM organizations are managing the rise of internet delivery and increasing competition with international streamers: If you want to learn more about the outcomes of in-depth interviews with employees in both PSM organizations, have a look at the full policy brief here . 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 Our presentations at ECREA 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

< Back Noëmie Forest Researcher noemie.janine.forest@vub.be Eager to investigate the role of platforms and streamers in constantly evolving media ecosystems, Noëmie joined SMIT as a researcher in the Media Economics and Policy unit in 2023. She will research personalization and recommender systems, and their value in media markets. Noëmie studied Communication Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, between 2018 and 2022, with a specialisation in media, strategic communication, and marketing. Her specialisation gave her the chance to immerse herself in this subject through her thesis, “Does one size fit all? – How do five Belgian food brands position themselves on the international market?”. Noëmie dived into the world of different brands, and earned herself a great distinction in 2022. Before starting at SMIT, she worked at Think BBDO as strategic executive, to assist organizations in their branding and communication. Visit my research profile

< Back Dongxiao Li PhD Researcher dongxiao.li@vub.be We are surrounded by a technologically evolving media world where journalism agencies and media firms are increasingly utilizing innovative technologies like artificial intelligence(AI) to improve the production efficiency and meet our personalized requirements. For a media organization, how to use the technologies to optimize the informative value and its commercial benefits? And for the media industry, how to reach a win-win situation among the main stakeholders including the media firms, the users, the technology developers, and the government, so as to boost the social welfare? Those questions intrigued me to carry out researches on illustrating the relations between the technology, the media industry and the human at different socioeconomic dimensions by both qualitative methods like interview and case study, and quantitative approaches including survey and online data analysis. After achieving the Bachelor’s degree of Economics (Shandong University, China), I worked as an overseas engineering project manager for years in other countries like India and Malaysia, which helped me gain the ability of project management as well as the vision of inter-culture communications. Then I found my enthusiasm in media study and pursued the Master’s Degree of Communication (Tsinghua University, China) with the thesis on AI adoption in the media and creative industry. Having an educational background where economics and communication converge, I am also interested in the economic communication, especially on how the business news could be better accepted via digital technologies like AI and VR. Visit my research profile

< Back News Recommenders in Small Media Markets Hanne Vandenbroucke PhD Researcher In a four-year doctoral journey, my research delves into the implementation of recommender systems within news organizations through the lens of media strategies. This comprehensive exploration is divided into two key phases, addressing distinct facets of this transformative technological landscape. 1. Strategic Decision-Making Processes The initial phase of my research centers on unraveling the strategic decision-making processes in the development and implementation of recommender systems within news organizations. Drawing on a multi-stakeholder and multi-objectives framework, scrutinizing the complexities surrounding the strategies in commercial news organizations. From a multi-stakeholder perspective, this research identifies diverse entities such as newsrooms, technology departments, and marketing teams, each holding unique objectives and values. This framework allows to dissect conflicts, trade-offs, and (mis)conceptions that shape the strategic landscape, offering insights into how recommender systems align with overarching organizational goals. 2. User Journeys and Experiences In a second phase the focus shifts towards a user-centric perspective. This stage of the research aims to map user journeys and experiences and examine the added value brought about by recommender systems in the realm of news consumption. By closely examining interaction touchpoints, user preferences, and experiences, I seek to uncover the nuanced ways in which recommender systems influence and enhance the user journey. This comprehensive, dual-phased approach reflects the goal of this PhD to comprehensively understand the role of recommender systems in news organizations. By blending strategic decision-making perspectives with an in-depth exploration of user experiences, my research aims to not only contribute to the academic discourse surrounding media strategies but also offer actionable insights for news organizations navigating the dynamic landscape of digital news consumption. Publications Welcome to the Metrics Jungle: Organizational Stakeholder Perspectives on Evaluation of News Recommender Systems in Industry 28/11/2025 From Experimentation to Strategy: The Ambidextrous Balancing Act of Developing News Recommender Systems 22/11/2025 Not One News Recommender To Fit Them All: How Different Recommender Strategies Serve Various User Segments 22/09/2025 It’s (Not) All About That CTR: a Multi-Stakeholder Perspective on News Recommender Metrics 01/09/2024 Towards a Pragmatic Approach for studying Normative Recommender Systems 18/09/2023 Supervisors Pieter Ballon Full Professor Annelien Smets Research Professor Related news 2 Ciao from EMMA in Rome! Our presentations at the emma Conference 2025 2 Talking about Stakeholder Perspectives at WMEMC Hanne presented her research on stakeholder alignment for news recommender system development 2 Second Annual ALGEPI Workshop Insights on AI, Innovation and Media Regulation Previous 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 A glimpse into our work-in-progress 12 Feb 2024 Reflections on the research presented at Etmaal On Thursday 8th and Friday 9th February 2024, Hanne Vandenbroucke and Ulysse Maes attended the 26th edition of Etmaal van Communicatiewetenschap in Rotterdam. At this two-day conference, researchers from Communication Sciences in Belgium and The Netherlands unite to present their projects, get feedback from peers, and be inspired by the work of others. They were invited to present their work-in-progress during the Research Escalator. In this blogpost we highlight the key take-aways from their presentations. Multi-stakeholder approach to news personalization - Hanne Vandenbroucke What lies behind the "For you", "Read more" or "See also" sections on the website or mobile app of your favorite news brand? By conducting stakeholder interviews with professionals working in commercial news organizations operating in Flanders: DPG Media, Mediahuis and Mediafin; We aim to map the development and implementation of recommender systems. The key internal stakeholder groups involved in and impacted by news recommender systems are: (1) the newsroom, (2) the technical development, and (3) the commercial business unit. Based on the stakeholder interviews, we are able to build upon the multi-stakeholder framework of Smets et al. (2022) . The preliminary results give insights in the actual decision-making process for recommender development. News organisations started experimenting with a news recommender system on average 3 years ago. The initial process of trial and error had transformed into an ongoing cycle of adjusting the RS design. In practice both the newsroom and the business unit express their objectives, preconditions and concerns to the product owner who aligns the different perspectives and formulates a concrete set of goals. Next, the technology development team will operationalize these objectives into computational metrics and adjust the recommender system design. Performance data is continuously being collected and monitored. A feedback loop set up to communicate the results of the adjusted recommender to the product owner who – together with the data analytics team – derives insights from the data and report back to the business unit and newsrooms. Exploring the influence of misleading explanations on the perceived quality of recommender systems – Ulysse Maes Nowadays, recommender systems are everywhere: you find them on Amazon, on Netflix and Spotify, for example. These algorithmic curation systems help internet users to efficiently navigate through vast amounts of content. While holding clear advantages in terms of user experience, there are some limitations and normative concerns. One of these concerns stems from the limited transparency they provide. This may lead to distrust and frustration. Adding explanations may yield different results, which depend on your objectives. (Tintarev & Masthoff, 2007) suggest seven goals of explainable recommendations: effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, scrutability, transparency, trust, and persuasiveness. Note that maximizing for one goal might be beneficial for another (e.g. improving for scrutability- giving users the ability to change the outcomes to their liking- might improve satisfaction). However, optimizing for one goal might also harm other goals. This research specificially dives into the possible conflict between optimizing for persuasiveness and its effects on transparency and trust. By “optimizing for persuasiveness”, we mean creating compelling narratives to persuade users to consume recommended content. For example, when you buy a pair of jeans online, the shop can try to upsell by recommending some white t-shirts and explain the recommendations as “Style advice for the perfect shirt to wear on your new jeans.” A more neutral explanation could be: “Customers also bought.” Persuasion in itself is not problematic, but it might become problematic once it becomes misleading: hiding important information or even lying about the working of the system, or the drivers behind a decision. As explanations are often linked to a conception of transparency, both with end-users and academia, the mere presence of explanations can already lead to increased trust in the system. By crafting compelling but incorrect explanations, it might be possible to manipulate users into consuming certain content, while still giving them a feeling of agency. There are clearly some incentives to create misleading explanations. But do they work? Theory is still inconclusive. While some research mentions the effectiveness of personalized persuasion (Burtell & Woodside, 2023), others highlight the detrimental effects on long-term trust: would platforms really jeopardize this? Another argument against the effectiveness of misleading explanations is that the costs don’t outweigh the benefits – a critique sometimes formulated on explanations in general as well. The field of explainable AI recognizes the immense potential of Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, to generate personalized, dynamic explanations at scale. It has already been shown that these explanations can be more persuasive than human-generated texts. One of the reasons why we do not see LLM-generated explanations popping up everywhere, is because of their tendency to “hallucinate” - to make up plausible, but incorrect narratives. Previous Next