MEDIAdelcom: Where are European media landscapes heading?

A research project that started in March 2021 with a week-long online event has taken a look at the changes in the media sector and the associated impact on the public sphere in Europe. 17 partner institutes from 14 European countries have joined forces for the three-year MEDIAdelcom project as part of the EU's Horizon 2020 funding program.

The consortium aimed to provide a new perspective on changes in the media sector and their impact on public discourses. “Risks and opportunities are a semi-hidden concept in existing research,” said project coordinator Halliki Harro-Loit from the University of Tartu in Estonia in her opening speech: ”It is often found in communication science publications, especially in the discussion chapters, but without being applied uniformly.”

MEDIAdelcom first developed a holistic model of risks and opportunities in the four areas of journalism, media regulation, media literacy and media use. In a second step, a diagnostic tool was developed on this basis for decision-makers in politics, media and society, which can be used to generate scenarios for future developments. Within the project, the Erich Brost Institute, headed by Prof. Dr. Susanne Fengler and Marcus Kreutler, took the lead in recording national research capacities in the four areas of interest mentioned by MEDIAdelcom.

Die Langform des Projekttitels lautet ‚Critical Exploration of Media Related Risks and Opportunities for Deliberative Communication: Development Scenarios of the European Media Landscape’. Das Dortmunder Institut kooperiert mit Partnern in Estland, Bulgarien, Italien, Griechenland, Kroatien, Lettland, Österreich, Polen, Rumänien, Schweden, der Slowakei, der Tschechischen Republik und Ungarn.