"Governing Digital Societies: Powers and Counter-Powers of the European Audiovisual Media Industry in a Datafied-Networked Society"

Lead Research Organisation: London School of Economics and Political Science
Department Name: Media and Communications

Abstract

In our era of hyper-connectivity, the rising popularity of data-driven
technologies and the growing power of online platforms in the media
ecosystem are unprecedented, and they have important implications for
media, politics, and society. Researchers, policy makers and industry
representatives alike need to better comprehend the shifts in agency
and control that are enhancing the networked and enmeshed media
system and the overall datafication of society. Within this context, this
PhD project will explore how the social and cultural construction of
online platforms evolved by mirroring the underlying political economic
dynamics and shifts in the power interplay in the European audiovisual
media ecosystem. In particular, my interest is in investigating the
governing of media in today's datafied-networked society by looking at
the power and counter-power relations that are driving fundamental
changes in the distribution side of the audiovisual media value chain in
Europe. Doing so through a political economic approach is a means to
fully grasp the inherent politics and agendas of data in this everexpanding
media sector.

Publications

10 25 50

Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
ES/P000622/1 01/10/2017 30/09/2027
2098308 Studentship ES/P000622/1 01/10/2018 30/09/2021 Eleonora Mazzoli
 
Description I would highlight three main achievements of my research at the moment. Firstly, I have generated significant new knowledge on a cutting-edge policy debate that is currently being addressed and discussed not only in the UK (as part of the Ofcom's EPG Prominence review and Public service Broadcasting review), but at European level. Both directly through my research findings and publications, as well as indirectly, through an externally funded study (see Impact Narrative section), I have shed light on relevant media and communication industry practices and on the economic relations between media and platform organisations. Secondly, since this is a new area of inquiry for policy makers and scholars, I have also opened up new research questions. By applying an institutional political economy approach, I have raised questions on the creation of new regulatory regime,which lie at the intersection of media pluralism, freedom of expression and platform regulation. Thirdly, I have significantly increased my professional network, by regularly engaging with both policy and industry representatives during my research field and data analysis phase. Initial findings have therefore generated knowledge exchange and they have been shared through different events and workshops (see Engagement Activities section). Thanks to this wider network, I have also established a noteworthy collaboration with BBC and the UCL Institute for Public Purpose Innovation, led by the renowned economist Mariana Mazzucato (see Collaboration & Partnerships section). With this externally funded project, we developed a prototype framework to assess and evaluate public value and innovation in public service media organisations, taking the BBC as main case study. This collaboration was therefore not funded by this grant, but I was included in this team thanks to my expertise in this area and to my ongoing PhD research, since part of the findings of my work speak to issues with public service media organisations, their public value missions, and innovation practices.
Exploitation Route Outcomes of this study could be taken up both by academic and non-academic routes. From an academic perspective, I am applying a new theoretical framework and therefore creating knowledge on the economic, political, and regulatory impacts of content curation online. Beyond academia, my findings are relevant both for UK and European policy makers, as well as industry representatives. My findings could indeed help current policy debates in several media and communication regulation areas. At UK level, they are relevant for the ongoing revision of prominence rules for Electronic Programme Guides, the revision of the Public service broadcasting regulatory framework, the new media bill that could be proposed by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sports by 2022. At European level, they are relevant for the Council of Europe's Guidance Note on content prioritisation, the ongoing Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Acts (specifically their provisions on visibility of trustworthy information, related obligations for online gatekeepers and platforms, and new regulatory frameworks to ensure media diversity and pluralism online), the national implementation of the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive. From an industry perspective, I expect that my findings would be relevant especially for public service media organisations and their distribution and innovation strategies. However, they could also be used by broader industry representatives to improve current platform-to-business relation and develop industry standards or code of practices on transparency, accountability, and diversity of content curation practices.
Sectors Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

 
Description Bearing in mind that I am currently in my third year and that my data collection was impacted by the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, I can only share some initial and partial impacts on policy - which are also referred to in the section on "influences on policy". The main impact is an indirect one. Thanks to my ESRC-funded PhD and the topic of my research (discoverability of content online), I was commissioned by the Council of Europe as co-rapporteur and external consultant on their study DGI(2020)19 on "Prioritisation uncovered. The Discoverability of Public Interest Content Online". This report was not funded by this ESRC grant, but the topic of the study is related to my PhD research and informed by my prior publication in this area (see Publications section). It could be therefore considered an indirect and yet significant contribution to public policies and media regulation. The findings of this report and my prior publications are also being used to produce a Council of Europe's Guidance Note. Since the publication of this study and my article (respectively in October and November 2020), I have also been contacted by industry representatives like the European Broadcasting Union, and research institute, like the IPPR-Institute for Public Policy Research to share my findings and research at their events and workshops (see Engagement Activities section). No economic impacts have been reported so far.
First Year Of Impact 2020
Sector Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)
Impact Types Policy & public services

 
Description Article on "Facebook: Balancing freedom of expression and users' protection" published on Privacy Laws & Business, International Report (Issue 163, February 2020, pp. 18-20)
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
URL https://www.privacylaws.com/reports-gateway/articles/int163/
 
Description Citation in the European Commission's tender on Media plurality and diversity online CNECT/2020/OP/0099
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
Impact My co-authored study on " Prioritisation Uncovered. The discoverability of public interest content online" has been quoted in the recently launched tender of the European Commission (European Commission, Call for tenders CNECT/2020/OP/0099, Study on media plurality and diversity online, 2021, p. 7). The main objective of this tender is to provide the Commission, member states and national regulators with elements to support the analysis of media plurality and diversity issues with a focus on two aspects, 1) Prominence and findability/discoverability of general interest content and services, 2) Measures concerning the concentration of economic resources to ensure media plurality online. My study as well as my ongoing research have informed the interest of the Commission for the first part of this tender, thus, it is expected that further improvements in the media regulatory environment might derive from these developments.
URL https://etendering.ted.europa.eu/cft/cft-display.html?cftId=7552
 
Description Joint position paper with Reporters Without Borders on "prominence of public interest news" for the EU Digital Services Act's Public Consultation
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12417-Digital-Services-Act...
 
Description Rapporteur of the Council of Europe and co-author of its DGI(2020)19 Study
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Thanks to my current PhD research and my expertise in the area of prominence, content curation and media policy, I acted as co-rapporteur for the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on Media Environment and Reform (MSI-REF) producing a study on "Prioritisation uncovered. The Discoverability of Public Interest Content Online". The study is heavily informed my ongoing ESRC-funded PhD project which looks at prominence and discoverability on digital platforms in the UK context. As rapporteur though, I was commissioned directly by the Council of Europe and my research for them investigated this policy area at European level and from a fundamental rights perspective. At a time of disinformation and manipulation concerns about public access to quality and trustworthy information online is becoming more urgent for public policymakers. My co-authored report therefore timely addresses these questions with the aim to challenge the role of new gatekeepers, while providing a clearer understanding of what prioritisation of public interest content means in an internet-distributed ecosystem. By researching current industry practices in this area and emerging issues, I have highlighted policy needs and potential avenues for interventions, providing key policy recommendations to advise both the Council of Europe and its Members States on the advantages and drawbacks of a regulatory intervention in this area. The findings of my work were published in the DGI(2020)19 Study of the Council of Europe, whose results and policy recommendations are now being transposed into a Guidance Note on Prioritisation and public interest content (this should be published later this year). Thus, through my research and policy engagement, I have directly impacted the ongoing policy process of the Council of Europe and I have actively contributed to this timely policy debate.
URL https://rm.coe.int/publication-content-prioritisation-report/1680a07a57
 
Description Response to Ofcom's public consultation on "The future of public service media"
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://www.smallscreenbigdebate.co.uk/consultation
 
Description BBC and UCL-IIPP project: Re-imagining public value with the BBC 
Organisation British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution As part of the BBC-UCL IIPP project, I contributed in my personal capacity and as external expert to different project tasks, including: • Literature review: the review covered academic publications, with both mainstream and alternative economics and policy journals; specialised policy analysis journals; selected international policy cases, including from the European Commission and the European Broadcasting Union • BBC Public Value Mapping Research: Using the literature review as a prompt, I have conducted semi-structured experts interviews with BBC representatives and key stakeholders to identify material and dive deeper into public value in the context of the BBC. The outcome of this research contributed to the initial public value map. • Group discussion during workshop on "Market Shaping vs. Market Fixing": In this workshop I carried a focus-group discussion to prototype a context specific policy appraisal framework for the BBC. • Final Report: I contributed to the draft, writing up and revision of the final report throughout the whole duration of the process, from the first draft to the final ones (both internal and public versions of the report).
Collaborator Contribution The main partners of this project were the BBC (contractor) and the UCL IIPP-Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. The BBC provided us with relevant internal publications, documents and reports which fed into the literature review and the overall revision of priori evaluation frameworks and appraisal system. Further, they provided us with the lists of interviewees, both internal and external, and examples of case studies, which were then used to test the prototype framework elaborated by the research team. Finally, as contractor, they reviewed our reports, provided feedback and ensured the overall quality of the results. The UCL IIPP was the coordinator of the whole project, thus, the research team leader managed the project deliverable, timeline and tasks' divisions, organised the workshop on "market shaping vs Market fixing", ensured a smooth collaboration between the BBC team and the research team, coordinated and contributed to the drafting of the report, edited and published the final report.
Impact I worked to this project as research fellow sub-contracted by the UCL-IIPP thanks to my expertise in the field of media and public service organisations, as well as to my PhD research, which also addresses questions of public interest and public values in today's online media systems. The collaboration was multi-disciplinary as it involved scholars working on innovation economics, management and media studies. As a result of the work with the BBC and UCL-IIPP, we have published a scoping report titled 'Creating and measuring dynamic public value at the BBC' which outlines an early stage prototype of an evaluation framework that can measure dynamic public value at three levels - at the direct layer (the essential baseline), at the dynamic layer which accounts for the spillover effects of activity and then at the market shaping layer that looks at how value is catalysed by the BBC and co-created with others. This prototype framework can be used by the BBC not only to improve their accountability systems and evaluation frameworks, but also to streamline their internal decision making process and innovation strategies. The report is publicly available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2020/dec/creating-and-measuring-dynamic-public-value-bbc
Start Year 2020
 
Description BBC and UCL-IIPP project: Re-imagining public value with the BBC 
Organisation University College London
Department Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution As part of the BBC-UCL IIPP project, I contributed in my personal capacity and as external expert to different project tasks, including: • Literature review: the review covered academic publications, with both mainstream and alternative economics and policy journals; specialised policy analysis journals; selected international policy cases, including from the European Commission and the European Broadcasting Union • BBC Public Value Mapping Research: Using the literature review as a prompt, I have conducted semi-structured experts interviews with BBC representatives and key stakeholders to identify material and dive deeper into public value in the context of the BBC. The outcome of this research contributed to the initial public value map. • Group discussion during workshop on "Market Shaping vs. Market Fixing": In this workshop I carried a focus-group discussion to prototype a context specific policy appraisal framework for the BBC. • Final Report: I contributed to the draft, writing up and revision of the final report throughout the whole duration of the process, from the first draft to the final ones (both internal and public versions of the report).
Collaborator Contribution The main partners of this project were the BBC (contractor) and the UCL IIPP-Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. The BBC provided us with relevant internal publications, documents and reports which fed into the literature review and the overall revision of priori evaluation frameworks and appraisal system. Further, they provided us with the lists of interviewees, both internal and external, and examples of case studies, which were then used to test the prototype framework elaborated by the research team. Finally, as contractor, they reviewed our reports, provided feedback and ensured the overall quality of the results. The UCL IIPP was the coordinator of the whole project, thus, the research team leader managed the project deliverable, timeline and tasks' divisions, organised the workshop on "market shaping vs Market fixing", ensured a smooth collaboration between the BBC team and the research team, coordinated and contributed to the drafting of the report, edited and published the final report.
Impact I worked to this project as research fellow sub-contracted by the UCL-IIPP thanks to my expertise in the field of media and public service organisations, as well as to my PhD research, which also addresses questions of public interest and public values in today's online media systems. The collaboration was multi-disciplinary as it involved scholars working on innovation economics, management and media studies. As a result of the work with the BBC and UCL-IIPP, we have published a scoping report titled 'Creating and measuring dynamic public value at the BBC' which outlines an early stage prototype of an evaluation framework that can measure dynamic public value at three levels - at the direct layer (the essential baseline), at the dynamic layer which accounts for the spillover effects of activity and then at the market shaping layer that looks at how value is catalysed by the BBC and co-created with others. This prototype framework can be used by the BBC not only to improve their accountability systems and evaluation frameworks, but also to streamline their internal decision making process and innovation strategies. The report is publicly available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2020/dec/creating-and-measuring-dynamic-public-value-bbc
Start Year 2020
 
Description Blog post on Inforrm's Blog on "Discovering content online: how is control over the users' journey shifting" 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact My blog post on Media@LSE and my talk at the IPPR's event were re-posted and quoted on Inforrm's website, the International Forum for Responsible Media Blog, in december 2020, attracting an even wider audience and increasing the reach of my initial blog.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://inforrm.org/2020/12/09/discovering-content-online-how-is-control-over-the-users-journey-shif...
 
Description Interview at RAI Telegiornale Regione Marche 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Prompted by my public lecture at the Università dei Saperi of Fano (see previous entry), I was interviewed by a broadcast journalist of RAI Marche, which is the regional public service broadcasting station of Marche, Italy. My interview recording featured as special news service related to the public lecture event and it was shown on television, during the RAI Telegiornale Regione Marche, on 11th November, at 14.00 (minutes 8.00 of the news service). The interview therefore sparked request for further information and it prompted a debate around the impacts that digital platforms have on the local and regional audiovisual media services.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.rainews.it/tgr/marche/notiziari/index.html?/tgr/video/2019/11/ContentItem-1adb46bc-504c-...
 
Description Media@LSE Blog post on "Discovering content online: how is control over the users' journey shifting" 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I have written a blog post for the Media@LSE blog on "Discovering content online: how is control over the users' journey shifting?", which was published after the IPPR's event, in November 2020. The blog was aimed at a wider public, and it therefore provided a short summary of the Council of Europe's study and my ongoing research in the area (see Influence on Policy and Impact Narrative sections)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/2020/12/07/discovering-content-online-how-is-control-over-the-users...
 
Description Panel on content discoverability at the Oxford Media Convention of IPPR-the Progressive Policy Think Tank 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Through a partnership between the LSE Media Policy Project and the IPPR-The Progressive Policy Think Tank, I have presented in a panel on "The politics of discoverability: Shifting control over the users' journey to content" in the context of the Oxford Media Convention 2020. The panel itself was intended to be the official launch of the study carried for the Council of Europe (see the policy influence section), which gave me the opportunity to present the findings of the report and insights from my PhD research, while engaging in a broader debate with both policy makers and industry professionals. Indeed, during the panel debate I directly engaged with representatives from Ofcom, ITV and YouTube, and participants to the event were coming from a wide range of industry associations, UK and European media organisations, news publishers, civil society organisations, policy makers, regulators, researchers and academics, for a total of 180 people. The recording is also publicly available on the IPPR facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=422870812456822)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.ippr.org/event/ippr-oxford-media-convention-goes-virtual
 
Description Podcast Interview for EPRA-European Platform of Regulatory Authorities 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact I participated as expert to the first podcast of the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities (EPRA), focused on "Media plurality in the age of algorithms". This podcast replaced the plenary panel discussion for the 51st EPRA meeting in Antwerp. As contributor, I recorded my remarks addressing relevant research on technological and cultural changes emerging in this age of algorithms that are relevant to media plurality, discussing the impacts that new value chains have on media distribution, and proposing what sort of policy interventions may be warranted. My intervention was also informed by my PhD research on prominence and discoverability online. The podcast therefore featured in the EPRA's background document (https://cdn.epra.org/attachments/files/3755/original/EPRA_plenary_2_background_paper_vclean_011220.pdf?1606819204) and it was used as base for the discussion for the european regulators during their 51st plenary meeting. The podcast sparked questions and discussion afterwards with some of the regulators, such as Ofcom, and with representatives of the EPRA board. It also led to two collaborations with the other experts on the panel, respectively a joint policy submission with JTI and a joint event with the European Digital Media Observatory.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://shows.acast.com/epra/episodes/media-plurality-in-the-age-of-algorithms
 
Description Presentation to the European Broadcasting Union's Policy Affairs Team 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact After I have published my article on "Online content governance: Towards a framework for analysis for prominence and discoverability", and the co-authored Council of Europe's Study on "Prioritisation uncovered. The Discoverability of Public Interest Content Online" (see publications and collaboration sections), I was contacted by the European Broadcasting Union, the EU-wide alliance of public service media broadcasters, to share my findings and expertise with their policy team as they were addressing similar issues and questions in the context of the implementation of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and the public consultation on the EU Digital Services Act. My presentation therefore provided insights and input for their policy works in such areas. The presentation took place with the EBU internal core team of experts and with the policy and european affairs representative from their bigger members (including ZDF, ARD, RAI, BBC, France TV, RTE, NPO, RTBF, VRT), for a total of 40 participants. It sparked questions and interest, which then led to a longer workshop in January 2021, where I was invited as keynote.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Prominence online and trustworthiness indicators: Roundtable discussion jointly organised by LSE and EDMO-European Digital Media Observatory 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact This workshop was jointly organised by me and the EDMO-European Digital Media Observatory's team (https://edmo.eu/). The purpose was to foster a constructive exchange of ideas with a selected number of experts from industry, academia and policy on how prominence and discoverability can be operationalised in practices through criteria, principles, codes of practice, or industry standards aimed at prioritising trustworthy, quality and accurate news content providers online. The discussion took place in January 2021 in the form of a virtual roundtable. Outcomes of the roundtable were then shared with the European Commission as part of EDMO's deliverables. The debate also sparked questions and interest from the participants, and we therefore decided to organise two additional events in the course of 2021, a broader workshop extended to representatives of national regulators and platform organisations (thus for an international audience); and a public event focused on Italy, in collaboration with the Italian media and communication regulator AGCOM and RAI, which expressed interest in having a dedicated workshop to raise these discussions in the Italian context.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Public lecture on "La società digitale opportunità e rischi per i servizi di radiotelevisione pubblici", Fano, Università dei Saperi 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I gave a public lecture at the "Giulio Grimaldi Università Dei Saperi", which is an association of the Marche Region project dedicated to engage seniors (intended as people over 65 years old) with relevant cultural, political and social debates. It is a voluntary association therefore that operates as a knowledge exchange platform for the local municipality and region and it acts with cultural and social purposes. The intedend purpose of my lecture was to share my knowledge and expertise in the area of digital platforms with a wider public of non-experts, in order to raise awareness about both opportunities and risks of online intermediary services, and to engage in a public debate on these issues with local citizens. The lecture sparked a very interesting discussion, it was picked up by five local newspapers (Flaminia e dintorni; Prima Rete, Il cittadino di Recanati, Vivere Fano, Pesaro Notizie) as well as by the regional public service broadcaster, Rai TG March, which interviewed me after the talk.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL http://www.unisaperi.it/articoli-notizie/8-notizie/200-eleonora-mazzoli
 
Description Workshop with the European Broadcasting Union's Legal and Policy Assembly 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Following my talk in November 2020, the EBU Members asked for a longer and special workshop dedicated to "prominence and discoverability", where I spoke as keynote together with the co-author of the Council of Europe's report, Dr. Damian Tambini. In this occasion, I shared a more in-depth overview of the initial findings of my PhD research, while Dr. Tambini covered the presentation of the Council of Europe's report. The workshop was part of a dedicated EBU's Legal and Policy Workshops series (The working from home series), and it engaged with a wider audience. There were over 60 participants, about 15 EBU staff from different departments (including the Director of Legal and Policy Affairs, and the Director General of the EBU), as well as representatives from the media department, strategy, and technology and innovation teams. The great majority of registered participants was then from the EBU membership, with a good spread in terms of geography (Europe-wide) as well as types of organisations (both small and big public service media organisations). The discussion was lively and EBU Members were interested in receiving updates about future findings and publications of my research. I have also circulate on this occasion a survey, that fed into my data collection process. Individual EBU members also contacted me after to have bilateral meetings about the topic.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021