COST Information DayCOST Information DayBrussels, 9 March 2015

Dr Geoffroy Patriarche

Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles

http://www.cost-transforming-audiences.eu

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Added value of COST• Reviewing the field

– 59 national essays assembled in an Action-wide report

• Revitalising audience research– Updating and extending the research agenda

– Theoretical and methodological innovation

The Action has fostered cross-disciplinary innovations but it has also consolidated the field by integrating further these innovations into an already rich research tradition

• Scoping audience/society transformations– Multi-dimensional analysis of audience/society

transformations

– New empirical (comparative) research projects on (new) media audiences (6)

The Action has advanced the knowledge of audience transformations in relation to social, cultural, technological, ideological, economic and historical contexts

• Networking researchers and building capacity

– Significance of the Action as such: 31 parties, 2 non-COST

country institutions, 320 individual participants, on average 90

participants per Action meeting

– Connection between established research centres and

emerging ones (e.g. in Central and Eastern European

countries)

– Strong emphasis on young scholars (e.g. doctoral workshops,

STSMs, a new consortium on emerging scholars)

The network of audience researchers is more solid, more

integrated and more capable of organising itself (at both

European and national levels)

• Disseminating research across target groups

– 4 edited books, 23 special issues/sections in peer-reviewed

journals, 17 panels in external conferences, 5 collections of

essays/interviews, 2 multimedia/video dissemination projects…

Added value of COST

Added value of COST• Liaising with non-academic stakeholders: From ‘Developing

recommendations’ to ‘Building bridges’

• Policy makers

(EC, Council of Europe)

• Regulatory bodies

(e.g. EPRA, Ofcom, CSA)

• Consumer associations

(e.g. EAVI, TAC)

• Industry and professional

associations (e.g. MTV,

European Broadcasting Union)

• Civil society organisations

(e.g. Unicef, AMARC)

• The general public

Image courtesy of winnond / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Mutual awareness of respective

interests and societal roles

Better knowledge of barriers and tensions involved in building bridges between stakeholders

Increased salience of the issue in

the audience research agenda

Shared visions of possible and

desirable collaborations

Experience and best practice• Initiative launched by existing research network – and then enlargement

• Multi-level management structure (Steering Group, Working Groups, Task

Forces, Liaisons Officers…). See COST News, May 2012:

http://www.cost.eu/library/newsroom/Media_and_Society

• The division between WGs and TFs softened by cross-WG/TF initiatives

• Early launch of publications and structural link with Task Forces and

meetings

• Additional space needed for developing

co-authored papers and joint projects

• Use of a range of publication channels

and genres to increase participation

and reach out to diverse groups

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX7YpDgriE8

Experience and best practice• Difficult to involve non-academic stakeholders and technical fields

(dialogue model)

• F2F meetings are momentum: ‘You don’t really understand what a

COST Action is until you participate in a meeting.’

• Yet communication should not be under-estimated (website, newsletter and

more)

• COST rules translated into specific and ‘user-friendly’ procedures and

guidelines (for publication projects, event registrations, calls for STSM…)

• Administrative manager needs to be reliable and in ease with an academic

and multicultural context; close collaboration with Action Chair (same

institution is easier)

‘After the COST TATS, European research on audiences is more conscious about itself, its opportunities and challenges.’

‘The most valuable outcome to me personally as well as professionally has been the chance to meet scholars from a broader European field. It has been most valuable to be in contexts that have had an equal spread among countries (…). In the COST Action, there have been no dominating countries represented, which I find to have been the most important contribution for me.’

‘The Action put me in front of challenges and learning experiences that I will always remember. I am 33 years old and the COST TATS is the best and deeper experience around research that I have had ever.’

‘I had honestly thought audience research might be ‘dead’ when we began the Action. Now I am confident it represents a distinctive European approach, a significant field of activity, and a lively body of researchers, many of them young and dynamic.’

Background in 2010: •Transformations of the media and communication environment: user-generated content, social media, cross-media practices, etc. •European audience research: maturing but fragmented, in some places emerging, and loosely connected to the non-academic world.