Media innovations: growing in number, speed & bottom-up!
Tuesday 25 May 2021, 10.00 – 12.30 CEST
What will the future European Media Sector look like? What is the impact of user behaviour, especially of younger users? Are media companies taking action on these new habits, and how?
This is the focus of the #Stars4Media Lab, taking place online on the 25th of May.
Media executives, academics and researchers will explore the Future of Innovation In Europe’s Media Sector in two panels:
- The first session will showcase successful examples from radio, podcast, broadcasting and news, focusing on innovation benefitting the businesses.
- The second panel will dive into change management, and the skills needed for companies to adapt faster.
The Conference will introduce a four-day long Online Pitching Session where applicants to the Stars4Media Call for Initiatives get the opportunity to present their ideas to the juries. The first round of the call resulted in applications well beyond the expected target: 82 received proposals by 330 professionals from around 150 media organisations/companies and start-ups.
This year’s second Call for Initiatives is currently open: interested parties are encouraged to attend the #Stars4Media Lab for inspiration, and then submit their proposals before 1st July, 2021.
Stars4Media is co-financed by the underlying pilot project ‘rising stars’, voted twice by the European Parliament. A NEWS bundle of projects was introduced last December’s by the European Commission through the Media Action Plan, to be rolled out notably under the Creative Europe programme. This record number of applications for #Stars4Media bodes well for considering a continuation of the underlying initiative, for example as the NEWS is implemented.
About Stars4Media
Stars4Media is the first European innovation exchange programme aiming at facilitating cross-border cooperation between media professionals, to accelerate media innovation. Media professionals, media organisations and tech companies from EU countries have the chance to cooperate around bottom-up initiatives to test ideas and technologies, develop new business models and produce journalistic content.
As a pilot project voted twice by the European Parliament, the first edition of Stars4Media took place in 2020 and adapted well to the COVID-19 crisis.
This second edition of Stars4Media was launched by the European Commission Vice-President Vĕra Jourová at the Media4Europe Summit. The event, divided in two sessions, allowed for the testimonials of the award-winning initiatives, followed by the High-Level Policy Debate about a healthy European News Media Sector. The panel included key MEPs and media stakeholders supporting a NEWS action in the context of the Media Action Plan. The Stars4Media Lab in May now moves media innovation into practice.
The second edition runs in 2021, with two deadlines for applications: on 1st of May (closed) and on 1st of July (open).
Partners of the project are Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Europe’s Media Lab (Fondation EURACTIV), the project coordinator and initiator respectively, together with the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
The project is co-funded by the European Commission.
Learn more at www.stars4media.eu, join our LinkedIn community & stay tuned on Twitter!
Media contacts:
Christophe Leclercq, Chairman, Europe’s MediaLab (Fondation EURACTIV) fondateur@euractiv.com
Antonia Loncar, Senior Communications and Project Manager, Europe’s MediaLab (Fondation EURACTIV), communicationmedialab@euractiv.com
Event organisers:
Luciano Morganti, Stars4Media Project Coordinator, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Luciano.Morganti@vub.be
Cătălina Dumbrăveanu, Stars4Media Project Manager, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Catalina.Dumbraveanu@vub.be
Giordano Zambelli, Evaluation and jury coordination, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Giordano.Zambelli@vub.be
