Sustainable democracies need a sustainable media sector, says Jourová [Advocacy Lab Content]

Our democracies need a sustainable media sector, Věra Jourová, European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency, told participants of the recent Stars4Media conference in Brussels.

Stars4Media is an innovation exchange programme co-funded by the European Commission aiming to facilitate cooperation between media professionals. It gathered around 80 participants including media representatives, academics, and policymakers at the Résidence Palace to debate the future of Europe’s media in the age of AI and preparation for the EU’s next enlargement.

While speakers during the March 15^th event expressed some optimism for the sector’s future, several practitioners noted that they needed to shed their dependency on large US social media platforms and rethink business models as vying for funds for EU projects was often not the most sustainable practice.

AI affecting media sustainability

Speaking via a video message, Jourová said: “The sustainability of the media sector is about the sustainability of our democracies.” She also shared concerns expressed by others in the room about artificial intelligence saying it was one of the forces affecting the sustainability of the media sector.

“There are many challenges including disinformation generated by AI and deep fakes. This is why we are asking the EU to anticipate the rules agreed on AI: the AI act requires transparency, the content produced by AI should be clearly labelled,” she said.

While there are AI tools on the market that could automatically record, transcribe, and type up interviews to potentially create well-intentioned news articles, people like the President of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) Maria João Rodrigues, who was invited to deliver a keynote speech at the event, still have faith that quality journalism has an important role to play in Europe’s future.

“Within seconds, ChatGPT can answer most of your questions. But human intelligence can’t be replaced in some other tasks. Such as choosing what we want to know. This is a human decision. And then framing what you want to know,” Rodrigues told Euractiv in an interview on the sidelines of the Stars4Media Day.

“This is why quality journalism will remain a crucial activity for human societies. I like to count on reliable quality professionals to help me to choose what I should know,” she added.

A European platform with automated translations

DG Justice Principal Adviser on the Digital Transition Paul Nemitz suggested European media houses could leverage AI to create a European public space that allows for cross-border debates unhindered by national languages.

He said he could imagine a platform that showcases all the different news productions by licensed TV stations to all European citizens paid with automated translations.

“Wouldn’t it be great to allow Hungarians to have a view of their own country in Hungarian through the eyes of news produced in all member states?” he asked.

Nemitz emphasised the importance of funding in the media sector and how industrial policy could empower and direct the capitalistic market towards the public interest. However, public finances still have a role to play he believes.

“If a member state offers public financing for the media but there isn’t good governance, it means that the media has to dance according to the tune of the government,” Nemitz said. He added the EU has to be even more explicit with its public financing rules to ensure it supports democracy and the rule of law.

Targeted ads by tech giants a threat

During the debate, a participant raised the issue of European Commission funding aimed at helping the media but that concerns projects that are not inherently journalistic in their nature such as investigating public opinion as a sociologist would, or investigating fake news in a scientific manner, “which does not lead to articles.”

Nemitz said the money the EC can use to support the media “is peanuts compared to the advertising market.” He mentioned that there is an ongoing debate on whether the EU should ban “the all-encompassing personal profiles produced by Facebook and Google” with thousands of data points on people.

“Those who have these profiles are better placed to sell targeted ads. These huge profiles are a huge danger to democracy. If you ask me, it’s not reconcilable with democracy which depends on the principle of being free from surveillance,” Nemitz said.

Other panel discussions throughout the day focused on the challenges and opportunities of AI and innovation in the media sector as well as the weaponisation of information in armed conflicts, with a special focus on Russian disinformation tactics.

Christophe Leclercq, Founder and Chairperson of Europe MédiaLab, took to the stage at the end of the event to summarise the various discussions. He highlighted some ideas inspired by them including integrating microtagging for content, creating trust indicators, and creating a platform to help promote media content and boost advertising revenue.

Leclercq also emphasised the need to support media outlets and correspondents covering Eastern Europe.

Attendees also had the opportunity to hear from European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, and Youth, Iliana Ivanova, who hailed collaborations like Stars4Media as crucial to building modern business models for journalism.

“Our goal is to foster an ecosystem where independent news media thrive and deliver quality information ensuring they remain the cornerstone of democracy,” she said in a video message.

[By Christoph Schwaiger I Edited by Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]

This article is part of our special report Is the European media sector ready for AI?

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