Critical Exploration of Media Related Risks and Opportunities for Deliberative Communication: Development Scenarios of the European Media Landscape (MEDIADELCOM)

MEDIADELCOM endeavours to contribute to the enhancement of European integration, social cohesion and consequently – Europeanization. The popularity of ultra-right and populist political forces in European societies demonstrate that the unity of European nations and their common goals are not self-evident. Informed decision making in contemporary democratic societies is being challenged. MEDIADELCOM consortium argues that European political and cultural spaces evolve best if specific policies enhance the conditions for deliberative communication. The Consortium will work out a methodology enabling the assessment and forecast of the risks and opportunities for deliberative communication emerging in the process of media transformation in 2000-2020. There is no holistic approach to media related Risks and Opportunities (ROs); media studies and data are dispersed, restricting the evaluation of ROs for deliberative communication in European countries; there are no evidence-based holistic scenarios for prognosing media development in European societies. The overall objective of MEDIADELCOM is to develop a diagnostic tool for policy makers, educators, media critical bodies and institutions, as well as for media experts and journalists, which enables the provision of holistic assessment of risks and opportunities concerning deliberative communication and consequently social cohesion in Europe. We will: 1) develop a model for holistic analysis of the ROs emerging within the process of media transformation in Europe; 2) assess the sufficiency of existing research and data necessary for making knowledge based forecasts about European media landscape development trends; 3) generate a novel method, based on motivational modelling and agent-based simulation for outlining scenarios to predict media related ROs. By assembling and synthesizing existing dispersed research, and modelling multiple scenarios will create an instrument for media risk prediction and management.