1. COST Information Day Brussels, 9 March 2015 Dr Geoffroy Patriarche
Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles

3. Added value of COST Reviewing the field Revitalising audience research
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

4. Added value of COST 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…

5. 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
Mutual awareness of respective interests and societal roles
Better knowledge of barriers and tensions involved in building bridges between stakeholders
Shared visions of possible and desirable collaborations
Increased salience of the issue in the audience research agenda
Image courtesy of winnond / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

6. 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:
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

7. 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)

8. 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.
‘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.’
‘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.’
‘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.’