The Media Innovation Studio is delighted to announce its involvement in an international research alliance, which was launched at the 66th World Newspaper Congress in Turin, Italy.Chaired by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), and formed under the banner of its Media Innovation Hub, the International Alliance for Media Research and Innovation seeks to strengthen research and industry collaboration within the media through global collaboration.
This week, WAN-IFRA published the “News and Newspaper Industry: Towards a New Leadership in Innovation” document, the association says the document “calls for cooperation and partnerships to ensure that innovations that can benefit news media around the world are identified, developed, analysed, shared and publicized”.
Speaking at the launch of the Hub earlier this month, Vincent Peyrègne – CEO of WAN-IFRA – said: “We see the future of news media being invented right now, all around the globe, by hundreds of different companies, universities, and entrepreneurs,” the document says.
“However, their separate efforts, research, prototypes, and roll-outs receive inconsistent attention and analysis. Many good ideas fail only because of a lack of development support. Others get hyped beyond their real value. Vital lessons and examples are not being widely enough or rapidly enough disseminated.”
The Alliance will work across four ‘missions’, which include to share a strategic vision of research and development programmes, to connect partners to and share information of these programmes, to facilitate cooperation, and to train media professionals.
The Media Innovation Studio, based in UCLan’s School of Journalism and Media, has been invited to sit on the steering group of the WAN-IFRA Media Innovation Hub, and joins a wide range of global partners.
Paul Egglestone, director of the Media Innovation Studio, said: “There’s plenty of great research and innovation around media happening in Universities and private research labs throughout Europe and beyond that never gets connected to the media industry. This new initiative is a major step towards changing this as we build a single destination for some of the most exciting, interesting and groundbreaking work produced in our labs.
“Staff at The Media Innovation Studio has been at the cutting edge of design, development and testing of a wide range of media products for over a decade. From mobile to interactive newsprint, Drone journalism applications and sensor journalism we have plenty of experience and expertise we’d like to share with colleagues from across WAN-IFRA.
“This is the right vehicle for us to do that and we’re all very excited about collaborating with colleagues from across the globe to develop new products and services for the industry.”
These partners include EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland; iMinds – Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium; PUCRS – Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande Sul, Brazil; NextMedia, an initiative of Finnmedia, Finland; Aalto University School of Business, Finland (tbc); Médias Suisses, the publishers’ association of the French-speaking part of Switzerland; AFP – Agence France-Presse, France; and Grupo RBS, Brazil.
WAN-IFRA’s Peyrègne, continued: “[The Alliance] is a work in progress, and we welcome comments and participation. The project has already received a lot of attention and strong support.
“We felt at WAN-IFRA that there was a lack of a global community anchor and we felt the need to fulfill this role. Everything is about partnership.”
To look at the Alliance’s vision document, click here.
WAN-IFRA represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.
