On 17 January 2018, the Media Policy Lab presented itself to the public for the first time. At a kick-off event at ALEX Berlin, guests from science, business and politics were able to get to know the lab and exchange views on network policy issues. Dr. Cornelius Puschmann and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz from the Hans-Bredow-Institut were involved in the kick-off event.
The project, which was iniiated by
Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (mabb), focuses on questions of media diversity in the age of digital media. The aim of the laboratory is to promote networks between experts, mediate between stakeholders, promote new knowledge and thus enrich the public debate on how to deal with information intermediaries in the future.
After a welcoming speech by Prof. Dr. Hansjürgen Rosenbauer, (Chairman of the mabb Media Council), Dr. Anja Zimmer, Director of mabb, presented the focal points of the Media Policy Lab. Following this, Prof. Dr. Natali Helberger, Professor of Information Law at the University of Amsterdam, gave a keynote lecture on the subsequent panel "Smart Regulation. Digitale Medienvielfalt durch Vernetzung: Wege der Kooperation zwischen Wissenschaft und Regulierung [Smart Regulation. Digital Media Diversity through Networking: Ways of Cooperation between Science and Regulation]".
Invited Discussants
• Björn Böhning, Head of the Senate Chancellery of the Federal State of Berlin and Permanent Secretary for the Media
• Lorena Jaume-Palasí, Managing Director and co-founder of the Initiative AlgorithmWatch
• Prof. Dr. Natali Helberger
• Dr. Anja Zimmer
• Dr. Cornelius Puschmann, Senior Researcher at the Hans-Bredow-Institut for Media Research as Chair
Afterwards, Prof. Dr. Sophie Mützel, professor of sociology at the University of
Lucerne, addressed the question of how algorithms influence the change of the media
landscape in her open lecture.
In a closing discussion, Lorena Jaume-Palasí, Managing Director and co-founder of the initiative ‘AlgorithmWatch’, together with Prof. Mützel and
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz, Director of the Hans-Bredow-Institut for Media Research, talked about the challenges posed by algorithmic decision-making systems for the regulation in the field of media diversity.
