The UCLouvain Observatory for Research on Media and Journalism (ORM) mission is to contribute to the scientific analysis of journalism and the role of the news media in French-speaking Belgium and in contemporary societies. Our work focuses on three challenges that are profoundly transforming media ecosystems today:
The Evolution of Journalism in Times of Mistrust, Uncertainty and Datacentrism
This part of our research focuses on public interest information producers. Some examples of recent research carried out by our members:
- The study of the socio-economics of the news media;
- The sociological analysis of the professional group of journalists and its evolution (careers, status, professional practices and routines, etc.);
- The comparative study of the role of journalists in democracy and the political evolution of journalistic cultures;
- The study of attacks/threats against the journalistic institution and its representatives;
- The analysis of journalistic ethics, media law and regulatory institutions of journalistic activity.
The Transformation of News Production and Circulation in the Digital Age
We focus mainly on the study of the production and circulation of information content in public spaces. Some examples of recent research carried out by our members:
- The analysis of the production, circulation and reception of information and media narratives;
- The analysis of controversies and the career of social problems in public spaces and digital public spaces;
- The analysis of the mechanisms of automation of the collection, production and dissemination of information (thanks in particular to Artificial Intelligence) and the study of the evolution of journalistic roles and practices that this entails;
- The diffusion and impact of misinformation and disinformation and the analysis of informational and infodemic vulnerability.
- The automated analysis (text mining, image, sentimental analysis, stereotypes identification) of large corpora of french-speaking media content.
The Reconfiguration of Media/Audience Relationship (Privacy, Confidence, Engagement, Participation)
An important part of our research is focused on media audiences. Some recent examples of research conducted by our members:
- The analysis of trust indicators in the news media and the media professionals;
- The analysis of new relationship modalities between media and audiences (audience turn): news engagement, individualisation and personalisation of data flows, participation/transparency dynamics, use of blockchain technology as a tool for audience engagement;
- R&D projects aiming at developing new information formats based on the evolution of audiences and their relationship to information: gamification, multimodality, immersive AR-VR-XR technologies;
- Analysis of information automation (AI) mechanisms.
ORM’s work and interventions correspond to three logics.
Fundamental research
ORM’s primary mission. The research carried out contributes mainly to the fields of journalism studies, journalistic ethics, media sociology, media studies, STS, and engineering.
Applied research and R&D
ORM members regularly carry out applied research or R&D missions in partnership with actors of the Belgian media sector as well as private sector companies. They also participate in the activities of the UCLouvain technology platform: the Media Innovation & Intelligibility Lab (MiiL).
Service to society
ORM members carry out analyses of media/journalistic phenomena for a wider public as well as various missions of service to society and continuing education.
ORM members carry out analyses of media/journalistic phenomena for a wider public as well as various missions of service to society and continuing education.
They conduct research on the evolution of a sector undergoing profound technological, economical and editorial transformations.
In this changing context, ORM is developing a particular expertise at the crossroads of different disciplines: journalism studies, media and digital sociology, sociology of social problems and engineering (automatic processing of language and visual content).
Academic Partners
ORM researchers are members of the Institut Langage et Communication de l’UCLouvain, and, within this institute, of the Pôle de recherches en communication (PCOM/RECOM). ORM also works closely with the Media Innovation & Intelligibility Lab (MiiL), the innovation platform for digital production and appropriation at UCLouvain.
ORM is a member of the International Alliance for Research on Journalism Practice and Education (ARPPEJ), an international network of partners involved in both research and education in journalism. ORM and EjL (UCLouvain School of journalism) regularly collaborate with the Centre de Recherche sur les Médiations (Crem- Université de Lorraine) and the Académie du journalisme et des médias (Université de Neuchâtel).
ORM is also a partner of the Observatory of Socio-Digital Practices (OPSN), a collaborative and sharing platform that contributes to the visibility and structuring of digital research, particularly in the context of “real-time research” activities. It is supported by LERASS, involved in three supervisory authorities (Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse Jean-Jaurès University, Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 University). The activities of the OPSN are organized around 4 axes: organization of research residencies, production of research reports in real time, expert mission for private or public partners, organization of an international network of doctoral students.
Ongoing Research Projects
| Name of the project | Description |
|---|---|
| ODALON – Open multimodal Data for Automated LOcal News 2024-2027 Funded by Région wallonne / DG06 | Open multimodal Data for Automated LOcal News. |
| ARKEY 2023-2033 Funded by BELSPO | The main objective of the ARKEY project is to optimise the digital enhancement of archive collections using sustainable IT tools. It proposes (1) the research and development of enriched means of access to digitised content, and (2) the improvement of the browsing experience within archive collections. It draws on the expertise of a multidisciplinary team at AGR and several research groups at UCLouvain (MiiL, Cental, UCLouvain Archives Service, GEMCA). ARKEY aims to provide added value for society and the public service by improving the accessibility and intelligibility of archives: a priority for many researchers, and a cornerstone of democratic states. |
| DCouvr 2023-2026 Funded by FWD/EU | The DCouvr project is a 3-year research and innovation project (from January 2023 to January 2026), with the aim of developing digital tools to improve the discoverability of content from cultural and media operators in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB). |
| Analyse de la diversité dans les rédaction belge francophone 2023-2024 Funded by Association des journalistes professionnels/FWB | Quantitative analysis of the diversity of profiles among press card holders in French-speaking Belgium. |
| Pandorix: Investigating the Future of Health and Risk Communication in Brussels 2021-2024 Funded by Innoviris – Prospective for Brussels call | PANDORIX is a prospective research project financed by Innoviris for 3 years. It aims to draw conclusions from the current health crisis in order to better prepare Brussels and its population for the future. ORM’s mission in this project is to analyse the way in which information circulates during a crisis in a multicultural city. Pandorix is being conducted by 3 teams from UCLouvain. It combines expertise in public health with health psychology (IPSY/RGPPHA), disaster epidemiology (IRSS/CRED) and sociology of media and communication (ILC/ORM). Main researcher for ORM: Pierre-Olivier Robert, Supervisor: Grégoire Lits Web: www.pandorix.be |
| Russia Expertise in the Media Cold War 2020-2024 Funded by FSR and FNRS | This project is conducted by Dr. Zoltan Dujisin with a FSR Incoming postdoctoral Grant and a CR FNRS Grant. It examines the public construction of disinformation and its consequences for the changing profession of journalism. Using the rich case-study provided by European media coverage of Russia’s activities in the information sphere. Zoltan will examine the production of journalistic identities through their embedding in networks of Russian disinformation expertise. Main researcher: Dr. Zoltan Dujisin, supervisor: Grégoire Lits |
| Automemo – Automated Media Monitoring 2021-… | The AUTOMEMO project aims to collect and automatically archive, on UCLouvain’s servers, the content and metadata of written press articles published in digital version by the French-speaking Belgian news media, for scientific research purposes. Among the research paths fed by this project, we can cite: – analysis of the evolution of the storytelling of different public problems over time, – comparative analysis of the treatment of the same issue by different media, – analysis of the evolution of different categories of information (politics, society, culture, sport, health, etc.), – analysis of the storytelling of diversity issues (dealing with violence against women, place of diversity, etc.) Supervisors: Antonin Descampe and Grégoire Lits |
| World of Journalism Study 2018-2024 | The ORM is the French speaking Belgian PI of the projet. The study’s main objective is to help journalism researchers, media practitioners and policy makers better understand the worldviews and changes that are taking place in the professional views of journalists, the conditions and limitations under which journalists operate, and the social functions of journalism in a changing world. Supervisor: Olivier Standaert |
| Smart and Social Home Care 2021-2023 Funded by Innoviris – Team up call | Funded for a period of two years by Innoviris. S&SHC is an R&D project that aims to develop technological tools (combining the development of the Internet of things, secure data sharing technologies and social networks) that allow an elderly person, while remaining at home as long as possible, to remain in contact with his or her care network (family, health personnel, close caregivers). ORM’s contribution concerns the integration of SHS in R&D processes as well as in the field of critical data studies. Supervisor: Grégoire Lits, Researcher: Dr. Amélie Anciaux |
| Monitoring the Covid-19 Infodemic in Belgium 2020-2022 | Since the beginning of the epidemic, ORM has been monitoring the information practices of French-speaking Belgians by means of sample surveys and qualitative interviews conducted on several occasions with diversified samples. Supervisor: Grégoire Lits, with the collaboration of Amélie Cougnon (MiiL) |
| B-Magic. La lanterne magique et son impact culturel comme outil de communication de masse en Belgique (1830-1940) 2018-2022 Funded by the EOS programme | This project, financed by the EOS programme and bringing together researchers from the University of Antwerp, the ULB, and the ORM (UCLouvain), aims to make available the history of the magic lantern as a medium of mass communication in Belgium. The aim is to highlight the different functions of lantern shows within the Belgian public sphere. Supervisor: Philippe Marion, Researcher: Dr. Céline Ruivo |
| DIRE Project (2022-2027) Funded by the PDR programme | The DIRE (Droit, Information, Recherches croisées) project focuses on the violence in Eastern Congo (Bukavu) and brings together law and journalism scholars from three universities: UCLouvain, ULB and University of Bukavu. Supervisor: Benoît Grevisse |
Ongoing PhDs
| Title | Name of the candidate |
|---|---|
| OpiNews: Automatic Analysis of Opinion in French-Language Press Articles as a Tool to Combat the Polarisation of Online Information | Louis Escouflaire – FNRS-FRESH Grant 2021-2025 |
| Understanding the Risk and Uncertainty Surrounding Journalist’s Working Conditions | Clémence Petit – FSR Grant 2021-2025 |
| Roles and value of photography in changing newsrooms. Study of editorial strategies and selection processes in five French-speaking daily newspapers | Pauline Zecchinon – Research and Teaching Assistant at the School of Communication / Freelance journalist. |
| Connections between Journalistic Self-Regulation, Ethical Values and Professional Identities of Journalists: Parallel Developments in an International Perspective. | Lavinia Rotili – Research and Teaching Assistant at the School of Communication / Freelance journalist |
| Analysing the Editorial and Economic Strategies for the Production of Audiovisual Journalistic Content for Social Networks. | Margaux Guyot – Research and Teaching Assistant at the School of Communication / Freelance journalist |
| Journalistic treatment of human rights violations in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Systemic analysis of interactions between the press, justice and civil society. | Emmanuel Akuzwe Bigosi – ARES Grant / Research / PRD |
| How the media perceive their audience : Origins, performativity and strategic influences of “imagined audiences” at RTBF and RTL Belgium | Basile Godtbil – Research and Teaching Assistant at the School of Communication / Freelance journalist |