IQ Media at the ICA 2024 post-conference event “News Industries: Funding Innovations and Futures”

IQ Media participated in the ICA 2024 post-conference event titled “News Industries: Funding Innovations and Futures,” held on 25 June 2024. The event, hosted at the Kurrawa Surf Club on the Gold Coast, brought together 60 academics and industry representatives from around the world. The conference facilitated open discussions, presentations, keynote speeches, and panels focused on the evolving funding models in today’s news environment.

Participants presented a wide range of research, with topics ranging from bargaining codes to innovative business models, providing insights from countries such as South Korea, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Singapore and Australia.

The IQ Media team presented the findings of a quantitative survey, conducted with 148 professionals from 86 media organizations,  investigating the ongoing digital transformation landscape in four European countries: Greece, France, Portugal, and Cyprus. This research focused on digital literacy, AI, monetization strategies, and organizational adaptation in the media sector highlighting both opportunities and challenges within the industry.

The results of this study illustrated a digital transformation in the media industry, which has not yet fully embraced the potential of AI and data analytics. However, the research captured a key need for professionals to engage in ongoing training processes, as they repeatedly confirmed that staff knowledge and talent is the primary point for initiating a digital transformation and that training existing professionals to advance their expertise is the way forward rather than outsourcing the digitisation process or replacing experienced journalists with digital natives with greater technological. In addition, managers in the media sector were found to be unaware of the potential of new business models to reshape existing profitability structures as they remain focused on advertising and sponsored content as their main sources of revenue.

As part of the event, Dr. Catherine Sotirakou participated in a panel discussion talking about trustworthy AI in the media ecosystem. She highlighted how AI, when applied in an ethical and transparent manner, can become a critical tool for producing quality content and supporting journalists in fact-checking while enhancing public trust.