Host institution: Vrije universiteit Brussel (VUB) 🇧🇪
Supervisors: Prof. Karen Donders (VUB), Dr. Catalina Iordache (VUB), and Prof. Michał Głowacki (UW)
Academic secondment: University of Warsaw (UW) 🇵🇱
Industrial secondment: NPO, Hilversum 🇳🇱
PhD duration: 4 years
The PhD project is titled: Reconfiguring organisational structures for delivering platformised public value.
The changed media ecosystem requires a change in organisational structures. However, Public Interest Media cannot just imitate big-tech managerial approaches as they reflect other sets of values and another mode of operation. Moreover, they are public sector players with different sets of regulation, a specific historical development path and extensive public as well as political scrutiny. In preparing Public Interest Media for a media ecosystem where technological agency plays a central role, corporate structure, staff/skills portfolios and change management strategies must be developed for delivering platformised public value. Auditing and benchmarking these aspects between existing Public Interest Media, successful digital platforms and other proxy sectors, will help assess which structures, staff and skills are needed.
This project pursues a change management strategy for Public Service Media that builds on public interest, history and the ‘DNA’ of public media to make the ‘platform-logic’ compatible with public service values.
The project investigates how Public Interest Media can reconfigure their organisational structures to operate effectively in a platformised media ecosystem, while safeguarding their public values and mandates. Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Assessment of existing organisational structures within public media institutions, including workflows, governance models, and internal decision-making processes
- Comparative analysis of management and operational logics between Public Interest Media organisations and digital-native platforms, identifying both transferable and non-transferable practices
- Skills, staff, and role transformations required to integrate data-driven, automated, and platform-supported production and distribution processes
- Benchmarking exercises across Public Interest Media organisations, successful digital platforms, and relevant proxy sectors (e.g., cultural institutions, civic tech, public data infrastructures)
- Values-driven organisational design, examining how public service values, editorial independence, inclusivity, accessibility, and accountability can be embedded into platform-ready operational models
- Scenario-building and strategy development for organisational change, outlining future-oriented, scalable pathways for delivering platformised public value.
The project applies a mixed-methods, interdisciplinary approach combining organisational research, strategic management studies, and media innovation analysis. Methods may include:
- Organisational audits and benchmarking across Public Interest Media institutions, digital platforms, and proxy sectors
- Semi-structured interviews with executives, managers, strategists, and technical staff within Public Interest Media and platform organisations
- Ethnographic fieldwork or short-term embedded observations within selected Public Service Media institutions to map workflows, practices, and internal communication structures
- Document and policy analysis, including internal strategy papers, organisational charts, governance documents, and mission/value frameworks
- Competence and skills ecosystem mapping, analysing emerging roles related to data, product, platform governance, and audience engagement
- Comparative case studies of organisational change initiatives in media or adjacent sectors
- Scenario-building workshops with internal and external stakeholders to co-design future organisational models aligned with public service values.