13 January 2026 - Seminar
Mapping Media for Future Democracies
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Together with the European research project MeDeMAP – Mapping Media for Future Democracies, ECHO co-organized a seminar on the relationship between media, data, and democracy on 13 January 2026 at the Learning and Innovation Center (LIC) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. At the seminar, journalists, researchers, NGOs, and media professionals discussed evidence-based approaches to democratic information environments in Europe.
The event consisted of two sessions.
The first session was titled Journalism and Democracy – A Debate and brought together journalists, civil society representatives, and academics to debate journalism’s role in democracy. The speakers were:
- François Heinderyckx, Professor of Media Studies and Political Communication, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
- Renate Schroeder, Director, European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
- Donato Bendicenti, RAI Correspondent in Brussels
- Jeffrey Wimmer, Professor of Communication Sciences, University of Augsburg, and MeDeMAP Researcher, Charles University, Prague
- Stef Arends, Editor in Chief, Kif Kif
The session was chaired by Andrea Miconi, Professor of Media Sociology, IULM University (Milan), and MeDeMAP Italian team coordinator.
The second session had the form of a workshop and presented the MeDeMAP multi-layer map of European political information environments. During the session Mapping European Political Information Environments: A workshop, participants worked with the spatial data interface that provides quantitative information on these environments. The session was chaired by Josef Seethaler, Leader of the Research Group “Media, Politics & Democracy” at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and MeDeMAP Principal Investigator. The invited speakers were:
- David F. J. Campbell, Professor for Comparative Political Science, University of Vienna
- Beata Klimkiewicz, Professor, Institute for Journalism, Media and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University, Cracow