Trust and Literacy in the Context of Data & Agency Relations

TRUST AND LITERACY IN THE CONTEXT OF DATA & AGENCY RELATIONS: THE CASE OF PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA IN BELGIUM

MASTER THESIS

to obtain the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Digital Communication Leadership (DCLead) of Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences Paris Lodron University of Salzburg

Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences and Solvay Business School Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Submitted by ALENA SIDAROVICH Student Number: 1042431 [email protected] Cardinal Lavigerie 9, 1040 Brussels, Belgium

Primary Supervisor: Jo Pierson Secondary Supervisor: Josef Trappel

Department of Communication Studies

Salzburg, 31.07.2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, APPENDICES AND ACRONYMS ...... 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 5 INTRODUCTION ...... 6 PART 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 10 CHAPTER 1: DATAFICATION & MEDIA ...... 10 1. 1. Big data and datafication ...... 10 1. 2. The meaning of data for media sector ...... 11 1. 3. Public service media and big data ...... 12 CHAPTER 2: DATAFICATION & THE USER AGENCY ...... 14 2. 1. Criticism on datafication approach...... 14 2. 2. The importance of user agency ...... 15 CHAPTER 3: LITERACY AND TRUST ...... 17 3. 1. Data and agency relations: knowing users ...... 17 3. 2. Data literacy ...... 18 3. 3. From data literacy to trust ...... 19 3. 4. Understanding of trust ...... 21 3. 5. Factors of trust ...... 22 CHAPTER 4: PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA IN DATA & AGENCY RELATIONS ...... 25 4. 1. Public Service Media towards literate users ...... 25 4. 2. Public service media & trust ...... 26 4. 3. Public service media environment in Belgium ...... 27 PART 2: EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK ...... 31 CHAPTER 5: METHODOLOGICAL RESEARCH DESIGN ...... 31 5. 1. Research rationale ...... 31 5. 2. Justification of the methodology ...... 31 5. 3. Data collection ...... 33 5. 3. 1. In-depth user interviews ...... 33 5. 3. 2. Expert interviews ...... 37 5. 4. Data analysis ...... 39 CHAPTER 6: RESULTS ...... 41 6. 1. Findings: in-depth user interviews ...... 41 6. 1. 1. Data and agency: data literacy...... 41 6. 1. 2. Knowledge and understanding ...... 42

6. 1. 3. Trust ...... 45 6. 1. 4. Education and the role of media ...... 51 6. 2. Findings: expert interviews ...... 54 6. 2. 1. Role of trust ...... 55 6. 2. 2. Data-related education ...... 56 6. 3. Final analysis and discussion ...... 58 CONCLUSIONS ...... 64 LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ...... 68 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 70 APPENDICES ...... 75

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, APPENDICES AND ACRONYMS

Tables:

Table 1: Participants’ socio-demographic information ...... 36

Figures:

Figure 1: Top media brands in Belgium...... 29

Figure 2: Top trusted media brands in Belgium...... 30

Figure 3: Coding tree ...... 41

Appendices:

Appendix I: User interview guide...... 75

Appendix II: Consent form...... 78

Appendix III: Drop-off Questionnaire...... 79

Appendix IV: User interview Concept maps...... See CD-ROM

Appendix V: User Interview Transcripts...... See CD-ROM

Appendix VI: Expert Interview Transcripts...... See CD-ROM

Acronyms:

PSM Public Service Media

VRT Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie

RTBF Radio Télévision Belge Francophone

EBU European broadcasting Union

CRM Customer Relationship Management

DPO Data protection officer

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Data is seen as an effective tool to generate power in the contemporary society. The media sector, including public service media organizations, is widely benefiting from the new opportunities and an enormous potential acquired with the arrival of Big Data and datafication processes. Media organizations have received the opportunity to get a much closer look in the personal data and behaviors of their online users as well as to track the consumption of media goods and services online. However, the established approach to data in the media sector tends to exclude the social world of ordinary users by focusing on the data-driven business value for the media organizations. Moreover, such approach overlooks the needs, attitudes and desires of online media audiences who are increasingly confronted with the data-steered power.

In this regard, this Master thesis examines the relations between the user agency and the datified online media environment from the two perspectives. Taking a user-centered approach, this research examines users’ understanding of data-related processes on the public service and commercial media platforms as well as users’ attitudes in the form of trust and reliance towards the media institutions in the context of their data activities. Additionally, the research takes a critical perspective by examining the attitudes of public service media institutions in Belgium on the problem of users’ data literacy and trust.

Qualitative in nature, this research has utilized in-depth interviews with users that revealed a certain lack of understanding with the underlying reasons, motivations and attitudes, as well as expert interviews that generated the insight in the problem from the media institutions’ perspective. Having undertaken a cross-analysis of users’ perceptions and the public service media experts’ attitudes, this research reveals three points of conflict in the relations between users and media institution in the context of their data power, as well as key conclusions deriving from these conflicts. The research acknowledges a high complexity of the “user-data” relations and calls for a bigger attention to the problem raised.

INTRODUCTION

The buzzwords ‘data’ and ‘datafication’ are nowadays widely used in all spheres of the society. Data is praised to be a “lucrative new asset class” and “the new oil that generates the nuggets of gold” (Gray, 2018; Sax, 2016) by multiple scholars in media research. In all these cases, data is seen as an effective tool to generate power and monetary assets, to open up new offerings and services and to strengthen the democratic society (Gray, 2018). This innovation has touched upon all sectors in our society, including the media sector.

The media sector, including public service media organizations, is undoubtedly benefiting from the new advanced opportunities that allow getting a closer look at the users, their personal information and behavior. Numerous authors praise the new possibilities and power of big data as driving mechanisms for ever new potential ways of applying and employing the information by media organizations: Mayer-Schoenberger and Cukier (2014), Kenneth (2013), Beer (2009), Yeung (2016) and others. At the same time, research literature focuses on the ways public broadcasters benefit from the use of big data: Athique (2018) praises the potential of big data for audience research, Van den Bulck and Moe (2017) as well as Schwarz (2016) and Sorensen (2013) look at the new possibilities that big data steered by algorithms brings to the public service media services.

However, next to the established data power and the appraisal of the potential opportunities and benefits of data for media organizations, a growing concern is caused by the fact that media organizations tend to overlook ordinary Internet users who are increasingly confronted with the data-steered power (Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck, 2015). The widely-established approach to data in media tends to exclude the social world of ordinary users by focusing on the business value and monetary assets only. As a result, the user agency as a central mode of the datafication process is being overlooked. At the same time, users, in their turn, have accepted their duties of pure data providers without reflectively comprehending on the data-related processes online.

This problem raises numerous concerns. The first concern is connected with the lack of insight in the ways the agency represented by ordinary users understands the way it generates data online with all the benefits and shortcoming caused as a consequence of this data generation process (Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck, 2015). Attempts to look into the ways users perceive the data-driven processes online presented in the works of Rader and

Gray (2015) or Eslami et al.’s study on Facebook (2015) lack deeper understanding of underlying reasons on how this knowledge is constructed. The research findings proving an overview of a certain degree of users’ knowledge give a limited insight into the problem by overlooking the understanding of why this knowledge is (not) possessed by users. Furthermore, these findings lack the in-depth understanding of what are the users’ attitudes towards the way this knowledge is constructed and delivered to them by media companies.

Additionally, in the context of low awareness and uncertainty, the insight into the way users delegate trust or distrust to particular media organizations in terms of the data use is needed. The existing research works that examine the degree of users’ trust towards online services and data-driven services often consider trust from the perspective of the benefits or disadvantages that it brings for the organization and its online services, like in the case of e-commerce (Corritore, Kracher and Wiedenbeck, 2003).

Another concern stems from the blurry understanding of responsibility when it comes to a wider conscious involvement of users in the datified environment. The role of media organizations in this dialogue is discussed by various authors who claim for a bigger role of media organizations in growing users’ awareness and understanding. Public service media organizations are also believed to strive at keeping a certain bond of trust with the citizens. As European Broadcasting Union claims, this is only possible if the concerns of citizens – ordinary users – are heard, respected and set as a guiding principle at the heart of public service media organization (European Broadcasting Union, 2016).

However, the users’ insight into the topic is still lacking. Ordinary users are confronted with the opaque and complex instruments of information on data in the form of numerous agreements and consent forms. A better understanding between the data actors and the agency from the perspective of users themselves has been widely overlooked in the research so far and required a further consideration.

This Master thesis therefore aims to look into users’ understanding of data-related processes on the public service media and commercial online media platforms by focusing on the underlying reasons and preconditions from users’ perspective. Next to it, users’ attitudes in the form of trust towards the media institutions in the context of their data activities will be studied. Thirdly, this Master thesis research intends to get the insight into the importance and role of aware and educated users from the perspective of public service

7 media organizations. The insights provided by two sides of this data conflict – user agency and public service media organizations – are to be analyzed alongside each other.

After having considered the social and scientific relevance of this research supplemented by its main purposes, it is important to present the main research questions that are as follows:

1) To which extent do users understand the nature of the data-driven processes on the media platforms online? The first research question is followed by the sub-question: What are users’ attitudes towards information and educational instruments on public service media platforms?

2) To which extend do users in Belgium trust public service media as institutions collecting and processing their data in contrast to commercially-driven online platforms?

3) What is the attitude of public service media organizations in Belgium towards data literacy and which measures are taken towards growing users’ awareness?

This Master thesis is divided into two main parts that are the literature review and the empirical framework. The literature review part is represented by four chapters. The first chapter named “Datafication & Media” discusses the new media environment steered by big data and datafication as well as the meaning of these concepts. The second chapter “Datafication and the user agency” presents criticism on the traditional way of approaching data by suggesting a user perspective instead. The third chapter “Literacy and trust” considers the aspects of users’ literacy and trust in the context of data and agency relations by following a distinctive approach. Chapter 4 discusses the aspects of trust and literacy in relation to public service media institutions, as well as provides the overview of public service media environment in Belgium.

Chapter 5 presents the empirical framework of the research including the research rationale, the choice of methodology guiding this research work and the data analysis. This Master thesis takes a qualitative approach on the way to answer the research questions that is presented by two methodological tools: in-depth qualitative interviews and expert interviews. The in-depth user interviews involve a probing technique in the form of concept maps aimed at getting a deeper understanding of users’ perceptions. The

8 categorization process and the grounded theory are guiding the open coding and data analysis.

Chapter 6 of this research presents the results acquired during the interviews. Finally, the insights generated through the in-depth user interviews are analyzed alongside the insights produced in the flow of expert interviews. The theoretical findings together with the empirical results of the research are discussed to present the current situation on the problem. The main findings are consequently presented in the conclusions of this work. Limitations and suggestions for further research are also presented at the end of this Master thesis.

PART 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER 1: DATAFICATION & MEDIA

1. 1. Big data and datafication

The era of Big Data has arrived, with the capacities for data procession and data generation being more powerful than ever before (European Broadcasting Union, 2016). Computer- based technologies allow generating large data sets with big prospects to be exploited, and the abundance of electronic devices with all possible application systems and products are pushing the generation and collection of data (Baumer, 2017). The development of newest digital technologies makes it possible to generate and process sets of data in various areas and sectors of the society, including the media sector. According to Lahey (2016), the combination of efforts on “creating, managing, and utilizing data” (p. 1) falls under the unite umbrella term ‘Big Data’.

So what does the research understand under the concept of big data? Numerous research findings indicate the complexity of this notion. The concept of ‘Big Data’ is considered by researchers from different angles and perspectives, thus making it very hard to agree on one precise definition. Big data is very often used as a synonym for the big data sets that are technologically processed to make sense and extract value (Dalton and Thatcher, 2015). However, not all authors see big data as the acronym for the growing quantity of data sets. According to Baruh (2017), the concept of big data is often referred to as “an ecosystem composed of toolboxes” and “mythologies about the value provided to businesses and humanity by the large accumulation of data points” (p. 581). Therefore, big data can be considered not as much from the perspective of massive data sets available, but from the perspective of tools and mechanisms applied by the data actors for the purpose of processing those datasets. Similarly, Sax (2016) believes that ”big data is not so much about amounts of data, as it is about thinking about data, dealing with data, and approaching challenges and opportunities through the eyes of data’’ (p. 26). Therefore, in this research we understand (big) data as a number of techniques and tools to capture, process and analyze large datasets in order to extract the value out of this data for the further purposes.

It is important to mention that data is widely considered from the perspective of changes and benefits it can bring. Mayer-Schoenberger and Cukier (2013) claim that big data allows perform things at a large scale, generate new insights, and open up hidden values in the way that changes the social order. In this regard, it is reasonable to ask a question - what generates data? Mayer-Schoenberger and Cukier (2013) provide the answer to this question - the whole world becomes data. According to the authors, to datafy a phenomenon means to convert it into a quantified form that can be analyzed and processed by machines later on. This process, called datafication, becomes easier due to the fast- developing technologies used for processing information. Moreover, the fact that technologies become general purpose tools, cheap and available for everybody, stimulates the processes of datafication. The world is therefore seen as information and a vast number of data offers deep potential to be explored and analyzed by opening up new potential uses of information (Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier, 2013).

As a result, according to Baumer (2017), each step a user takes in the online world is transformed into a valuable data set. Consequently, various types of data sets are analyzed and values are extracted (Couldry and Powell, 2014).

1. 2. The meaning of data for media sector

As a result of datafication and data-driven processes the way businesses are done has been substantially changed. This change could not avoid the media sector. As a result, media organizations are actively making big data a part of their policies, with the media organizations widely looking at the ways to deploy the potential of data (Stone, 2014). Sax (2016) points at a high value of data for media by referring to it as “the new oil that generates the nuggets of gold” (p. 27). In this regard, which ‘gold nuggets’ does data generate for media companies?

First of all, media companies have acquired the opportunity to track the consumption of media goods and services online. Next to it, media organizations have received a chance to get a much closer look into the personal data and behaviors of their audiences. Together with the decreased cost of data collection and data analysis as well as with the broad expansion of online and mobile platforms, media organizations are enjoying a unique chance to predict users’ behavior and to mine what can be called “social data” (Kennedy

11 and Moss, 2015, p. 7). In this way, the information on the media consumption and behavior can be related to and analyzed alongside users’ behavior, interests, preferences and personal information.

The scientific literature on the datafication praises the potential value and benefits that a media organization can win if having a closer look at their users’ behavior and personal data: a better targeted marketing, improved user experience and increased customer loyalty, new advertising opportunities, expanded services, and other potential benefits (Harper, 2017).

Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck (2015) claim, social media logic, that is a central element of the social media platforms, has also deeply integrated into the everyday life of media actors due to the fact that this logic is driving the process of datafication. The authors believe that “…these norms, strategies, mechanisms and economies underpin the incorporation of social media activities into an ever-broader range of fields” (Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck, 2015, p. 2).

The thesis will next consider the case of public service media, as a separate group of media actors, and their relations with data.

1. 3. Public service media and big data

Public service media organizations have found themselves in a certain degree of crisis caused by the rapid technological developments as well as the arrival of on-demand giants and social media actors that offer users personalized services and a freedom to choose. As a result, public service broadcasters have set to rethink their strategies by introducing data- driven services and tools (Van den Bulck and Moe, 2017). In 2017 the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has asked 38 European public broadcasters about their digital strategy and the use of big data. The survey ‘Public Service Media Online and Data Strategies 2017’ conducted by the Media Intelligence Service of the EBU reveals that for the majority of the broadcasters asked, data is high on the agenda: 31% see data as an important asset in their services and another 31% even consider it as a strategic priority (European Broadcasting Union, 2018).

According to Schwarz (2016), the data-driven changes at public service media organizations take place in four major areas: technology, market ecosystem, consumer behavior, and regulation policies. Technological changes are caused predominantly by the emerging new digital technologies that open up new possibilities for producing and delivering media content. Market changes are driven by the globalization of media markets. Regulatory challenges deal with the big scope of all new regulatory frameworks aimed at grasping new changes at a legal level. And last but not least, the changes in user behavior affect dramatically the way media is consumed. That new change causes a shift from mass media to personalized media and the individualization of media experiences by the extensive use of data.

Public service media organizations have been looking at audiences and trying to analyze it throughout the time of their existence – this development is not new. However, stimulated by the online activities and the interactions of audiences, the organizations have just recently started their data-driven journey. The data-driven transformation has stimulated the employment of tools designed to get insight into private and public data sets for the data-driven journalism and storytelling; tools that can support the content production and discover innovations in this regard; audience analytics that helps to understand audiences better, to connect the audiences’ behavior on various platforms, and to offer a personalized service. Users perceive these strategies in the form of new services that are presented by personalized content, recommendation systems, personal accounts and log-in requirements (European Broadcasting Union, 2016).

At the same time, next to the opportunities that data offers to the public service media organizations, it raises certain challenges. The biggest challenge that public service media faces is the risk to lose their reputation and their identity that is different from commercial media actors and is dictated by the public service media remit (European broadcasting Union, 2016).

CHAPTER 2: DATAFICATION & THE USER AGENCY

2. 1. Criticism on datafication approach

As discussed in the previous chapter of the research, data can be considered as a combination of tools and mechanisms used for the purpose of processing large datasets and value generation. Datafication refers therefore to the process of transforming the objects of the world into a quantified format in the online space. As a result, those objects acquire new meaning and value for the media organizations. As mentioned, the potential and value of data for media organizations is enormous.

However, our research takes a different approach by bringing up a line of criticism to the widely accepted view on big data and datafication in media. Besides wide opportunities and potential benefits, datafication process in media can cause a number of negative consequences. Gray (2018) systemizes those by claiming that big data can potentially “disrupt livelihoods, violate privacy, undermine democracies, deepen inequalities, distract from issues, and displace other forms of reasoning, sense-making and experience” (para. 1).

Yet, this research does not intend to look into all possible negative outcomes of datafication power. Instead, it highlights the importance of an alternative perspective on the data in media. By this, we claim that it is highly important to look not only on the actors of datafication as presented by media organizations and new media platforms, but also on the other side of this process that is represented by ordinary users who interact with those online media environments. Following the approach of Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck (2015), this research stresses out the need of considering the user agency as a central module of the whole datafication process. The authors explain that while looking into datafication online, one should look deeper into the data environment to capture processes of the social environment that are surrounding the datafication as business-driven mechanism: “[D]atafication should not only be understood as the process of collecting and analyzing data about Internet users, but also as feeding such data back to users, enabling them to orient themselves in the world” (Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck, 2015, p. 1).

The datafication approach tends to exclude the whole social world that is inevitably involved in the direct relations with the objects-as-data while praising exclusively the economic value and new business opportunities data can bring.

2. 2. The importance of user agency

Following the presented approach, the exploration of the “space for citizen agency” (p. 2) and the ways this agency is involved into the datified world is important upon looking at the data-driven processes in media (Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck, 2015). But what do we understand under the concept of agency? The agency finds itself at a direct contact with the data environment and is a complex term that includes various types of users entering various types of relations with the data power. The agency can be looked at from very different perspectives. However, the two main categories of user agency can be distinguished: ordinary users and those who are called “resisting agents” (p. 6) – hackers and digital activists (Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck, 2015). Although the latter user category is presented as a very important agency segment due to their ability, desire and motivation to enter into a direct dialogue with the new data-driven tools and technologies, this research will focus on the category of citizens who are in their majority the ordinary users of media platforms.

In the datified world the general public is mostly perceived as a source of getting information from, thus as pure data providers. As Silverstone (2007) points, “…most attention has been focused on how data mining can capture what publics say and do, rather than how” (as cited in Kennedy and Moss, 2015, p. 8). This research therefore proposes a different approach of thinking about data and user agency by looking deeper at the user side of these relations. This argument is supported by other media scholars who appeal at the centrality of user agency in the media datafication topic.

Couldry and Powell (2014) address the growing power of data-mining process through the new infrastructures composed of data collection, storing, and analysis. However, at the same time the authors claim that this new uprising environment steered by data-mining mechanisms should “…be examined in a way that foregrounds the agency and reflexivity of individual actors” (p. 2).

Similarly, Couldry (2014) believes that the contemporary media environment can be characterized by the new “power asymmetry” due to the new regimes of data management, governance and monitoring that co-exists next to the desire of ordinary users to act in the way they are used to act. This new environment shows the overwhelming tendency of approaching the new datified environment without looking at the social actors by excluding “elements that connect with how individuals, with recognizable sets of human aims and capabilities, make sense of what they do” (Couldry, 2014, p. 889). According to Couldry (2014), as a result, data transformation processes have become “peculiar” (p. 882) to ordinary users. By this, the public has accepted its duties in the data environment by getting accustomed to being the providers of data and personal information. As a result, users have lost the hope that their social lives online could be existing in a dialogue with the data actors.

It is therefore reasonable to claim, based on the arguments presented, that the dialogue with users is necessary for them to fully participate in the online space. As Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck (2015) claim, “ordinary people need to understand what happens to their data, the consequences of data analysis, and the ways in which data-driven operations affect us all” (p. 6). The ordinary users of online media platforms should therefore understand how they are generating data online; they should be aware of the further utilization of the generated data in the form of its storing, analysis and transmissions; and be conscious about what their data means for the media platforms. Finally, it is highly important to understand the process of datafication with the expanded data power by looking at users as social actors, instead of considering the datafication process in the context of power it delivers. There is a growing need to have “conscious users” as the opposite of a passive “technological unconscious” data providers (Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck, 2015, p. 6).

CHAPTER 3: LITERACY AND TRUST

3. 1. Data and agency relations: knowing users

This research has previously argued that the new datified media environment needs a deeper understanding of how users perceive and reflect upon the data they generate, as well as of the degree of awareness that users have towards the further utilization of data produced. In a certain way, hereby this scientific work claims that the data ‘producers’ should have a right to know how their data is used. Pybus, Blanke, and Cote (2015) call for a closer dialogue with the user agency by introducing the concept ‘making data’ as an alternative to the common concepts of datafication and data collection. ‘Making data’ can be understood as a certain state of agency that appears once the users are given necessary knowledge and tools to understand and reflect upon the data they produce.

In this way, users should have the ability to comprehend in which way they provide the information as well as to recognize the possibilities of access to the information they carry about themselves and the data they produce (Couldry, 2014).

However, the situation gets even more complicated by the opaque and complex instruments of delivering users the information regarding their data procession: “[Y]et this sentiment notwithstanding, most appear resigned to pressing ‘agree’ to the countless number of ‘terms and conditions’ agreements, which function largely to safeguard and legitimize the extraction and monetization of data” (Pybus, Blanke and Cote, 2015, p. 2). Therefore, the call for a more aware and knowing agency is also deeply grounded in the existing infrastructure and tools applied by new media actors for delivering users the data- related information.

This argument is supplemented by Kennedy and Moss (2015) who look into the conditions that would enable a better understanding between the data actors and the agency. In a similar way the authors suggest that data mining should be democratized in the way to create “knowing rather than known publics” (p. 9).

The datified world has created all conditions stimulating actors to give up on the social agency - by focusing more on the models of behavior, instead of looking into the meaning of these behavior acts. The fact that users are very much involved in the processes of data collection and data mining online by providing a countless number of online actors with

17 the personal information, should not diminish the fact that users are not consciously and critically understanding and interpreting these acts. What is needed is not “…brute acts of clicking on this button (…) but the longer processes of action based on reflection, giving an account of what one has done, even more basically, making sense of the world so as to act within it” (Couldry, 2014, p. 891).

Therefore, based on those reflections, it is reasonable to conclude that the ‘known public’ who are pure victims of data-driven processes online should have a proper right to become the conscious, critical and reflective users – ‘knowing public’. The central idea of this research is grounded in a need for transformation from pure data collection to ‘data making’, from ‘known public’ to ‘knowing public’, and from ‘brute acts’ to ‘reflective acts’.

The solution to the problem is guided by the idea that the citizens can co-exist with the top- down data power through the development of data literacy only. Such literacy is getting increasingly complex and can be addressed from the multiple dimensions viewpoint (Pybus, Blanke and Cote, 2015). It is the growing gap and power misbalance in the digital world between the actors extracting value from the harvested data and the agency represented by the ordinary citizens and users of media platforms, why a new view on a literate user is called for.

3. 2. Data literacy

The move towards the knowing and conscious public can be considered as a move towards a more literate user agency. Hereby, this research will provide a short introduction to the concept of literacy in the media environment. Media literacy is defined as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a variety of forms” (Kellner and Share, 2005, p. 7). Media literacy is an umbrella definition and is widely applied in various research works and is therefore interpreted in different ways.

The concepts of literacy and media literacy are being increasingly considered in the context of the digitization and the widespread of new technologies. The academic focus has thus shifted to studying literacy in the context of Internet and technologies by giving a rise to multiple research works in this area. In this regard, multiple directions within the area of literacy are identified. As Pybus, Blanke, and Cote (2015) claimed in their research,

18 literacy is a complex concept that includes such aspects as information, data and algorithm understanding. Similarly, Bawden (2001) summarizes the streams within the literacy research and suggests looking at it from very different perspectives.

However, touching upon the understanding of data-related processed online in the context of literacy, data literacy can act as a guiding concept for this research. Data literacy is the only right answer to the increasing data power in the society, as Gray, Gerlitz and Bounegru (2018) believe. Data literacy is widely considered from the perspective of technical skills required for working with large data sets. The roots of the concept ‘data literacy’ are grounded in the fields of statistics and mathematics. Data literacy therefore includes “the ability to read, work with, analyze and argue with data” (Frank, Walker, Attard and Tygel, 2016, p. 5).

Nevertheless, this thesis does not consider data literacy as a set of skills and experiences to be developed for the successful performance on data generation and analysis. Instead, this research focuses on the literacy as a critical awareness and understanding of data-related processes as a touch point in the relations between users and media institutions. Similarly, Gray, Gerlitz, and Bounegru (2018) suggest a concept of ‘data infrastructure literacy’ as a criticism to the technical understanding of data literacy. Instead, the authors claim that ‘data infrastructure literacy’ includes the role of citizens in the form of critical reflection as well as their involvement and intervention in the datafication process.

The ability to critically access and understand the data-driven processes online, to critically reflect and understand the information on data provided by the media actors in the form of online terms and conditions, to distinguish between purposes of data use and necessities to collect the data – those are the skills of data literate citizens (Letouze, 2006). Therefore, data literacy should not be discussed only in the context of professional educators promoting a skill-based approach, but in the context of reflective and aware users who critically reflect and understand the data-related processes online.

3. 3. From data literacy to trust

As claimed in the previous chapters of this research, there is a clear need to look at the literate user as a representative of ‘data-agency’ relations online. However, hereby this thesis intends to argue, by critically assessing the relations between the user agency and the

19 data-driven processes online, that literacy in the form of users’ awareness and knowledge is not the only important parameter in these relations.

Hereby, the research takes a criticism by suggesting the importance of trust as a mechanism bounding the user agency and the media players online. Trust is therefore an important parameter that should be looked into in the context of the ‘knowing’ citizens. As Bloebaum (2016) suggests, trust is the mechanism that connects knowledge, absence of certain knowledge and total unawareness. The author brings the argument back to the studies done by Simmel and Luhmann who claimed in 1908 that people in the society do not per se know what is on other people’s mind and are not able to scan their thoughts (as cited in Bloebaum, 2016). In such conditions, trust plays a role of mediator and becomes a necessary condition for people to communicate in society. By this, Simmels (1908) refers to trust as “an intermediate state between knowledge and ignorance”, therefore trust acts as a “mechanism for bridging knowledge gaps” (as cited in Bloebaum, 2016, p. 5).

Importantly, the research argues that trust presupposes a certain lack of knowledge, or in other words, a certain lack of knowledge is a reason to look into the trust in-between two actors. Therefore, in the context of this research, identifying a certain lack of knowledge by ordinary citizens leads to the necessity of looking at the ‘bridging mechanism’ of trust. Trust would connect literacy with the certain actions that users undertake in the boundaries of their knowledge.

This argument is also supported by Sartor (2006) who highlights the importance of trust in the context of information society. The author considers the social contacts between the actors in the information society from both personal and economical perspectives, with the latter perspective grounded in the concept of risk. The context of the agency-data relations presupposes a certain risk existing due to the limited involvement of reflective users in the process. According to the author, the relations involving a certain degree of risk exist only on the precondition of trust. Similarly, Couldry and Turow (2014) in their work on data power in the form of advertising and personalization on media platforms, claim that trust is the only important thing in the data-agency relations that is endangered in the face of data power.

Therefore, in our research we extend the approach that considers users’ literacy as the main factor to look at in the datified environment, and claim that while looking into the

‘knowing public’, trust is an important factor that makes the ‘data-agency’ relations continue existing, taking into account the growing power misbalance in those relations.

3. 4. Understanding of trust

Trust and trust relations have been the focus of research in varied disciplines for more than 50 years: from philosophy to sociology, from marketing to human-computer interaction (Corritore, Krachera, and Wiedenbeck, 2003). Trust online is studied in very different contexts that predetermine its nature. Trust is actively studied in the context of Internet and network applications by focusing on the trust management system within those infrastructures (Sherchan, Nepal, and Paris, 2013). Trust is also very important for studies of the domestication and adoption of new technologies (Gefen and Straub, 2003). Numerous research results indicate that trust is an important factor for the online transactions between buyers and e-sellers to take place (Clarke, 2008) as well as in the context of social media platforms as a factor for the self-exposure of private information on those online platforms (Dwyer, Hiltz, and Passerini 2007). However, at the same time, researchers of the various disciplines cannot agree on a universal understanding of trust, therefore providing varied definitions of trust as well as the varied components of its nature. Thus, the concept of trust is surrounded with a certain degree of ambiguity and makes a very multi-dimensional discipline.

Nevertheless, in all its forms, trust concept carries a universal value of being a basis and precondition for further actions, experiences or setting attitudes, although it is not easy to give a single definition of trust. Oxford English Dictionary defines trust as ‘‘confidence in or reliance on some quality or attribute of a person or thing, or the truth of a statement’’ (Oxford living dictionaries, para. 1). Even though the Oxford definition is widely recognized, numerous scholars transform the definition according to the context of trust being researched.

Due to the complexity of trust concept, it can be reduced to a set of characteristics that can be consequently adapted to the context researched. Wang and Emurian (2005) identify four general characteristics of trust and online trust:

1) The presence of a trustor and a trustee;

2) Trust relations presuppose a vulnerable context when there is risk involved. As Wang and Emurian (2005) describe it, “trust is only needed, and actually flourishes, in an environment that is uncertain and risky” (p. 111). Trust stimulates users to co-exist with the insecure situations online;

3) Trust should result in a certain action that, as mentioned above, involves risk;

4) Trust is a subject to be treated differently by different people. Not only offline trust depends on the individual features of people, but also online trust does so: “people are reported to have different attitude towards technologies, different levels of knowledge” (Wang and Emurian, 2005, p. 112).

In its general meaning, trust can be referred to as an expectation towards the actor who will act in predictable way in a given situation: “…trust is crucial because people need to control, or at least feel that they understand, the social environment in which they live and interact” (Gefen and Straub, 2003, p. 52). At the same time, trust does not mean knowing exactly how the other actor will behave. Harper and Watson (2014) define these relations as “a relationship between trustor and trustee in which the trustor is willing to assume that the trustee will act in the best interest of the trustor” (p. 17). Finally, trust leads to certain outcomes in the form of a future action and exists in the environment characterized by the lack of knowledge.

3. 5. Factors of trust

As discussed, trust is an important determinant of not only interpersonal communication, but also of the relations in the online space (Corritore, Krachera, and Wiedenbeck, 2003). The factors of trust that can be generally described as ‘perceived trustworthiness’ are widely considered as the “attribution of characteristics by the trustor on the basis of perception” (Bloebaum, 2016, p. 10). Trust therefore happens as a result of a trustor’s attribution of a certain parameters to a trustee. In other words, users rely on particular factors that act as “cognitive shortcuts” (p. 10) guiding the feeling of trustworthiness towards a media organization (Bloebaum, 2016). It can be generally distinguished between direct and indirect trust factors. By direct factors this research refers to the trust factors involved in a particular trust situation characterized by a certain context. Indirect factors

22 represent the characteristics that go beyond the scope of a given trust situation (Bloebaum, 2016).

Research literature reveals numerous ways of looking at the trust factors that differ substantially depending on the context of trust relations. Corritorea, Krachera, and Wiedenbeck (2003) suggest looking at trust as the concept including three factors that are the perception of credibility of media institution, ease of use in the context of online services and perceived risk. Mcknight, Choudhury and Kacmar (2002) further elaborate on trust factors from the user perspective. In these authors’ view, trust factors include competence-belief, benevolence-belief and integrity-belief. Relating those factors with each other, this research can elaborate on the main factors guiding the trust relations in the online media environment.

First, perception of credibility, or competence-belief, defines a user who is confident that a media institution is fully expertise and skilled to act in the most efficient way in data- related aspects. Integrity-belief refers to a user who believes that a media institution follows a ‘set of principles’ such as honesty, non-discrimination, equality and further values. Users’ feeling of possible violation of this set of principles refers to the perceived risk. Similarly, Harper and Watson (2014) argue that the perception of trustworthiness is generally predetermined by the feelings of possible betrayal or risk. Reliability stands for a user believing that he/she is taken care of, with personal interests as a priority for a media institution. Bloebaum (2016) suggests toconsider reliability from the perspective of intentions by calling it a more “natural concept” (Bloebaum, 2016, p. 11). Therefore, the organization’s intentions and motives take a guiding role in defining the delegation of trust to a trustee. While risk determines the feeling of possible betrayal, expectation towards the behavior of the trustee is correlated with the intentions that are perceived as good or bad in these relations (Harper and Watson, 2014).

Besides the factors presented above, indirect trust factors are perceived to play a vital role in trust relations. Bloebaum (2016) believes that the overall reputation of the organization, existing on the basis of personal experiences, such as a first-hand interaction, direct and indirect observation, or memories, is an important trust factor. In a similar way, Lee (2018) argues that experiences based on previous interactions play a vital role in accessing trust relations at a present moment. Positive experiences encourage a trustee for more tight bonds with the trustor.

Another indirect factor of trust is defined by Bloebaum (2016) as symbol that presents certain signals of trustworthiness. A set of “symbolic indicators” (p. 13) acts as stimulators of positive evaluations of the party’s trustworthiness. Though these ‘symbolic indicators’ can become a subject to manipulation, they create the feeling of transparency and play a big role in the way trust is constructed.

The perception of trustworthiness can be also related to the trustor’s personality characteristics such as socio-demographic characteristics, trust propensity and risk propensity. Socio-demographic characteristics generally include age, gender, education and occupation of a person. These factors are widely applied in empirical social research and can substantially change the outcomes of the research on trust. General trust propensity is described as a person’s general ability to trust that is not related to a specific trust object and a specific context. Instead, this factor is seen as an overall readiness and willingness to trust others. In the context of media, research results indicate a positive correlation between a high trust propensity and trust in media institutions (Bloebaum, 2016). General risk propensity possesses a similar connotation. The general risk propensity refers to an individual perception of risk and is closely connected with the general trust propensity (Bloebaum, 2016).

The complex nature of the trust concept can be explained by a growing complexity of our society, and particularly the online environment of it. As claimed earlier in this research, the society does not possess the resources and capacities to know everything about the other parties, therefore trust plays a highly important role in relations, including the data- agency relations considered in this thesis.

CHAPTER 4: PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA IN DATA & AGENCY RELATIONS

4. 1. Public Service Media towards literate users

As presented at the beginning of this work, user agency is an important social actor that needs bigger attention in the context of media data-related activities online. Based on this argument, the research has discussed the trust and literacy perspectives on the subject. However, according to Kennedy and Moss (2015), besides the major focus on the user agency and its perceptions of the datified world, it is important to examine the actors who should democratize the data-related processes and take a lead on the way towards literate and reflective users. This can happen in various ways, however each of those ways is following the same aim “to enable members of the public understand each other, reflect on matters of shared concern, and decide how to act collectively as publics, are also essential” Kennedy and Moss (2015, p. 2).

Similarly, Couldry and Powell (2014) argue that it is not enough to reflect on the user agency only as an answer to the increased data power. Instead, the authors call to examine the role of media actors who are to make the datified information society more open for the user agency. In this regard, public institutions must take a step by involving citizens in the whole datafication process and growing their data literacy (Gray, Gerlitz, and Bounegru, 2018). Additionally, more understanding of the ‘social’ in the information society is needed. As Kennedy and Moss (2015) argue, the values translated by the media organizations should be made explicit and transparent. Media organizations should therefore support public understanding of data and stand for a better understanding of the user agency.

In this regard, numerous scholars delegate public service media organizations a greater role in this context. Public broadcasters are obliged to contribute to the societal formation, education and cohesion. Their mission has always been to engage in a closer dialogue with citizens and to strive for better understanding of social agency. Public broadcasters in Europe have been bounded with the obligation not only to inform, but also to educate citizens, as well as to contribute to their well-being (Van Dijck and Poell, 2015).

Benington and Moore (2010) have argued in their research that public service media organizations should focus on delivering public values rather than on the satisfaction of users’ desires and needs. In contrast to other media organizations, public service media have to adopt a different vision on their users – users as citizens, and not as consumers: “A defining characteristic of public broadcasting should be that it treats its audiences as citizens and not as consumers. Consumers have desires or needs. Citizens have rights and duties” (p. 32).

Additionally, public service media organizations are to follow the core values while developing their business strategies. Those values have been developed by the European Broadcasting Union and entitle public service media organizations to follow them in order to ensure the dedication to the public service media mission (European Broadcasting Union, 2016). In 2016 the EBU has additionally developed the data principles for public service media organizations that steer their data-related services and data-driven developments. These principles are referred to as ‘Trusted’ principles of data use, and guide such the data generation, its further utilization and the data-centered communications to the audiences (European Broadcasting Union, 2016).

Kennedy and Moss (2015) support this argument by claiming that public broadcasters should take a move towards a greater transparency with its audience. According to the authors, public service broadcasters need to introduce measures and tools for an improved understanding of data processes by explaining purposes, methods of data collection as well as benefits it brings for the users.

These arguments are supplemented by the need for new methods aimed at overcoming complex and incomprehensible instruments on data information available for users online in the form of numerous agreements, data policies and consent forms. Consequently, this work argues that public service media organizations should not only strive at a better understanding of the user agency and opening up the data-related processes, but also taking on a different vision on the user agency as social agents who require a dialogue.

4. 2. Public service media and trust

Ordinary citizens can fully co-exist with the growing data power on the precondition of their knowledge as well as trust-based attitudes towards the media institutions in the

26 context of lack of this knowledge. This research takes an institutional perspective on trust, by focusing on trust factors towards the trustee represented by the media organizations, particularly public service media organizations in Belgium.

Following the institutional perspective, Sparrow (2006) suggests that media institutions are economic and political entities that come into contact with political communication and commercial actors. Moe and Syvertsen (2007) argue that despite its complexity an institution is generally defined through a set of characteristics that are “presence of professions, formal procedures and permanence” (p. 149). Formal rules as well as managerial and hierarchical practices within an organization are important characteristics of media institutions; however this research does not focus on the physical representation of media institutions and considers their “immaterial aspects” (p. 149) such as social practices with the values, ideas, priorities and norms underlying those practices (Moe and Syvertsen, 2007). As Bloebaum (2016) suggests, trust in institution is “concerned with the role holder and organizations functioning properly by delivering the performance required of them” (p. 6).

In this regard, the research examines the public service media institutions and their data- driven services and practices as the immaterial objects of trust. A trust-based perspective is taken on the relations between public service institutions of Belgium, namely Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT) and Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF), and commercial media companies as institutions collecting, storing and processing users’ data, on the one hand; and agency presented by the ordinary citizens operating on the media platforms of those organizations, on the other hand.

4. 3. Public service media environment in Belgium

Before moving to the empirical level of this work, the overview of the public service media environment of Belgium will be provided. The media landscape of Belgium is defined by its complex political and cultural composition – the country is divided into three main language communities. The Flemish, or the Dutch-speaking, community is the largest one, followed by Wallonia, or a French-speaking, part of Belgium. The smallest community is represented by the German-speaking population (Evens and Raeymaeckers, 2018).

However, regardless its complexity, Belgium is characterized by a rather small media market. The two main broadcasting areas in the country belong to the Flemish and French speaking communities. Each of those communities has strong public service broadcasters, namely VRT for the Flemish community and RTBF for the French speaking community, as well as commercial brands segmented by the language parameter (Reuters Institute, 2018). Due to the complex political structure of the country, media is regulated differently in each of those communities. Therefore, the two media markets with VRT and RTBF leading them, are developing and evolving in different ways based on the needs and competitive dynamics on the field of each community.

The public broadcaster VRT targets the Flemish-speaking population of the country, and includes several TV and radio channels. VRT is increasingly facing the competition from Medialaan that includes the numerous channels, among which is the VTM which is considered to be the biggest rival of VRT with a big share of Flemish audience. Another commercial broadcaster to mention is de Vijver that operates two TV channels with a total share of a tenth part of Flemish media market (Evens and Raeymaeckers, 2018).

The French-speaking broadcaster RTBF is the counterpart of VRT, and operates five TV channels as well as a several radio stations. RTBF is challenged by RTL that is its biggest competitor on the French-speaking market of Belgium. Additionally, RTBF has to compete with French broadcasters such as France TV, France 2 &3 that are very successful among the Wallonia’s audience (Evens and Raeymaeckers, 2018).

Both VRT and RTBF are characterized by the increasing data-driven transformation online. Both broadcasters present their services online, with digital first strategies for certain content. At the same time, RTBF and VRT approach data as a very important part of their strategy and services, while RTBF being more advanced in terms of data services (European Broadcasting Union: Media Intelligence Service, 2017). In regards of data- driven services, both broadcasters operate compulsory sign-in services for their digital platforms. At the same time, the data-driven personalized content as well as recommendation systems for logged-in users are presented on online platforms of both broadcasters (European Broadcasting Union: Media Intelligence Service, 2017).

However, according to the new Digital News Report produced by the Reuters Institute (2018), VRT and RTBF are not the most popular means to receive the online information among Belgians. VRT is ranked as only the third most checked source of information

28 online in the relevant community, and RTBF as the second in the French-speaking region respectively. Both broadcasters are though the most popular sources of information on TV and radio (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Top media brands in Belgium Source: Reuters Institute, 2018

Following the institutional perspective on the subject of trust in the context of data-driven activities of Belgian public service media, it is important to examine the users’ trust in the context media content produced. The results of Digital News Report indicate that VRT and RTBF are the most trusted media organizations in the respective communities (see Figure 2) when it comes to the media messages (Reuters Institute, 2018).

Figure 2. Top trusted media brands in Belgium Source: Reuters Institute, 2018

PART 2: EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK

CHAPTER 5: METHODOLOGICAL RESEARCH DESIGN

5. 1. Research rationale

This Master thesis research takes the qualitative approach with two different perspectives guided by diverse nature of the research questions stated. In the first place, the research takes the explorative perspective in order to study users’ understanding, attitudes and trust in relation to data-driven possesses on media platforms as well as the interpretative perspective by analyzing in-depth the users’ perceptions on trustworthiness and their attitudes to the educational tools of public service media institutions. The in-depth interpretation of users’ personal attitudes and experiences takes therefore a guiding role. Secondly, the explorative perspective with a critical focus is applied for analyzing the public service media’s role and attitude in the societal conflict on data.

The research takes the qualitative approach in order to reach the goals stated above. In contrast to the quantitative research that is generally preoccupied with measuring a phenomenon with numbers that are consequently tested alongside each other for the theory generation purpose, the qualitative research aims at a deeper understanding of the whole nature of this phenomenon. Yilmaz (2013) describes the qualitative research methods as “emergent, inductive, interpretive and naturalistic approach to the study of people, cases, phenomena, social situations and processes in their natural settings in order to reveal in descriptive terms the meanings that people attach to their experiences of the world” (p. 312). The qualitative research provides therefore the most effective opportunity to get an insight into a ‘human’ part of the issues researched.

5. 2. Justification of the methodology

The qualitative research has been chosen in this work due to the need for the in-depth understanding of how the social phenomenon is constructed from the perspective of people. Therefore, the qualitative approach acts as an effective tool to examine the nature of the research questions and purposes underlying this work: approaching the research problem

31 through the eyes of users, rather than presenting a numerical representation of literacy and trust levels, on the one hand; and getting a critical and expert-based interpretation of the problem rather than providing a list of tools and measures taken by the public service media institutions, on the other hand. This research is guided by three research questions.

Our first research question “To which extent do users understand the nature of the data-driven processes on the media platforms online?” with the sub-question on users’ attitudes towards data-related educational instruments on public service media platforms as well the second research question “To which extend do users trust public service media as an institution collecting and processing their data in contrast to commercially-driven online platforms?” aim to look into the depth of users’ perceptions of data-driven processes on the online media platforms. By this, the research questions aim to understand how do users perceive those processes and what are the underlying reasons for it; what are users’ personal attitudes towards the educational instruments used by public service media institutions online; and how are the trust feelings towards these institutes constructed. Therefore, by looking at the aspects of trust and literacy, the research does not indent to present any quantifiable data that would generalize the trust and literacy of users by providing a structure of data literacy components or audiences’ trust rates. Instead, the research intends to look into numerous aspects of ‘user-media institution’ relations and to understand in which way the knowledge about data-related processed is constructed, what are users’ attitudes towards the need of this knowledge and the role of media actors, and how and why users tend to develop trust and reliance towards certain platforms in the context of limited knowledge.

The third research question of this thesis “What is the attitude of public service media organizations in Belgium towards data literacy and measures taken towards growing users’ awareness?” provides the insight into the attitudes of public service media organizations on the trust-based relations with the audiences and the data-related education. However, the on-the-surface overview of tools applied by public service media organizations is not the focus of this research. Instead, the qualitative perspective on the question is applied by looking into the subject of how important is the aspect of users’ education for public service media organizations, what are the underlying reasons for moving or not moving into the direction of further user education and awareness growing and which methods are chosen for this purpose.

Therefore, to answer those “how” and “why” questions, the qualitative research has been chosen as a method that provided the insight into the nature and essence of the phenomena studied, rather than the numerical outcomes and statistical data. Additionally, the method provides the researcher with the opportunity to take the perspective of the local population involved in the research (Mack, Woodsong, Macqueen, Guest and Namey, 2005).

5. 3. Data collection

For this master thesis research, data was collected using two methods of qualitative nature: in-depth user interviews and expert interviews. A total of 17 interviews have been conducted in the framework of this research. The following sections of the thesis will provide a closer look at the research methods chosen as well as the data generated.

5. 3. 1. In-depth user interviews

The main tool of the research has been the in-depth interviews with the users of public service media in Belgium and commercial online media platforms of interest. In-depth interviews are considered to be one of the most commonly used tools in the qualitative research. Interviewing can be described as a “conversation with a purpose” (Berg, 2009, p. 101). In-depth interviews have been chosen in our research due to the flexibility of the method and the opportunity to understand in-depth users’ feelings and perceptions while having an open conversation one-to-one. The interview is especially useful in understanding “how the participants come to attach certain meaning to phenomenon” (Berg, 2009, p. 102). In-depth interviews are different from other qualitative research methods due to the insight into the personal perspectives of people that cannot be acquired by other qualitative techniques (Mack, Woodsong, Macqueen, Guest, and Namey, 2005). The interviews have been conducted in the form of a regular conversation; however those have been following certain objectives. Since the aim of our research is not to measure the levels of literacy and trust, but to understand how and why those levels are constructed on a personal level, the in-depth interviews have served as the most effective method.

The interviews were semi-structured in nature that means they were following a certain structure with the specific number of predetermined topics covered in each of the conversations with the users (Berg, 2009). Therefore, five topics have been chosen to guide the interviews with users that are based on the framework developed in the theoretical part

(see Appendix I). The method of semi-structured interviews provided the researcher with some structure guiding the conversation, on the one hand, but also allowed new concepts and topics appear during the conversations due to the flexibility and opportunity to probe. This openness to new and unexpected inputs has become the reason for conducting semi- structured interviews in this research. The semi-structured nature of the interviews allowed the researcher to generate additional topics that have not been scheduled on the topic list but have been raised by the respondents during the conversation.

The interviews started with the probes in the form of concept maps of the public service media organization of use – VRT or RTBF. Probes generally stimulate drawing “more complete stories from the subjects” (Berg, 2009, p. 115). The concept maps drawn by the users (see Appendix IV) were aimed at understanding the general perception of the public service media organization of use with any positive or negative feelings and experiences connected with it, as well as the attitudes towards its online services. The responses have been used to stimulate a deeper conversation with the users.

Accordingly, 14 face-to-face in-depth interviews were carried out within a period of six weeks. The in-depth interviews lasted between 45 and 73 minutes depending on the availability of the interviewees, with 60 minutes per interview on average. The conversation lasted long enough to provide the in-depth insights and to grasp all relevant ideas and thoughts. The locations for the interviews have been chosen based on the criteria of ‘quit and calm place’ to ensure the relaxed atmosphere stimulating open discussion.

The aspect of trust has been based on users’ perceptions and inner feelings without limiting the dialogue to the literacy-based topics. This has been explained to the respondents at the beginning of each interview. Besides, at the beginning of each conversation users have signed a consent form as well as filled a short drop-off with the basic personal information (see Appendixes II and III, respectively).

5. 3. 1. 1. Sampling and recruitment

Qualitative research does not require the input of each representative of a given community, instead only a sample of population based on certain criteria is studied (Creswell, 2009). The purposive sampling is applied in this research that is represented of the population on certain dimensions. Belgian citizens who use the online platforms of

VRT or RTBF as well as commercial online media platforms of interest have become the focus of this research. The population is represented by the non-professional audience of VRT or RTBF online who use the media platforms by means of the website or mobile application on a regular basis. There have been no criteria applied for the commercial media organizations of interest that were chosen for a comparison with PSM platforms, due to the limited access to the population using two specific media platforms. However, the criterion of ‘purpose of use’ has been guiding the choice of a commercial media platform: respondents using the online public service media platform for reading news or watching videos have indicated the commercial media platform used for the same purpose. Therefore, diverse commercial media platforms including social media platforms of interviewees’ interests have been accepted next to VRT or RTBF online.

The general proportion of RTBF and VRT users has been kept, with a prevailing number of VRT users. That can be explained by the limited access to English-speaking users of RTBF online. The number of 14 interviews conducted can be explained by two reasons. First, time limitation as well as the limited access to the English speaking local population using VRT or RTBF online platforms has affected the number of respondents participating in the research. Secondly, more important, the 14 interviews conducted have generated a deep insight into the researched problem, and a certain degree of constancy with no additional insights has been identified throughout the last interviews. Purposive sampling is widely determined by the data saturation (Creswell, 2009). Therefore, the 14 interviews conducted have provided rich and saturated data for the research analysis.

The research has kept a certain degree of diversity in terms of age and occupation. As a result, the VRT and RTBF users have been represented by a right mix of students and young professionals. The participants were aged between 21 and 29 years old. The mean for the age in the sample is 24. The students of media and communication programs have been excluded due to a possible higher awareness and knowledge on data-related processes online. The research kept the balance in terms of gender; therefore a certain proportion of gender has been kept with prevailing presence of female respondents. The sample of 14 interviewees is therefore represented by nine female and five male respondents with six of them being students, and eight - young professionals. Overall, the sample can be characterized as higher educated people - that affects the research results to a certain extent.

The participants have been recruited via the convenience sampling by making the announcements on the social media platforms and contacting people participating in the VRT- or RTBF-related social media groups. Secondly, the snowballing method has been applied by asking respondents to direct the researcher to other people who can potentially fit the sampling criteria.

5. 3. 1. 2. Overview Interview Respondents

Brief socio-geographic information on the fourteen respondents can be found in Table 1. The names of the respondents have been changed to the pseudonyms due to the confidentiality purposes.

No. Name Gender Occupation Age PSM of use Commercial platforms of use

1 Luna Female Student 21 VRT VTM

Vier

2 Marine Female Student 24 VRT VTM

3 Lara Female Manager 22 VRT Facebook De Standaard

4 Kevin Male IT Consultant 28 VRT Facebook HLN

5 Victor Male Literature Teacher 25 VRT De Morgen

6 Julie Female Student 26 VRT Vijf Netflix

7 Lisa Female Student 21 VRT VTM

8 Lotte Female Student 22 VRT VTM

Vier

9 Tom Male Teacher 24 VRT Facebook

HLN

10 Marie Female Gallery Manager 29 RTBF Youtube

11 Jonas Male Language Centre 27 RTBF Youtube Manager Netflix

12 Emma Female Planning and 26 RTBF Youtube Administration Officer

13 Sarah Female Student and 25 RTBF Facebook Fashion advisor

14 Thomas Male Student 25 RTBF Facebook

Table 1. Participants’ socio-demographic information

5. 3. 2. Expert interviews

In-depth user interviews have been supplemented by the interviews with the relevant representatives of VRT and RTBF media institutions that have been conducted to answer the third research question of this Master thesis, namely “What is the attitude of public service media organizations in Belgium towards data literacy and measures taken towards growing users’ awareness?” The expert interviews are aimed at getting access to the specific information though the experts who possess deep insight in specific knowledge. Expert is a person who “is responsible for the development, implementation or control of solutions/strategies/policies” (Dunn, 2004, p. 266).

To answer the third research question, the interviews were conducted with the representatives of Belgian public service media organizations, namely VRT and RTBF, who are working close on the data strategies as well as are responsible for the establishing close and trustworthy relations with the audience. The method of expert interviews has been chosen since this research is less focused on the existing educational tools of public service media post factum, but more on the understanding the reasons and attitudes of public service media organization to the problem of users’ awareness and education in the context of data as a part of societal debate. The expert interviews have been conducted not only to examine the role of public service media organizations as highlighted in the literature, but to check the hands-on application of those theory-based assumptions, and to test if the conclusions drawn from our theoretical investigation are applied in the policies of Belgian PSM organizations.

The interviews have been semi-structured in nature by providing the researcher with a certain degree of flexibility throughout the conversation. The topic list has been based on the theoretical investigation provided in the fourth chapter of this thesis, as well as on the EBU’s ‘Trusted’ principles of data use. The principles of data use have been created by following the purpose of establishing trustworthy and close relations with the audiences; public service media are however free to choose the ways to put these principles in action (European Broadcasting Union, 2016). The ‘Trusted’ data principles include the following principles: transparency that refers to the need of public service media to provide open and transparent information about the user data collected; relevance that means limiting data collection only for certain purposes that are transparently communicated to audiences; understanding that stands for the data collected for the purpose of establishing closer relations with audiences; safety that refers to users’ data kept safely and responsibly; together that means collecting users’ data only upon user consent and engaged in dialogue with the audience; experience that stands for personalized services based on data and discovery that aims at innovative use of data.

It was however not the aim of the expert interviews to practically test these principles. Instead, they have been used to stimulate the discussion and to understand the public service media institutions’ attitudes in the ‘data-agency’ dialogue.

Three interviews were conducted with the experts holding special knowledge and responsibilities in the topic of this thesis. The purpose of expert interview was not to get

38 the insights in a single personal attitude, but to approach the expert as the representation of the public service media organization, as a person who presents the decision-making ‘structure’ of the audience-related environment, not excluding, however, a critical reflection and interpretation of the subject.

The first expert interview has been conducted with Big data/CRM manager at RTBF, Pierre-Nicolas Schwab. Pierre-Nicolas Schwab is a long-standing expert who has been leading the big data policy with an audience perspective at RTBF since 2015.

The interviews with the representatives of VRT have been conducted upon the meetings with the CRM Manager at VRT - Emilie Nenquin and with the Data Protection Officer (DPO) at VRT – Erwin Maussen. Both experts are working close on the implementation of big data services at VRT, but more important – on the insights in the user side of it. The experts are leading the “data policies” and decide upon the ways the data-related awareness is tackled in the organization: which format, presentation, what are the purposes and priorities of this policy.

5. 4. Data analysis

The in-depth interviews with users as well as expert interviews have been recorded, and the obtained data was transcribed shortly after each interview took place. Data acquired from the in-depth interviews with users was analyzed using the categorization process. First, a set of categories has been identified based on the theoretical justification. Therefore, the categorization has been initiated prior to the conducted interviews. However, those categories served as a starting reference point only, and have been extensively changed and transformed, due to new categories appeared throughout the interviews. As a result, next to the initial categories predetermined at the beginning, new categories have emerged by following the grounded theory method. The grounded theory method, also called constant-comparative method, allows the researcher to identify new categories and to compare them alongside each other by focusing on the relations between the categories and codes (Treadwell, 2015).

The inductive coding based on grounded theory took place via three phases. The first phase of open coding allowed us to generate the unrestricted amount of categories without relating them to each other, but also without cross-comparing those with the initial

39 categories based on the theoretical review. During the next phase called axial coding, the categories were related and compared alongside each other to identify the sub-categories or to drop some categories. At this phase, the initial categories have been substantially transformed and supplemented by the categories arisen from the data. In this way, the initial codes aimed at understanding users’ knowledge and the variety of this knowledge have been partially dropped due to a very unstable character of the knowledge-related attitudes grounded in pure assumptions of users. As a result, new categories related to the underlying reasons of such unstable understanding have appeared. After the categories have become stable and no new categories were due to appear, the selective coding has been applied to integrate the categories and formulate the coding tree.

The data acquired from the qualitative interviews with experts was analyzed according to the research focus and relevance, and was further related to the coding tree (see Figure 3) for a final analysis and discussion of the results.

CHAPTER 6: RESULTS

The discussion of the results is structured according to the three levels of research presented in this thesis. First, the findings from the in-depth interview series with users are presented and discussed. This is followed by the analysis of data acquired on the basis of expert interviews. Finally, the results are then discussed alongside each other to generate final conclusions.

6. 1. Findings: in-depth user interviews

As shown in the previous chapter, the data analysis allowed the researcher to generate extensive data sets and to identify a number of categories related with subcategories that has been framed in a coding tree (see Figure 3). Each of the categories and subcategories will be discussed according to the coding tree produced.

Figure 3. Coding tree

6. 1. 1. Data and agency: data literacy

As claimed by Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck (2015), as well as by Couldry and Powell (2014), more attention is needed at the transformation of users from passive data providers into literate and reflective online users. According to the research results, the aspect of user agency’s data literacy is to be considered from the perspectives of users’ knowledge and their attitudes to educational instruments on public service media platforms.

6. 1. 2. Knowledge and understanding

In this research, the category of users’ knowledge indicates the extent to which the user agency is informed about data-related processes online, including turning user information into data, data collection and purposes of data use. This knowledge has been looked into on the example of the online media platforms, including the public service media platforms. In line with the research results of Barocas and Nissenbaum (2013) who pointed out the overall data-related awareness of the majority of Internet users, our research results indicate that all respondents possess the awareness of the data process on both public service media websites and commercial media platforms. However, users’ knowledge, according to the research results, does not go beyond this on-the-surface awareness. Users do not fully reflect upon and do not understand the data processes that happen to them as data providers.

As the findings indicate, the respondents do not possess any specific knowledge on the data-related processes that could be reflected in the research analysis. The knowledge is based on pure guesses and assumptions that are explained by the lack of knowledge. Therefore, various assumptions expressed by users have not been approached in a separate way in this analysis, since users were changing their personal assumptions dramatically throughout the conversation. That leads to the conclusion that understanding the underlying reasons of limited knowledge requires a thorough consideration to a bigger extent than examining users’ attitudes of a momentum-based nature.

As a result, in-depth interviews in this work have revealed a low awareness and understanding of the nature of data processes on media platforms. In contrast to what Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck (2015) claim, ordinary citizens do not have a full understanding of what happens to their data as well as the consequences of those processes. The ordinary users of media platforms are not fully unaware of the data generation processes taking place. However, they indicate having rather vague and blurry knowledge about data-related processes. Based on the results, the situation with users’ knowledge can be described as “I am aware that I am not aware” by referring to one of the respondents:

“Maybe it's some kind of philosophy, but I'm aware that I don't really know what they do...It's a bit weird.” (Thomas, 25, student, RTBF)

Similarly, other respondents shared feeling a certain degree of unawareness and vulnerability connected with the data processes online. There is understanding that data is used by media platforms, including public service media, yet as users admit, this understanding is not enough:

“I'm scared of what they do so I should read it. And I think that's what many people do - they want to know and they are scared of something and with all the things that happens, but...I'm not aware enough, I think.” (Lotte, 22, student, VRT)

Therefore, following the concept of Kennedy, Poell and Van Dijck (2015), users do belong neither to the category of ‘conscious user’ nor to the passive category of ‘technologically unconscious’ users, but in-between those two. To understand this situation more in-depth, the research results indicate that the lack of knowledge can be explained from the perspective of two main reasons: a lack of interest and a fear to get deeper understanding of the whole process.

To start, the interviews have not revealed a big interest and desire of users to understand the datafication processes online in the context of public service media platforms. The lack of interest can be explained by two major reasons. First, as users share, they simply do not perceive data-related processes on PSM as something important and something that requires their attention. Due to the presence of other important problems in the lives, there is no interest to broaden knowledge on the topic of data and datafication online:

“…for me it's not the biggest issue, data, I think. There is war and other - like racism - maybe even more problems that you want to fight really now or I don’t know...or other social issues.” (Thomas, 25, student, RTBF)

At the same time, some of the respondents indicated a lack of interest in growing self- awareness due to the absence of understanding how this knowledge will directly influence their lives and their online environment. As one of the respondents shared, there is no point in getting more knowledge if it does not affect the live:

“I don't know what it would change to be honest...I like the content and I think you have to give your data more or less everywhere. So would it change now if I knew what and how they collect? I probably would still do it; I would still use the content there. I don't know how I would be affected by this…” (Jonas, 27, Language Centre Assistant, RTBF)

As Clarke (2008) explains, users have simply accepted their responsibility as data providers and have got accustomed to the datafication as a one-direction process only. The research results confirm this argument: several respondents expressed no interest in getting more knowledge and understanding since they accepted their roles and duties online. By this, users seem to have accepted the online model and the Internet environment without trying to reflect deeper on it. As the respondents claim, there is no chance to change anything either with or without knowledge:

“I mean everybody is using…the thing we are so far there, we cannot take a step back. I cannot just not use my cell phone but like…I mean, basically if I knew more (…) I am aware of that, but like I know I can’t just step away from it.” (Marine, 24, student, VRT)

Secondly, next to the lack of interest in data-related knowledge, users stated that they deliberately do not need to have more information due to the fear of getting to know unwanted details. One of the respondents shared, the unawareness of data processes online is a way to protect yourself:

“I think I have the lack of knowledge, but I also know that the day I want to know, I would simply Google it and I would understand...but I am not interested at the moment. I am happy being ignorant, I'm happy not knowing…” (Julie, 26, student, VRT)

Another respondent expressed the opinion that knowing more can stimulate the refusal to use the Internet and online platforms of media companies:

“I don’t know...I skip this part for now, I was like ‘oh my god’ if I am going to read all these articles, I'm going to...I'm not going for the Internet for a while, I think. You begin like that and then no. It's good to know the truth but I think we don't have all the information about data now, so I think it's better to wait a little until everything has been settled how it must be settled, and then look back at it and know for sure what is going on about it. You don't do anything anymore…” (Emma, 26, Planning and Administration Officer, RTBF)

The lack of users’ knowledge and understanding has been identified in relation to both public service media’ and private media organizations’ online data activities: respondents have proved to be aware of the fact that their data is used and processed by media players, however no further insights into the nature of this process has been revealed. In this regard, the limited knowledge on data can be explained by the absence of interest and desire to

44 find out more as well as by the fear to find out the negative side of the nature of this process. Yet, the lack of knowledge is compensated by various levels of trust that reveal certain degree of differences among different users and among different media platforms.

6. 1. 3. Trust

Chapter 3 of this research introduced a certain criticism by claiming that one should look into users’ trust due to the fact that in conditions of the lack of understanding and knowledge, trust plays an intermediate role as a mediator and a bridge. As proved earlier in this work, users are not fully aware and do not understand the nature of data processes online. However, at the same time, very often the lack of knowledge is compensated by the feeling of trust and reliance based on numerous parameters. In other cases, the feeling of distrust was identified. As some respondents shared, due to a low literacy level, they are relying exclusively on their feelings and assumptions, when talking about the way public service media organizations are collecting and using their data online:

“I trust VRT more in not doing it than VTM. But...like I said, I don't know if they do it or not…” (Lisa, 21, student, VRT)

“Yeah, I think so…but just for general feeling about such platforms. Not because I have concrete reason to think so.” (Jonas, 27, Language Centre Assistant, RTBF)

It is therefore important to understand what guides users’ trust feelings and which factors do they rely on when they do or do not delegate a certain degree of trust to media institutions and particularly, their data-related activities. Since this research looks into the aspect of users’ trust in public service media institutions as well as commercial media companies of users’ interest, the results of the research let distinguish between factors and characteristics of institutions as a trust factor. Additionally, indirect trust factors (see Chapter 3) that are not connected to the media institution directly have also been proved to be guiding the feeling of trust among users. The results of this research have revealed four trust parameters that are as follows: competence-belief, perceived risk, national and personal levels of trust.

First, a guiding parameter of trustworthiness is an institution’s competence-belief that has been identified to consist of an organizational image and its reputation, but also of the

45 perception of a media institution’s data services. The organization’s image and reputation have been looked at on the basis of the concept maps that respondents had to draw at the beginning of the interviews. The results reveal that those users, who have described VRT and RTBF as generally trustworthy and serious organizations, tend to rely on them in terms of their data activities. One of the respondents shared:

“I prefer VRT and HNL over Facebook. But I would still prefer VRT over HNL, because well…their image to me is more serious and more…just more serious than HNL, that's why. By the news they deliver I have a better image of VRT, so I have more faith and trust in VRT than in HNL regarding data collection and using the data.” (Kevin, 28, IT consultant, VRT)

In contrast, other users shared a more negative vision of VRT in terms of its journalistic activities:

“So I guess that there is also interest in telling us certain things...yes, it has to do a bit with the censorship. These people are trying to influence what is told...so it is censored.”(Luna, 21, student, VRT)

The users, whose concept maps reveal a negative perception of the broadcaster, tend to hold a rather negative view on data-related activities and intentions of data use of the broadcaster indicated.

Bloebaum (2016) as well as Lee (2018) believe that the general reputation of an organization affect users’ trust perceptions. Similarly, our research findings have revealed that reputation and experience do play a role and affect the way users perceive the data- related activities of a media organization. One of the respondents shared that her trust feeling is based upon a positive reputation of RTBF:

“Some websites you have heard about on the news or anything like that, and you know how trustworthy they are. Because they have given an interview or something like that. But with something you really do not know and that looks foreign and that is trying to sell you things...I would definitely read it [privacy statement].” (Emma, 26, Planning and Administration Officer, RTBF)

At the same time, the other respondent shared that she does not trust a media organization due to its negative reputation. Hereby the respondent brings the example of Facebook:

“Well, I think…but it’s a feeling that VRT is maybe a little bit safer. Because, well, what happened to Facebook - in news and the stuff – so you know that it’s not that careful.”(Lara, 22, student, VRT)

As mentioned earlier, besides the general image of organizations and their reputation, the perception of a media organization’s data-related activities has also been found to affect users’ trust feelings. The respondents revealed to have different vision on those activities of media organizations. As one of the interviewees shared, she cannot understand the need of VRT to collect and use audiences’ data. As a result, the data activities of VRT are perceived in a negative way. This perception stimulates the feeling of mistrust towards the media institution processing users’ data:

“Because they say they need your information to watch content - I think that's really pushing people because I think VRT should be open for everyone, and I don't think that they should...how do you say it...to force you into giving your personal information to watch content. For VRT I don't see why do they need these data, they have less of need...” (Luna, 21, student, VRT)

In a similar way, the intentions of a media organization processing the data can be perceived as rather positive or negative. This intention-based perception guides the feeling of trust:

“Yeah...I think my data is used to give me the content, to give me the advertising...I don't have the problem with them having my data actually - that is not really what scares me. Because having my data does not say anything. But what do you do with this – it matters. If you have the data that nobody is using - I have no problem with it, but when they start using my data for commercial things, for making me personalized content that I didn't ask for - that's what I have problem with.” (Luna, 21, student, VRT)

Bloebaum (2016) suggests that intentions take a guiding role in the perception of trustworthiness. Public service media institutions, according to the research results, are perceived by users as institutions with better intentions towards users’ data. However at the same time, the results indicate that users are not fully aware of the intentions of public and commercial institutions, by only assuming the possible intentions of data use.

The next trust factor revealed in our research is perceived risk. As Harper and Watson (2014) suggest, trust requires the perception of risk. However, the research findings indicate that the majority of the respondents do feel a certain degree of risk, but they are not fully aware of what exactly this risk is. Therefore, there is an awareness of the existing risky environment, but there is the absence of knowledge on what are those risks. One of the respondents’ shared:

“Users are aware that there is some risk connected with data, but they do not understand which it is exactly (…) But I do not know, it's hard for me to say, because I don't know what they know about me, so I don't know what I need to be scared of. I have the awareness that there are all these kinds of risks, it’s risky, but what can happen... I don't know what can happen.” (Lotte, 22, student, VRT)

Moreover, the perceived risk becomes a precondition for taking certain actions. The respondents who indicated feeling a certain degree of risk, even though this risk is not driven by particular arguments, have also shared to have introduced changes in their behavior online. These changes are connected with the attempts to keep their data more protected. Multiple ways of risk-based behavior have been identified in this research. Some respondents shared to share little information to both public service media and commercial media platforms:

“I always give the minimum information about me. I always fill just where there is the star mark, and I do not fill all the fields that they want to know but I do not want to give.” (Luna, 21, student, VRT)

Others use online tools aimed at keeping their data safer:

“Ad blocker, yeah. So I do. So in a way I protect myself a little bit.” (Lara, 22, student, VRT)

“...incognito mode, because everyone can track. Because for instance...at work and stuff, even if I am sometimes looking for some random information like something I want to hide specifically.” (Sarah, 25, student and fashion advisor, RTBF)

One of respondents provided public service media organization with fake information about him due to the potential risk:

“Actually, I think I've created a VRT account under a false name and a false email address. I don't like giving them my personal information.” (Kevin, 28, IT Consultant, VRT)

As the research results indicate, there is no clear distinction between the risk-based behavior on public service media and commercial media websites. The use of data protection tools and a certain way of behavior have been connected to both public and private media organizations.

Yet, the factors of trustworthiness are related not only to the media institutions’ characteristics, but also to users’ personal characteristics. In line with what Bloebaum (2016) claimed, this research has identified the parameters of trust that are connected with the interviewees’ personal experiences and characteristics. In contrast to the author’s assumptions, this research has not identified any socio-geographic characteristics as trust factors. Instead, risk propensity and a personal connection with the media organization are the factors determining trust feelings.

Hereby, the research reveals a clear distinction between public service media and commercial organizations. The respondents shared to possess a life-long attachment with the public service media organization that guides their trust feeling in their data activities online. It is not based on the specific activity of public service media, but on the personal connection:

“I don't know, it's...I think it has to do in the past that it has grown more that VRT is more quality than...It's in my mind, maybe it has to do with my family - everybody in the family watched VRT instead of VTM. So I don't know if it has something to do with me background or…” (Lotte, 22, student, VRT)

Similarly, the other respondent admits having a certain degree of trust to the public service media institution that is rooted in the childhood:

“RTBF was always in my house, and my parents used to watch the news on RTBF everyday when I was young, and so it was a kind of... you know, something that is with you everyday - so it is just a parallel of your own development.”(Thomas, 25, student, RTBF)

At the same time, no personal connection with the commercial media organizations has been revealed among the respondents.

Next to the personal connection with the media institution, the general risk propensity is connected with a holistic absence of trust in the online environment including all organizations operating in this environment. In contrast to the previous trust factor described, users who indicate a high level of risk propensity do not develop trust with public service media organizations:

“And on VRT it is just for my personal use, there is no interaction with other people. There is just the guy on the other side who is just not showing his name either. So he's not sharing his personal information either. So while I share my own personal information.” (Thomas, 25, student, RTBF)

“…maybe yes, maybe no, I don't know. It's hard because you can trust no one but yourself. So you can never fully trust someone online, or it can also happen by accident, so they do not need to do it on purpose.” (Lotte, 22, student, VRT)

Additionally to the personal level of trust indicated by Bloebaum (2016) and supported by the research findings, a further level of factors guiding the trust feelings, namely the national level, has been revealed. This factor includes the parameters of the institutions operating in Belgium and may be connected with the media environment of this country only. In this regard, the research findings indicate that the types of organizations that are based in Belgium elicit more trust in terms of data collection and use than other media organizations operating on multiple markets:

“I think it’s also because there is less distance. It’s not an American company, so you have the feeling that that’s more just…” (Lara, 22, student, VRT)

“And maybe because that VRT is just Belgian - it makes it more reliable, yeah. (…) Yeah, state but also that it’s only for Belgium. Because when it goes international - more people are involved, and you can get more out of it I think.” (Lisa, 21, student, VRT)

At the same time, as the latter interviewee indicates, there is a certain degree of trust based on the fact that VRT and RTBF are connected with government and are state-sponsored:

“The fact that it [VRT] is owned by the government does indeed elicit some trust with me.” (Victor, 25, Literature Teacher, VRT)

However, at the same time, the fact that VRT and RTBF are state-owned can also play a negative role for the trust feelings:

“VRT is sponsored by the government, it is not commercial. Because the commercial thing has for most people a bit of a negative connotation. And I guess that is why people are more skeptical towards those commercial companies. But I don't think...when it comes to data...why is the government regulation so much better? The reason why is...I don't think it’s really communicated why it is better.“ (Luna, 21, student, VRT)

Another respondent kept a similar position by not perceiving the connection with government as a reason to trust a media organization to a higher extent:

“Not because if they are publicly owned that they would do a right thing with data. I mean there are government scandals all the time. I mean not the fact that you are getting government money means that you are doing things cleaner than private companies.” (Julie, 26, student, VRT)

Consequently, the research findings indicate that the same trust factor can have a positive connotation for some users, and a negative for the others. Generally speaking, public service media organizations are perceived as more trustworthy for the majority of the interviewees due to their connection with the government, the Belgian character and a personal connection rooted back to the childhood. Nevertheless, for some users the public service media organizations in Belgium are not perceived as more trustworthy in contrast to commercial media platforms due to the government supervision and a high level of risk propensity.

6. 1. 4. Education and the role of media

Besides focusing on users’ perceptions and knowledge, it is also important for the online actors to strive at democratizing data processes (Kennedy, Poell and van Dijck, 2015). Similarly, the research has identified users’ perception to this point. Supporting the argumentation of Couldry (2014) who claims that media institutions should take a lead in democratizing data for the user agency, the respondents in the research do call for a bigger contribution of media organizations, however by calling for the role of public service media institutions. Therefore, users tend to believe that public service media should take a

51 bigger responsibility and educate users to the point of datafication online. According to the research findings, the interviewees’ expectations are framed around four parameters: teaching role of public service media, the necessity to change educational tools, growing audience’s interest and attention, and the need to be more transparent in terms of data collection to the citizens.

Firstly, the citizens expect public service media organizations to educate and to explain why the public media institutions need the citizens’ data, how it is used, and what the benefits for both sides are:

“Yeah, I think public service broadcasters should really have this social responsibility and they have to engage the audience to have dialogue to really explain. But also to listen to the inputs of the people, how they feel about it…and yeah, engaging in discussions about it.” (Thomas, 25, student, RTBF)

Secondly, users acknowledge the need to change the way the public service media educates its audiences, due to the complexity and little effect of the existing educational tools in the form of privacy statements, user terms of agreement and further complex materials. The opaque and complex instruments of sharing the information on the data with users are widely used by media organizations (Kennedy and Moss, 2015). One of the respondents shared his vision on the possible transformation of the educational materials:

“I would probably let somebody creative…probably produce a video or some comic style video maybe. Something that is not too...I mean it's a serious topic, but if you just have I don't know how many hundreds of words written down and explaining everything, also in the way it's written, I think people don't want read that. It’s not good, I'm not proud of that but I'm also neither interested then. I lose the interest after some sentences or I'm just too lazy and just want to skip and yeah ok, give me the content.” (Jonas, 27, Language Centre Assistant, RTBF)

Another respondent shared his vision on the way the information on data is presented on the media platforms online:

“Nobody's…either choosing between not using the platform, or accepting them. And most of the time it's just a huge wall of text inspired by law or other regulations which the general normal guy doesn't understand without taking hours.” (Kevin, 28, IT Consultant, VRT)

At the same time, users claim that public service media should take a guiding role and make attempts to educate the citizens in a user-friendly and easy format, in contrast to the formal procedures existing in the framework of the law. By this, the public service media is called to do more than just the law allows and to add more value to the data education.

Moreover, transparency is required from the public service media in terms of the way they use audiences’ data. Citizens claim they want to see a clear and transparent data policy of the public service media institutions:

“They also should give a realistic view to public of everything that happens, and not trying to keep people small-minded.” (Luna, 21, student, VRT)

Another respondent claimed that it is especially the case for public service media to be more transparent to the audience, due to its public-driven nature:

“Yes, we pay the taxes, and so you are the people financing it, so it has to be yours, and you want to...it’s...they work with your money, with the money or the contributors, so there is some need for some exemplarity and some transparency how they use your data. To be really transparent on their activities, maybe it would bring other media to do the same or some other organizations to do the same, you know.” (Thomas, 25, student, RTBF)

As the users claim, public service media institutions should act as role models for other media companies and to show a full transparency and accountability towards their audiences.

Last but not least, the role of public service media is to care of citizens’ awareness in terms of the growing data power in the society. Users acknowledge that it is important for public service media not only to be transparent and educate in terms of their data activities, but also to grow the overall awareness and to make citizens more literate in the online media environment. One of the respondents shared her opinion in this regard:

“But what they [public service media] need is more like a general awareness of this problem I think. And when you have the general awareness, you are more likely to go and check it out. Because, I said it before, I watched this news thing on privacy. I was also more likely to think about it. I didn't do the action, but I think it's something that always comes later. So first people have to think about it, and then…maybe after that they will do something about it.” (Lisa, 21, student, VRT)

However, the research results indicate that users do not tend to delegate the full responsibility to the public service media organizations exclusively; mostly, users acknowledge the role and a big responsibility of citizens in getting knowledge and literacy on the data subject:

“It’s also part of you accepting the fact that they can take information. So it goes both ways. I think a big part of this is education. So if you get educated at school that like okay guys if you are on Facebook, all this info is taken from you. If you don’t read it yourself, it has to start somewhere. So yes, it’s both ways. It’s an individual decision also.” (Lara, 22, student, VRT)

Kennedy, Poell and van Dijck (2015) in their work distinguish between various user categories, such as ordinary citizens and “resisting agents” represented by hackers. Similarly to what the authors claim, this research has identified the respondents’ perceptions on the data awareness originating not only from the top, but also from the bottom of the society. Hereby, the results indicate the role of ordinary users-activists, or data enthusiasts, who stimulate other citizens’ interest and awareness on the data-related topics:

“I'm really glad that there are people who read the statements and make posts about this. I do read posts sometimes. When I see them…when people notice changes in usage disclaimer or privacy statements, I will go through this and look what has changed and why, and what their opinion is.” (Kevin, 28, IT Consultant, VRT)

The results of this research indicate that users call for a bigger contribution of the public service media organizations to educating audiences to the point of the datafication online. According to the research findings, users expect public service media institutions to share the data-related information in a fully transparent way and to educate them by using easy to understand and user-friendly instruments.

6. 2. Findings: expert interviews

As claimed earlier in this research, by considering the factors of trust and literacy in the context of data and agency relations, it is vitally important to consider the actors responsible for literate users. These actors are presented by public service media organizations in this research work. In the framework of this research, three interviews

54 have been conducted with the relevant experts from VRT and RTBF who provided the researcher with the understanding of how Belgian public service media organizations, namely VRT and RTBF, approach the problem of audience’s knowledge and understanding of data-related processes online.

6. 2. 1. Role of trust

First, the media experts shared their attitude towards the meaning of trust with audiences in the context of a growing data power and the place of users facing this power. Emilie Nenquin, CRM Manager at VRT, believes that in the context of the growing data power and complex relations with the audiences, trust is the biggest value that public service media should guarantee its users:

“Trust is truly one of the main values that you should be able to offer to your audience. One way to approach it is that you can be a competitor in this way, because with public service you can really guarantee that you can trust us, in comparison with Facebook and all these others that are popping up. It can be a strong message towards your audiences and your users that you guarantee really the trust.” (Emily Nenquin, VRT, July 08, 2018)

The CRM Manager believes that it is hard to convince people of how their data is going to be used, even if the media organization is doing its best to educate and inform users explicitly. The solution the expert suggests is just to continue on having the information on data available and to keep to the promises the organizations gives. These measures will grow audiences’ trust in line with their data literacy:

“We very clearly state for each data element that we ask you - what we going to do with it, and we will never sell it to third parties, that is for sure. But it is difficult to convince people, we can tell them, we can put it in the charter, we can put it in the VRT profile very explicitly, and we can…But as you see, still there is a perception that is difficult to change. So I think what in terms of trust again related to the data, you can now tell them what you going do with your data, why you ask for their data. And then the second step is really to make sure that you keep your promises.” (Emily Nenquin, VRT, July 08, 2018)

At the same time, Erwin Maussen, the DPO at VRT, admitted that the media organization is aware that the audience may have a false understanding of data-related processes on its website and mobile platforms:

“It's true they think that we may probably sell the data, they just don't know what they're talking about - and that's very hard to...I have seen that. We try to be as transparent as possible.” (Erwin Maussen, VRT, July 08, 2018)

Hereby, the expert points at the role of transparency in terms of data. According to the expert, the transparency is closely related to the education policy conducted by the media organizations. Therefore, this thesis will next consider the measures and attitudes of public service media institutions in Belgium towards audiences’ education on data.

6. 2. 2. Data-related education

The transparency suggested by the VRT expert Erwin Maussen is taking place in two ways. One way is user education via the educational tools and policies on the VRT website, and the other is the education taking place in the context produced by the media organization. Firstly, the DPO suggests that VRT is doing a lot to educate users by means of direct educational tools online:

“We made the ‘my privacy’ - vrt.be/myprivacy - with animations. So we did that and the privacy notice has been changed to be updated to the GDPR, but also to be really clear. So the privacy notice is also...you have one page with the most important messages and the promises about what is privacy to you, so we have a privacy notice and a cookie policy. So all these different cookies that I just told about and what does that mean, that’s for example also in the cookie policy. We have a link to for example all list - so you can actually see all the analytical and functional cookies that we are dropping, so you don't need a tracker, we give use a list of all the cookies we drop. And it’s really educating...so if you do the VRT profile, we try to be as clear and as that and link you to privacy notice and the cookie, that is what you have seen...but not only there that we just ask for cookies” (Erwin Maussen, VRT, July 08, 2018).

Moreover, as the expert explains, besides the data-related information displayed on the website of VRT, the education takes place via the media content. By this, VRT strives at raising audiences’ awareness by discussing data in the content of VRT’s media messages:

“That is a direct education [information on the website], but what we do in our content - that is also education. For example, on the radio we had the ’inspector’ who does a client, customer programs. They had a lot of programs on what is GDPR, what does that mean. Also the news that have been specific topic for the whole week on what does it mean for schools. So there is also education from the public service media point of view. So I have been on radio ‘Radio 1’ explaining - so this is the DPO of VRT, and what does that mean then.” (Erwin Maussen, VRT, July 08, 2018)

Similarly, Pierre-Nicolas Schwab, Big Data and CRM manager at RTBF, shares that the most important in data-related education is to tell your audiences complex things in easy words:

“You have to use simple words. That’s what we do actually. When we introduced single- sign-on back in 2016, we did this with a new privacy and transparency charter that I wrote with the legal department. We issued a video that was done with one of our famous presenter here, we’ve explain how we do and why we do it. Currently what we do – we observe people who use our services actually. So we don’t have complaints.” (Pierre- Nicolas Schwab, RTBF, May 11, 2018)

However, in contrast to his VRT colleagues, the RTBF expert believes that it is important, first of all, to offer good content to your audience. Good and quality content is something that brings the audience to the media organization, regardless the way it displays the data- related information. The expert believes that the online media users are not willing to be educated. Instead, they simply want the good-quality content as soon as possible:

“But honestly, when the content is great, people don’t ask these questions [data-related questions]. I mean you have the World Cup coming next month, people – they want to watch the World Cup, and they want to watch it as fast as possible. So if they do it on account, they won’t bother reading that. And that’s the problem that is called ‘consent fatigue’. So that people are tired of always giving their consent. So, in the end they do not read terms and conditions anymore. I read a study that the average American has to accept 50 000 terms and conditions every single year which represents like 71 days of reading. You know, in most cases, if you are a broadcasting company and if your content is

57 great, people will not bother asking because they just want to watch the content.” (Pierre- Nicolas Schwab, RTBF, May 11, 2018).

Regardless the attitude to the education policy, the three experts interviewed believed that the online information on data must be user-friendly and easy to understand. At the same time, the experts admitted that this information is available in a good format at present moment, and interested users should have no problem to understand it. Emilie Nenquin from VRT believes that the information on the data use such as privacy charters is delivered in the form that is user-friendly enough, and it is not possible to deliver such important information in a too simplified way. In this regard, it is the role of users to read it through:

“Privacy charter VRT for me it's understandable, but I think...we let it be reviewed by legal so that it fits 100% with the law. And then it starts to become a bit more complex than I had hoped for. But I still think that in comparison with a lot of other websites, it's not very long and it's quite structured and it is quite clear. You can find very quickly the information you need. That is well done.” (Emilie Nenquin, VRT, July 08, 2018)

The experts from VRT and RTBF acknowledge a big role of trust with audiences as one of the biggest value that public service media should guarantee. To reach this, people have to be convinced of good intentions that the organizations have towards users’ data. However, while experts believe in a big role of education in a direct way through the education instruments online and the indirect way through the media messages, the importance of good-quality media content and fulfilling the promises given to the audiences cannot be underestimated.

6. 3. Final analysis and discussion

After having analyzed the findings from the two empirical methods received based on the in-depth interviews with users as well as the inputs provided by the VRT and RTB experts on the topic, it is crucial to discuss those results alongside each other to derive conclusions on this “data-agency” conflict and the role of public service media in it.

The results of the in-depth interviews with users of VRT and RTBF indicate a low awareness and understanding of data-related processes that take place on the public service media websites, but also on the online platforms of commercial media platforms. This fact

58 places public service media organization in the situation when their audiences do not understand, thus can only assume, why they have to provide the organizations with their private information and data, and how this data further is processed. As a consequence, low awareness and knowledge generate the feeling of mistrust and lack of reliance on public service media as institutions collecting and keeping users’ data. Several users have clearly expressed their protest towards giving public service media their personal information:

“I don't like, I don't see any advantage of giving them (VRT) my personal information. I mean if there is any risk connected to it, like immediately on my life, there is no risk on my life. It’s not like giving my personal information will kill me tomorrow. I just asked myself the question - why do they need my personal information.” (Kevin, 28, IT Consultant, VRT)

Hereby, the lack of understanding why the data is collected in combination with the lack of trustworthiness towards the system, substantially affects the relations between public service media institutions and their audiences. These factors place public service media organizations in a complex situation when they are suffering from the lack of trust and reliance.

At the same time, public service media institutions in Europe highlight their close connection with the audiences as the main differentiator with the commercial media organizations. The EBU claims that public service media is to take “an alternative approach to data; to be the counterbalance to today’s ‘echo chambers’ that establish themselves as sources of data and information” (European Broadcasting Union, 2016, para. 47). Public service media organizations are to strive at keeping a certain bond of trust with the citizens. As the EBU claims, this is only possible if the concerns of citizens – ordinary users – are heard, respected and set as a guiding principle at the heart of public service media organizations (European Broadcasting Union, 2016). This argument has been reflected by several respondents during the interviews:

“Yeah, I think public service broadcasters should really have this social responsibility and they have to engage the audience to have dialogue to really explain. But also to listen to the inputs of the people, how they feel about it. And yeah, engaging in discussions about it.” (Thomas, 25, student, RTBF)

In a similar way, the interviewed experts point out a high importance of trusting audience for the public service media:

“One of key values of public service media...one of the things that make us different compared to commercial organizations…You can say it's one of our differentiating factors as a public company - is trust.” (Erwin Maussen, VRT, July 08, 2018)

The position of public service media institutions and the regulating organizations such as the EBU is clear in the way that more trust in terms of data is needed. Besides, as an answer to the growing data power, users call for bigger awareness and understanding as a factor predetermining their feeling of trust and reliance. Moreover, as claimed in Chapter 2 of this thesis, trust acts as a bridge in the context of limited knowledge. That means that improved knowledge and awareness of users can potentially generate more trust towards the public service media institutions. Therefore, both sides – users and public service media experts – agree on the fact that public service media institutions should engage in a closer dialogue with the users in the context of datafication and data use, and to show the difference from commercial organizations in practice.

At the same time, users claim that the media institutions are expected to prove the audiences that the latter make an important asset. As one of the respondents shared, the way a media organization approaches the data-related information as well as the way it presents this information to its audience, tells a lot about the fact whether people make a real value for this organization:

“This is what I'm saying; you have to...if it's really a company’s concern...like not just for audiences and stuff, but a core value that the company is concerned, you have to make people watch it. You have to pick your type, what do you want, what is your goal actually. Is it because now it's a deal and you have to - then ok, do something small, like people who really want to see this information, will get to it. Or is it something that is really important for your company, because you got to…I don't know why...and then you choose another…” (Marie, 29, Gallery Manager, RTBF)

This argument leads to the idea that public service media should take substantial moves to educate its audience. On the one hand, public service media organizations need to differentiate themselves from the private media organizations, the so called ‘echo chambers’, and to generate more citizens’ trust in this regard. On the other hand, ordinary

60 users need to feel more empowered and aware, that will lead to a more confident user agency.

This situation is also steered by the trust factors that have been identified in our research. Despite the general feeling of mistrust and unawareness that users expressed when thinking about the data-related processes online, public service media organizations receive more trust from users when it comes to a number of characteristics. Among these characteristics are the government supervision, the Belgian character and the belief in institutional competence. These factors based on users’ perceptions act as a substantial reason for public service media to take responsibility for the data education as institutions that generally receive more trust and reliance from the citizens.

Therefore, taking a greater responsibility towards users’ data education and awareness should be a priority for public service media organizations due to the nature of public service media institutions and their core values. In addition, the need for a greater responsibility is stimulated by users’ expectations and reliance on those organizations in contrast to other media institutions. Yet, the problem of how this move is to be taken still requires further consideration.

The inputs of the experts at VRT and RTBF make up the understanding that public service media institutions in Belgium have taken a certain move and transformed data policies into a more user-friendly format. At the same time, both the experts from VRT and RTBF have revealed that certain moves towards integrating data topic into the content of television and radio programs. These results indicate a certain degree of awareness of the ‘unconscious user’ problem from the public service media’s side.

However, the cross-comparative analysis of interview results indicates three main paradoxes arisen in these discussions. First of all, users point out a lack of interest and time for the direct education tools. By this, they call for a bigger role of public service media institutions and the need to pay more attention to user education by applying more user- friendly tools in a form of a simplified video or a short text. As one of the respondents shared:

“See, and I noticed it with myself also...like I want to know more about it, but I'm not willing to .see the videos and spend my time on it.” (Lotte, 22, student, VRT)

At the same time, the experts, particularly the VRT expert Emilie Nenquin, shared that those educational tools are of a certain complexity due to the necessity to be in line with

61 law and thus require a certain degree of users’ attention. This consequently brings to the conflict when users’ expectations of ‘as easy as possible’ educational instruments cannot be fulfilled due to the policy limitations.

Secondly, as mentioned, a certain degree of simplification of tools is called by the users. As users claim, watching the data-related information in the form of a video or listening to a podcast would be much more preferable than the standardized reading materials:

“Maybe...A video it's always nice. Maybe if you're sitting in the metro and you have no time to watch it, maybe they could speak it in or something like that.” (Tom, 24, Teacher, VRT)

However, the media experts revealed that both public service media institutions have successfully incorporated video and audio materials on their website where all users are welcomed to get deeper information on their data. This brings to the situation described by one of the respondents. In this, she called for more simplified data-related video materials on the VRT website, whereby admitting having seen the existing video materials and having paid no attention into them:

“Yes, I saw it...I can remember something about green background and then a cookie on it, but I skipped it, I didn't read it. That’s something that I always skip. Like yeah, again. After this I will think like why I am not doing this.” (Lisa, 21, student, VRT)

The third conflict is related to the way the information is presented to the audiences. While some users share their expectations of public service media institutions to force the education even though against the will of the citizens:

“Yes, that's the point. Maybe they should, because they...maybe they should educate us even if we don't want and they should keep pushing us.” (Lotte, 22, student, VRT)

Other users indicate that such a ‘pushing’ policy will only turn the audience negative towards the media institution. One of users shared her opinion on whether public service media should force the education to its audience:

“I wouldn't make them [users] read [data-related information] because I know the people get really annoyed...I would get annoyed.” (Julie, 26, student, VRT)

The latter argument is also confirmed by the words of RTBF expert Pierre-Nicolas Schwab who believes that the content is what matters first of all. Therefore, according to the expert,

62 good content is to be a priority for public service media institution, and not the right data education policy:

“…But honestly, when the content is great, people don’t ask these questions.” (Pierre- Nicolas Schwab, RTBF)

Therefore, having considered both sides of this ‘data dispute’, a certain degree of complexity based in users’ reflections as well as in the policy side of the question has been revealed. It is undoubtedly the fact that public service media is to be a differentiator from the other media institutions when it comes to data. That concerns not only data use, but the way the information on data is presented to the audience and the way users get educated and literate on the implicitly collected and explicitly shared data. This idea is grounded in the users’ personal feelings, as well as in the attitudes of public service media experts and other regulating media institutions such as EBU.

However, the hands-on recommendation on the ways this ‘differentiation’ is due to take place needs further consideration from both audiences’ perspective as well as from the institutional perspective with the whole complexity of cross-departmental regulations.

CONCLUSIONS

This Master thesis has examined the relations between the user agency and the datified online media environment from the two perspectives. First, this thesis has studied users’ knowledge and understanding of data-related processes on Belgian public service media and commercial media platforms as well as the extent of trustworthiness in terms of data that users hold towards these platforms in the context of limited literacy. Second, the attitudes of public service media institutions on the problem of users’ literacy and trust have been examined. Additionally, the users’ perceptions acquired throughout the interviews have been analyzed next to the public service media experts’ attitudes, and the main conflicts in these relations have been derived.

One of the central questions of this thesis was to understand the extent to which users are aware and knowledgeable of the data and datafication processes on the online media platforms by seeking to examine the nature of this knowledge. The analysis of user interviews revealed a very unstable character of the knowledge-related attitudes grounded in pure assumptions of users. A lack of rationally-based understanding has been identified among all VRT and RTBF users participating in the research. As a result, this thesis did not look into the direct parameters of knowledge in the framework of specific data literacy topics and did not strive to identify the gaps in this knowledge due to very unstable reasoning of users. Instead, the thesis examined in-depth the undermining reasons of low data-related understanding and the attitudes and motivations of users in the context of this knowledge. As a result, two major explanations of the lack of understanding have been derived from users’ perspective specifically: the lack of interest and the absence of willingness to get a deeper understanding of the process due to the fear of knowing more than needed. Surprisingly, users have not pointed at the absence of information on data use from the public service media side, but explained the low awareness on the basis of personal reasons. However, at the same time, the majority of respondents admitted that a greater role of public service media is needed for the data-related education of the audience.

Following the role of public service media, the second category of input was related to the role of VRT and RTBF in the context of data-related education as perceived by users. The results have revealed that the majority of the respondents call for a greater role of public service media in terms of three directions: to grow the audience’s interest in the data-

64 related topics; to be more transparent towards the users; and to teach and explain the “hidden” mechanisms of datafication online. Research findings suggest that the VRT and RTBF users expect these public service media organizations to take responsibility for their own data-related activities as well as to guide users in the online space.

Firstly, users express their willingness to see more transparency on the data-driven activities of public service media in order not to keep the citizens “small-minded”. In line with this, educating and teaching its audience should be performed via changed educational and informational tools that are due to be much more user-friendly and easy to understand. Secondly, public service media organizations are perceived by the audience as those to be a role model for other media organizations. A higher degree of trust towards public service media institutions has also been revealed to be a guiding factor for public service media to take up the educator role.

The factors of literacy and trust have been found out to be closely related for users to make up their attitudes. The low level of awareness has been found to be grounded in the limited degree of trustworthiness delegated to media organizations. As to solve the second research question of this thesis, the aspect of trust has been considered based on users’ perceptions of public service media in contrast to the commercial media organizations, as institutions operating personal data. The research findings suggest four major factors that have been found to guide the audiences’ feeling of trust in institutions operating their data: competence belief, perceived risk, personal and national levels of trust.

Competence belief has been revealed to be one of the driving trust factors and includes two perspectives: the overall image of a media organization and the attitude towards the data- related activities of it. The users, who perceive VRT and RTBF as generally trustworthy organizations with good intentions, similarly perceive their operations of users’ data in a positive way. Others, who hold a generally negative perception towards the Belgian public service media institution, have revealed to have less trustworthy relations with it accordingly. A deep understanding of this factor could be reached via the use of concept maps that served as a basis for examining the competence belief. The attitude towards the data services was also found to have a complex nature. While some respondents differentiate the purposes and nature of data-driven services on public service media platforms from the same on private media websites, others point at the identical nature and purposes of those. This perception influence the trust feelings accordingly.

Risk is generally perceived as the major counterpart of trust. However, the research findings indicate that the awareness of particular risk on media platforms – a public service media or a private one – is very low. Surprisingly, the feeling of trust has not been found out to have appeared in a context of certain risk. This can be explained by a low awareness and understanding from the user side.

The personal attitudes and characteristics have also proved to drive the trust feelings towards the media institutions as data processors. Users, who indicate a close connection to the public service media organization due to childhood- or family-based preferences, develop bigger trust into this organization in terms of all spheres of its activities. No similar connection with any private media organization has been identified. At the same time, a feeling of general distrust online generates a lack of trust in public service media institutions by placing them on the same level with the private media institutions.

The national belonging of the media organization has been identified by the researcher as one of the most important trust factors. This can be explained by the nature of Belgian political and economic environment and the feeling of reliance on the state system. Public service media organizations as institutions based in Belgium exclusively and operating under the trademark of government receive a higher degree of trust from the respondents’ perspective. The media organizations that are operating internationally are perceived as less trustworthy when it comes to personal data of uses.

Nonetheless, the research results indicate that trust factors can have both positive and negative connotation for different users. However, public service media organizations have been found out to be perceived as more trustworthy due to the government supervision, the Belgian character and the personal connection grounded in the social environment. However, according to some respondents, public service media does not elicit any trust due to the same factors.

Last but not least, the inputs generated on the basis of interviews with the VRT and RTBF experts have been analyzed alongside the users’ perceptions of trustworthiness, their data awareness and expectations for public service media organizations. These ‘user – producer’ relations illustrate a certain degree of complexity due to the conflicts and paradoxes that have been identified throughout the process of analysis. The research findings of this thesis have identified three main conflicts in the relations between the user agency and the public service media as institutions of a certain degree of data power.

The first point of dispute is related to the absence of users’ motivation and interest to get educated through the existing public service media tools while calling for a bigger role of public service media at the same time. Users call for a more action from the public service media’s side, while having no motivation to get involved in the education process.

The second point of discussion is connected with users claiming for even bigger role of public service media in user education though the simplest tools possible. As an answer to this, the public service media experts claim to have introduced simplified tools aimed at data awareness, while no more simplicity can be reached due to the legal requirements.

The third paradox is connected with the desire of some users to be educated against their will. At the same time, others claim they would simply stop using a public service media platform if the data-related information is forced to them.

Therefore, the research findings indicate a high complexity of the ‘data dispute’ in the context of the data and agency relations raised in this thesis. As a result, this research does not provide one single recommendation for the public service media institutions due to a very complex character of users’ attitudes, on the one hand and a complexity of the policy and legal environment in which PSM institutions are operating, on the other hand. The key conclusion is the need for public service media organizations in Belgium to take a distinct approach towards the way users’ data is used. Next to it, this approach should include the way the information on data is presented to the audience and the way users get educated and literate on their implicitly collected and explicitly shared data. This conclusion is deeply grounded in the users’ perceptions, knowledge and attitudes. Nevertheless, the lack of understanding on the data-related processes combined with the lack of trustworthiness towards the system, affects the relations between public service media institutions and their audiences in a negative way. A distinctive approach towards users’ education public service media organizations would stimulate a certain bond of trust with the citizens. Users, from their side, have to take a decision for themselves and to undertake actions by growing self-awareness and literacy on the topic of data online.

LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

While carrying out the research, certain challenges and limitations have been identified. The first challenge was connected with the limited importance expressed by users in regards to the topic of data-related activities on the platforms of public service media institutions. This topic has turned out to carry much more importance for users in relation to social media platforms as well as private media platforms. It required the researcher certain efforts to steer the interest and involvement of the respondents to get a deeper insight into the relation of data and public service media institutions.

Another challenge has been connected with the limited access to the native population of Belgium due to absence of language skills that are the Dutch language in the case of VRT users, and French for the RTBF audience. This limitation has applied certain restrictions on the characteristics of the respondents. Firstly, only users of VRT and RTBF with good English language skills, who are Master students or young professionals, participated in the research. Additionally, the language restriction has affected the heterogeneity of the sample that was represented by young people between 21 and 29 years old. By this the research has excluded the older population, as well as teenagers out of scope. However, the researcher admits a high importance of these two groups when looking into the literacy and trust aspects. This is because it is highly important to get the insight in the data-related understanding of the young generation, as well as the older population who may potentially not be aware of the data-related processed online.

Further research should therefore consider the sample that represents users of various age groups and social-demographic characteristics in order to present a holistic picture of literacy- and trust-based attitudes.

This research has not focused on the structure of users’ literacy as well as on particular tools applied by the media organizations aimed at growing citizens’ literacy. For this reason, further research could take a different perspective to supplement these qualitative- based findings. First, quantitative research could look into the users’ knowledge from the quantitative perspective by providing a reflection and structure of parameters that make up users’ knowledge and literacy in the context of data. This goal could be reached by the use of survey to identify specific gaps in users’ knowledge that need to be tackled by the media

68 organizations in future. Second, desk-based research and document analysis could supplement the research by taking a policy perspective to the question of educational tools as well as to the problem of social responsibility and ethics. Besides, to examine the problem of user disempowerment in the datified online environment, further research aspects need to be looked at, next to educational tools and data information online.

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APPENDICES

Appendix I: User interview guide

The semi-structured interviews are built up around 5 topics with the openness and flexibility towards new topics and issues raised during the interviews.

 General attitude

Users are asked to draw their associations and connections with the media organization of choice in the form of concept map:

- What is for you VRT/RTBF?

- Which services do you associate with this media organization?

- Describe VRT/RTBF by using adjectives; nouns or phrases;

- What do you associate with the inline services of this broadcaster?

Concept maps are used to steer the discussion in more details and to move to the level of online activities of the media organization. While drawing and writing, users are to reflect deeper and think on public service media in the way they are not used to think.

 Awareness & understanding

Questions touching upon users’ awareness of the data processed online are asked in the first turn:

- Are you actively using online services of this broadcaster?

- Do you think that your data is collected by the platform? Why do you think so?

- How do you understand, for which purposes is it collected?

- Do you know in which ways is your data collected?

- How/where from do you know about data collection in this regard?

The questions on users’ awareness touch upon the activities of VRT/RTBF firstly, followed by the round of question on commercial platforms of preference.

Importance:

- Are you generally worried about data collection online ( PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA/commercial media)?

- In private conversations with friends or family, do you discuss the topic of implicit data collection?

- Do you feel more vulnerable on one online platform over the other?

 Trust: perception of credibility and reliability

Afterwards, the degree of knowledge and understanding is revealed, the researcher aims to look at the trust relations between users and online media platforms. The concept map is still placed in front of the respondent to find possible links and connections.

- Do you see more benefits or disadvantages for you in the data services (personalization of content and recommendations based on data collection)?

- Suggesting user a scale from 1 to 10: how would you grade the responsibility of media organization towards you as a data provider, by comparing VRT/RTBF and a commercial platform of use? Users are therefore asked to explain the choice of a grade. The scale system has not been used to generate any quantitative data, but to help users in orienting themselves as well as to get a deeper insight into the degree of trust.

- Do you believe one media organization has more technical and organizational mechanisms to keep personal data safe and secure than the other? Based on VRT/RTBF – commercial platform comparison.

- The attitude to data-driven activities of VRT/RTBF.

 Risks

The discussion on risk is built around constant cross-comparison between public service media and commercial platforms.

- Do you have any fears when surfing the platform connected with your data use, data collection or similar? How and in which ways do you feel it?

- How is your risk attitudes translated in behavior? Any difference between various platforms of use: being more careful; (not) accepting cookies; using incognito

mode; installing and using privacy enhancing technologies (PET) like ad blockers or tracker blockers; sharing minimum data;

 Education

- Have you seen any programs, dedicated parts on the website or any other tools explaining the process of data collection on VRT? And on the commercial platform?

- Do you feel you lack the knowledge related to data? Users are asked to elaborate deeper on the topic.

- Do you feel the need to be communicated in a better way about your data use online? Which actors should communicate this information and in which ways?

- Do you read data-related policies on media platforms? Why yes or no?

- Imagine that you are a Head of Communication Department of a media platform of choice. How would you communicate with the audience in terms of implicit data collection from the perspective of user as you are?

Hereby, users are asked to elaborate more on VRT/RTBF as well as on commercial platform of choice.

APPENDIX II: Consent form

Consent for participation in research interview Research You are asked to participate in the master thesis research ‘’User trust in the age of Big Data: the case of public service media‘’ conducted at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel by Alena Sidarovich. You should read the information below and ask questions about anything you do not understand before deciding whether or not to participate. Aim of this research The research intends to look at how much users do trust the data aggregation mechanisms on the online platforms of public service media in contrast to the commercially-driven platforms, and whether they are aware of the ways the data is collected and used by the public service media. In the second turn, the research aims at considering the ways the public service media organization plan to cement trust with their users, if at all. Description of the study and incentive Participation in this research involves being interviewed by the researcher. The interview will last approximately 60 minutes. The interview will be audio recorded and some notes will be taken for the analysis afterwards. During the interview a written input in the form of a concept map will be asked. Participating in this research is voluntary and you have the right to quit at any moment, without providing a reason. Privacy and anonymity All data gathered in this research will be processed anonymously and will only be used for this project. All participants will be coded (for example, by using pseudonyms) in the analysis and reporting of the data. This means that your name will not be linked to the gathered information. Permission I, ______, agree with the content of this document and agree to participate in this study. I agree/not agree with the usage of picture of the concept map done by me during the interview. Date: Signature:

Contact For any questions related to this research or for the inquiries related to the outcomes of this research, please contact me by: - E-mail: [email protected] - Phone: +3249963565

APPENDIX III: DROP-OFF QUESTIONNAIRE

Name……………………………………………………….. Date…………………………………………………………

General information

Age…………………………………………………………

Gender……………………………………………………..

Education…………………………………………………..

Do you work? YES/NO

What is your profession……………………………………

Usage of public service media platforms

Public service media platform of use: VRT/RTBF

Devices used to surf the platform…………………………………………………………….

Activities on the public service media platform (purpose of use)……………………………

Any other platform you use for this purpose?………………………………………………..