The Institute for Information Law is very proud to announce that Prof. Dr. Natali Helberger has been awarded with a ERC Starting Grant. A Starting Grant is a personal grant of 1.5 million euros which is meant to support talented researchers for a period of five years while they conduct research.

She will receive the grant for her research titled:

Profiling and Targeting News Readers: Implications for the Democratic Role of the Digital Media, User Rights and Public Information Policy

Within the digital media environment, user attention is scare and competition for ‘eyeballs’ is fierce. The personalisation of media content is seen by many as a solution; with the help of (Big) Data and clever algorithms, users receive news and adverts that are tailored to their individual interests and tastes. Personalisation, however, is also part of a more fundamental paradigm shift in the media’s role from public interest intermediary to personal information coach. In her project, Hellberger will answer critical questions about the consequences of this shift for individual media users, the public debate and the role of personalised media in a democratic society.

See also the UvA website ERC Starting Grant for nine UvA and AMC-UvA researchers and Foliaweb UvA-hoogleraar Helberger ontvant ERC Starters Grant (in Dutch).

On 19 September 2014 Natali Helberger held her inaugural speech at the UvA on a related topic: Media and users: towards a new balance.