Collaboration with the Estonian Public Broadcaster (ERR) is under way

Our team collaborates now also with ERR where we aim to analyse ERR broadcasting data of several decades and develop ways to publish some of it as open data. The aim is to research ways to improve the datasets and prepare them for further analysis by the public. The initiative is based on the idea that public service media could generate public value in new ways. Public value is seen as something that contributes to the functioning of the public sphere and national innovation systems.

We will work with ERR’s archive data, more specifically with the metadata of ERR’s radio and TV shows. TLU’s Cultural Data Analytics (CUDAN) team also takes actively part in this collaboration. Mainly, their contribution will lie in finding potential new ways to use the existing data, to find connections and create visualisations to map the data and its connections. ERR relevant datasets are very rich, including data on production circumstances, makers, guests, topics and other characteristics of the content.

Secondly, as ERR is a public broadcaster and aims to open its data to the public, the process should result in protocols and principles that guide ERR in the future to provide its data to the public in an accessible and comprehensible manner. Relatedly, interactive visualisation options could be developed for users to easily interact with the data. This idea stems from the open knowledge and open governance thinking where there is push to publish information to the public in order to increase transparency and also accountability to the public.

User access to the data can also mean new services that are developed from the published data as it can be easily collected and analysed. For ERR and its partners such open data provision, visualisations it will enable and new knowledge learned could lead to further innovation as data may facilitate new perceptions on media work and value creation motivating changes in the working principles in the broader media industry. It is also a case that could motivate different institutions – public broadcaster, academia, government institutions – to come together and analyse and improve how data is used for the purpose of potential future innovations relying on this type of open data.

The collaboration runs until the end of 2021. In addition to the current project, potential future collaborations and further common interests are being discussed and identified in the process.