International summit on the future of public service media in the platform era
Author ADM+S Centre
Date 26 March 2026
Internationally renowned scholars Professor Georgina Born (University College London) and Associate Professor Diaz (Carnegie Mellon University) joined leading international and Australian experts in Melbourne this month for a series of high-level discussions on the future of public service media in the platform era.
Hosted by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S), this event sought to address the challenges faced by public service media in an era of technological change, highlight the importance of ensuring a robust system committed to public service values and the importance of research and development focused on the public good.
The program was convened by Professor Georgina Born (UCL), Professor Mark Andrejevic (Monash University), Professor Fernando Diaz (Carnegie Mellon University) and Associate Professor James Meese (RMIT University), and formed part of a broader international collaboration around public-interest media infrastructure.
Professor Born and Associate Professor Diaz also attended a week of workshops organised by Associate Professor James Meese that brought together leading computer scientists and humanities scholars, post-doctoral fellows and PhD candidates across the ADM+S RMIT node to share work on recommender system algorithms, media distribution and search.
A public panel event at the State Library of Victoria on 10 March attracted around 60 attendees, highlighting strong community interest in the future of media and democracy.
The discussion featuring Professor Born and Professor Victor Pickard (University of Pennsylvania) in conversation with Professor Andrew Kenyon (University of Melbourne), examined how regulation, alternative algorithms and new distribution systems could support public service media in an increasingly platform-dominated landscape.
Building on this discussion, a Public Service Media Summit was held on 12 March. The summit convened an international cohort of speakers, including representatives from the European Broadcasting Union, RNZ, the ABC, the Responsible Innovation Centre (hosted at the BBC), and leading universities across Europe, the United States and Australia.
Across the summit, participants explored how public service media can respond to rapid technological change, particularly the rise of artificial intelligence and platform-based distribution, while maintaining core democratic values such as universality, accessibility and independence.
ADM+S Chief Investigator James Meese said “It was a pleasure to welcome leading thinkers from across the world to Melbourne to discuss the future of public service media.”
“By convening this week of events, ADM+S has made a key contribution to the global debate around these important challenges”.
“The week also provided a valuable opportunity for ADM+S colleagues from across the Centre to build new connections, while our early career researchers benefited from Georgie and Fernando’s generous engagement with their work.”
Summit speakers included: Professor Georgina Born (UCL), Sasha Scott (European Broadcasting Union), Victor Pickard (University of Pennsylvania), Michał Głowacki (University of Warsaw), Patrick Crewdson (RNZ), David Sutton (ABC), Fernando Diaz (Carnegie Mellon) and Helen Jay (University of Westminster/BBC).
Following these discussions, a follow-up global summit is scheduled to take place in London in September 2026.
