This document summarizes research from over 1,200 academic articles on convergence and social media between 2013-2017. It aims to increase awareness of recent discoveries among stakeholders. The research found the dominant issue was integrating legacy and new media, followed by private vs public roles regarding personal data and protecting minors. Individuals and tech companies have become important news curators, but legacy media still produces most shared news. The document outlines research agendas on convergence types and regulatory issues like personal data, protecting minors, hate speech, and democracy. It concludes with recommending further reading in its full report.

1. COMPACT PROJECT
Bringing Social Media and Traditional Media Together
Deliverable:
STATE OF THE ART: RESEARCH
ON CONVERGENCE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Research Agendas and Roadmaps
Authors:
Andrej Školkay (the key author)
Ľubica Adamcová, Juraj Filin, Veronika Vighová, Igor Daniš
1

2. COMPACT H2020 Project
• The information is prepared by the team of
the COMPACT project (http://compact-media.eu/).
• COMPACT is a Coordination and Support Action funded
EuropeanCommission under framework Horizon 2020.
• The objective of the COMPACT project is to increase
awareness (including scientific, political, cultural, legal,
economic and technical areas) of the latest
technological discoveries among key stakeholders in
the context of social media and convergence.The
project will offer analyses and road maps of related
initiatives. In addition, extensive research on policies
and regulatory frameworks in media and content will
be developed.
2

3. Consortium
3

4. Consortium
Participant No
*
Participant organisation name Country
1 (Lead) National University of Ireland (NUI) Ireland
2 School of Communication and Media, n.o. (SCM) Slovakia
3 DATA d.o.o. (DAT) Slovenia
4 The European Digital SME Alliance (EDA) Belgium
5 Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BAS) Bulgaria
6 Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) Slovenia
7 Ontotext Corp (ONT) Bulgaria
8
NGO Agency of European Innovations (AEI)
https://aei.org.ua/
Ukraine
9 Media 21 Foundation (M21) Bulgaria
10 UNIVERSIDADE CATOLICA PORTUGUESA (RCC) Portugal
11 Partnership for Social Development (PSD) Croatia
12 IT Forum (ITF) Denmark
13 The University of Latvia (UL) Latvia
14
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy
(ELI)
Greece
15 Mediaframe Ltd. (MF) UK

5. RESEARCH FINDINGS
5
This report by COMPACT project aims at enhancing awareness about the latest scientific discoveries -state of the
art research on social media and convergence -among key stakeholders in the context of social media and
convergence. For this purpose, we have gone through over 1,200 mostly academic articles dealing with
convergence and social media, published in more than 20 EU and non-EU countries between 2013 and 2017 and
in some cases beyond.

6. RESEARCH FINDINGS
6
The most dominant issue that researchers encountered seems to be conflict and integration/merger of legacy
and new media functions. The second most frequently tackled relationship is between private and public roles
and issues. This latter issue was reflected in studies on personal data, protection of minors, libel and hate-related
issues. Producer-consumer relationship is the third most often researched issue.
Individuals and technology companies have become much more important curators of information and news
than they were before. However, the legacy media –mostly audio-visual media and media websites –have a
significant role to play. In fact, the news that is most read, shared, and discussed in social media is produced by
professional news organisations. In particular, the profession of journalist is very much needed for the society.

7. RESEARCH FINDINGS
7
Especially in North-Central Europe (Germany, Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland), the shift to convergence
culture was impeded by a long and strong tradition of print journalism. Spanish and Portuguese news managers
demonstrate more diverse strategic approaches to adapting to the possibilities of new media environments. They
implemented new editorial routines with more effort and made use of new formats and trans-media storytelling.
Convergence, implemented primarily as a cost effective strategy, does not promote better journalism. Facebook,
in particular, seems to push news media organisations to replace their ‘editorial logic’ by an ‘algorithmic logic’ for
the presentation of news. On the one hand, the immediacy of Twitter enhances journalists´ awareness and
anticipation capabilities, as well as enables to convert on-site capital into discursive authority in the public
sphere. On the other hand, the paralysis, which seizes the press in times when important decisions are
impending, gets intensified through Twitter and can lead to inconsistencies and misperceptions in media
reporting.

8. CONTENTS
8
PART 1: RESEARCH AGENDAS AND ROADMAPS
CONVERGENCE TYPE 1 PLAY/ LABOUR
CONVERGENCE TYPE 3 PRODUCER/CONSUMER
Conceptual Issues and General Usage of Social Media
Relationships between Producers and Consumers in Business
Campaigns and Public Communication
Media Businesses and Social Media
Impact on users´ health
Ethical aspects of data mining and data protection
Public Administration
CONVERGENCE TYPE 5 LEGACY/NEW MEDIA
SUMMARY OF KEY TENTATIVE FINDINGS/RECOMMENDATIONS
PART 2: SELECTION OF BEST OF THE BEST FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON CONVERGENCE AND SOCIAL
MEDIA
REGULATORY ISSUE: PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION
SUMMARY OF TENTATIVE INDINGS/RECOMMENDATIONS
REGULATORY ISSUE: PROTECTION OF MINORS
SUMMARY OF TENTATIVE FINDINGS/RECOMMENDATIONS
REGULATORY ISSUES: HATE SPEECH, DISINFORMATION, LIBEL, TERRORISM
SUMMARY OF TENTATIVE FINDINGS/RECOMMENDATIONS
REGULATORY ISSUES: MARKETING, JOURNALISM AND COPYRIGHT
SUMMARY OF TENTATIVE FINDINGS/RECOMMENDATIONS
REGULATORY ISSUE: DEMOCRACY AND CONVER GED SOCIAL MEDIA
SUMMARY OF TENTATIVE FINDINGS/RECOMMENDATIONS

9. FULL DOCUMENT
9
Available on the COMPACT project website.
At the link: http://compact-media.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/D1.1-
Research-Agendas-and-Roadmaps.pdf