The researchers of the international project Join Demos (Journalistic Innovations in Democratic Societies) held a working meeting at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche on 11th and 12th November. Teams from the Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt (Germany), led by Professor Klaus Meier; the Austrian Academic of Sciences (Austria), led by Professor Andy Kaltenbrunner; the Institute of Applied Media Studies and the Università della Svizzera italiana (Switzerland), led by Professor Colin Porlezza; and the University Miguel Hernández (Spain), led by Professor José A. García-Avilés, participated in this event.

The project “Journalistic innovations in democratic societies: index, influence and prerequisites in international comparison” was launched in October 2020, involving 19 researchers from five countries. The intention of this research is to examine the impact of innovations on the quality of journalism and its role in society, as well as to analyse the pre-existing conditions for the emergence of journalistic innovations in an international comparison. For this purpose, the researchers have to identify, index and evaluate the most important journalistic innovations in the last decade in the national markets of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Spain.
In this way, using theoretical approaches and empirical findings derived from economic and social innovation theory, the project aims to identify which journalism has a future and relevance and how, ultimately, journalistic innovations can influence democratic societies.

During the meeting, the researchers discussed issues such as the coding of the most relevant innovations in the last decade, the methodology of the fieldwork and the future steps of the project. The Spanish team acted as host, so that the participants from Germany, Austria and Switzerland were able to visit the facilities of the University of Elche. Future meetings have also been agreed, although most of the meetings will continue to be held remotely as a preventive measure in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.