A new cycle of Open Lectures concluded a few days ago. Since February, a succession of speakers has allowed us to discuss certain crucial issues of political and public communication:

• The art of political storytelling on social media to concretize European issues, with David Brasseur, video producer and documentary filmmaker.
• The origins of European elections and the formation of European political groups, with the emblematic case of the 1979 election, presented by Gilles Pittoors, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Ghent and political analyst at the European Parliament’s Research Service (EPRS).
• A focus on the role of Facebook in shaping opinions, with Jérémy Grosman, PhD student (UNamur) as part of the “Algorithmic Governmentality” project (FNRS), dissecting the functioning of algorithms and their impact in terms of polarization.
• A stimulating exchange with Yvan Verougstraete, lead candidate in the European elections for the Belgian party Les Engagés, on the future challenges of the European Union.
• A detour into the world of the music industry with Geoffroy Dewandeler, co-founder of FLIF.BE, to address the issue of regulation of music streaming platforms.
• Finally, in-depth research on the impact of the GDPR and the legitimization of data collection presented by Camila Pérez Lagos, lecturer-researcher at ISTC (Lille), based on data from major private sector companies in France.

We would like to thank all our speakers for their valuable contributions to these discussions. We invite you to stay connected to stay informed about our upcoming events and publications.