The innovation laboratories of the European public service media. The cases of BBC News Labs and RTVE Lab

Abstract

Innovation has become a necessary strategy for the survival of the media and many of them have included an innovation laboratory, which is specifically dedicated to applying it in the information field. This thesis analyses the operation, organization and production in the innovation laboratories of two European public service media, BBC News Labs, of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and RTVE Lab, of Radio Televisión Española. Both share formats, technologies and challenges, as they innovate in terms of managing their work and production and function as communities of practice. But, despite the fact that they share objectives, such as transferring their production to newsrooms and providing their staff with an innovative profile in order to offer the best information product to the public, they differ in terms of organizational structure, typology of projects and work methods, since they are based on different corporate cultures and organizational strategies.