A year and a half ago, together with Filmuni Babelsberg, and with funding from the DATIpilot funding guideline of the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Aerospace (BMFTR), we started something that goes far beyond a classic digital project: In times when it is becoming increasingly difficult for citizens to identify reliable information, we want to build a European space for thought. A digital platform on which important European discourses in the form of longreads and essays are made accessible, visible and thus discussable across national borders.
Today it is clear that the idea is more important than ever.
Where is SPLEE today?
Together with renowned designers, we have built the website www.splee.eu, which already shows in prototype form how a European platform can function.
All published texts are translated into key European languages using AI, so that barriers that have limited Europe’s discourses are now easily overcome for the first time.
At the same time, visualizations of news flows have been developed – experimental analyses that make patterns, strategies and parameters of media discourses visible. These data-journalistic experiments are the first building blocks for a deeper understanding of European media landscapes.
SPLEE is currently focusing on sustainable business models and the preparation of follow-up projects – in particular for the further development of automated, AI-supported translations and for scaling the platform.
Our most important learning
Technology alone is not enough. For European data sovereignty, we need the opportunity for genuine discourse.
Our work to date has shown that three things need to be combined for this:
- clear, well-thought-out interfaces,
- consistent user orientation,
- and quality content that creates trust.
In particular, the interdisciplinary exchange between media studies, design, technology and journalism has had a decisive impact on SPLEE. At the same time, our research clearly shows that the dominance of American platforms – and their focus on short, fast news – narrows the European discourse space. A platform like SPLEE, which makes longreads and essays from all over the EU accessible, can make an important democratic and economic contribution here.
How to proceed
Now a new phase begins:
- Building a European network of media partners
- Further development of the prototype into a fully functional platform
- Intensification of license and business models
- Improvement of AI-supported translation processes
- Expansion of data-journalistic visualizations
- Development of a European user community
SPLEE is a work in progress – a project with a future.
Because Europe continues to need political and economic structures AND a common public sphere.
We will continue to work on it.
Together, European and with a vision that is more important than ever.
