Future Leaders Competition 2025: Runner-Up – Gabriella Kountourides

'Grabbing your attention': media plurality and the digital ecosystem

By Gabriella Kountourides

Abstract:
At every transition of media, from print to radio, and now to digital, the same questions have emerged: Who controls the narrative, how do we preserve media plurality. While the platforms have changed, the core concerns have not. Digital algorithms and global platforms compete with newspaper proprietors as the owners and disseminators of information. Drawing on historical patterns from radio, television, and early internet transitions, this essay shows that today's challenges: algorithmic influence, regulatory fragmentation, and liability asymmetries represent familiar problems in new forms rather than entirely novel threats. It contends that
national and international regulatory bodies must adapt to address algorithmic dominance, blurred lines between curated and user-generated content, and increasingly globalised information systems. Far from being obsolete, regulation must become internationally coordinated, algorithmically informed, and adaptively robust to uphold democratic discourse and prevent the rise of personalised monopolies.