Listening to your favourite radio station when travelling, or checking what's on that evening at the nearest cinema: smartphones and apps make all this possible. Whether and how apps use your current location to precisely tailor offers to the place of use, is being investigated by a research team at Ostfalia University. The project "Location-based services in regional media communication" involves the scientists at the Salzgitter campus looking at the smartphone applications of media companies. It's not only radio being focussed on, but also other regional media producers, as well as trade, commerce, culture and tourism.

Dr Harald Rau, Professor of Communication Management at the Faculty Transport-Sports-Tourism-Media in Salzgitter, is leading the project. "We are doing practical research into the future of media offerings. In particular, we are looking at how information is best prepared and offered, depending on the (usage) context. It is based on the questions 'What does the user want? What is "too much"? What is just right?'", explained Dr Rau. "The research will in particular serve to identify successful existing approaches, and to give suggestions or even recommendations for action for a digital reconfiguration of regional media communication."

Since the beginning of the project in 2017, the researchers have been analysing the field of 127 radio apps. The interim results show that only 25 apps request information regarding the location of the user. Only seven of these used this data – for example for local weather and traffic news, or for location-based advertising.

Annika Ehlers, research associate in the project team, explained: "Radio and streaming services are being used ever more frequently on the go. The radio providers could enhance their offering through localisation. There is still a lot of room for improvement." Ehlers went on to explain: "The apps can respond to questions such as 'What is happening in my area at the moment? What is going on in my city or in my part of town? What is the traffic situation around my current location?"

The project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and runs until 2020.

Please contact Prof. Dr. habil. Harald Rau for more information.

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