The InnoPSM partner the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), together with the University of Fribourg, Department of Communication and Media Research (DCM), will co-organize the RIPE@2020 conference on October 28-30, 2020, in Geneva (Switzerland). The conference will bring together scholars and PSM professionals from all over the world to discuss Public Service Media’s Contribution to Society.

This tenth biennial RIPE@ conference will offer an opportunity for celebrating RIPE’s legacy and the 70th anniversary of the EBU. It also marks a new beginning: The RIPE initiative is transforming into the International Association of Public Media Researchers (PMR).

The conference takes place over two and a half days, starting late on a Wednesday morning, 28 October 2020, and ending on Friday, 30 October 2020, around noon. The conference language is English.

CONFERENCE THEME: CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY

In order to be meaningful for society and to have an effect on public service media organizations, “contribution to society” needs to be more than just an instrument of legitimacy management by organizations under pressure. While communicating the many valuable contributions of PSM is important, the task at hand is not solving a communication problem. The concept is useless if it is limited to the question of how to better sell the contribution of PSM to citizens instead of guaranteeing that PSM actually serves the public interest and makes a contribution worth paying for and talking about. Seen in this light, critically analyzing the concept of “contribution to society” is not only a worthwhile task for communication and media scholars but also a meaningful undertaking for the future of PSM.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Please see the full Call for Papers here.

Paper proposals – extended abstracts of max. 750 words – may be submitted via Easy Chair (starting in September 2019). Submissions are due February 29, 2020.

Decisions on acceptance will be announced on April 15, 2020.

Full papers need to be submitted by September 1, 2020, via Easy Chair.

The International Association of Public Media Researchers plans to publish a selection of the papers in a peer-reviewed book handled by Nordicom publishers.