[eccr] IAMCR - Porto Allegre - Broadcasting Performance in Europe

24th Conference and General Assembly
IAMCR /AIECS/AIERI International Association for Media and Communication 
Research, Porto Allegre, 25 - 30 of July 2004

Working session on
Broadcasting Performance in Europe: In Search of New Approaches to Public 
Broadcasting Accountability

Organised in co-operation with the European Consortium For Communications 
Research (ECCR)

Convenors: Jo Bardoel and Jan van Cuilenburg, The Amsterdam School of 
Communications Research ASCoR, University of Amsterdam


After the rapid rise of commercial broadcasters over the last two decades, 
by now most European countries have a pretty stable 'dual broadcasting 
system' in which strong commercial and public broadcasters co-exist more or 
less peacefully. But the battle between the two goes on, not only for the 
attention of viewers and listeners but more and more also for support in 
the political arena. At the European Union level, private operators call 
for an equal level playing field, and complain about infringements of the 
EC Treaty (unfair competition between public and private broadcasters) as a 
result of extensive funding for public broadcasters by European 
nation-states. Also on a national level, commercial broadcasters complain 
about unfair trade and competition by public broadcasters when entering new 
services such as theme channels and Internet activities.

In reaction to this increasing pressure on European and national levels, 
public broadcasters in Europe - and, in fact public broadcasters around the 
world that have to cope with the same competitive challenge - increasingly 
emphasize their 'distinctiveness' vis-à-vis commercial broadcasters by 
redefining their mission, operationalizing their goals in terms of 
performance indicators and by developing new accountability mechanisms. 
Charters between politics and broadcasters, new programme and audience 
reach quota, public hearings, and audits are just some examples of this new 
approach. On the one hand this new policy seems a good way to legitimize 
public broadcasting in the new context and it forces public broadcasters to 
make their mission more concrete and committal. On the other hand it might 
introduce new bureaucratization and control and, as a result, more 
political dependency.
In this working session we would like to make an inventory of new 
performance practices and accountability mechanisms for public broadcasters 
in different countries, inside and outside Europe: how do they work, and 
what can be learned from them?



Deadline:
Abstracts shall be submitted both to the Porto Allegre Conference 
Organisers and to the Convenors before February 14th, 2004. Approval of 
abstracts will be announced to respective authors by April 12th, 2004, at 
the latest thus enabling people to participate at the conference at the 
early bird registration fee. Papers should be submitted to Porto Allegre 
July 13th, 2004.

If you are interested to present a paper please send a message immediately 
to Jo Bardoel ((j.l.h.bardoel /at/ uva.nl)) mentioning your name(s), name of 
institution and the title of your abstract/paper, so that we know what to 
expect. The ECCR explicitly encourages young scholars to participate in 
this international academic forum.
The Convenors will inform you about the exact time slot for your 
presentation, the equipment available later on.

Abstracts should contain
* title of paper,
* name(s) of author(s) including name of institution, postal address, 
telephone, fax and e-mail addresses
* the abstract text (not exceeding 1 500 characters)

Abstracts and/or papers can be submitted to
- Jo Bardoel, The Amsterdam School of Communications Research, 
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 Cx Amsterdam, The Netherlands, +31 (20) 525 3917 
or 3680 Fax +31 (20) 525 3681 E-mail: (j.l.h.bardoel /at/ uva.nl) (nota bene: new 
e-mail address).





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Carpentier Nico (Phd)
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Katholieke Universiteit Brussel - Catholic University of Brussels
Vrijheidslaan 17 - B-1081 Brussel - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-412.42.78
F: ++ 32 (0)2/412.42.00
Office: 4/0/18
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Media Sociology (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.30
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.28.61
Office: C0.05
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ kubrussel.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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