[ecrea] CfP: Public service objectives in communications (IJDT)

Call for Papers

International Journal of Digital Television, Issue 6.2

Public service objectives in communications: Shifting paradigms (June 2015)

Guest edited by Michael Klontzas (University of Huddersfield, UK)

Deadline for Proposals: 1 December 2014
Deadline for Full Papers: 16 March 2015

In different part of the world, the establishment and sustained 
development of electronic media has been intrinsically associated with 
national institutions delivering public service purposes to constructed 
mass audiences. Public service media were understood as performing 
important political, cultural and economic functions. On the back of 
widespread public and political support for much of the 20th century, 
public service broadcasters in a number of national contexts became 
political communication platforms, production powerhouses, innovation 
hubs, communications and industrial policy instruments, and household 
brands. Their remit centred on changing definitions of diversities, 
access and entitlements.

Globalising markets, shifting political and economic paradigms, and the 
obsolescence of scarcity in the technical capacity of ICTs have been 
progressively eroding the privileged position of public service media. 
Their legitimacy and relevancy are questioned as audiences, revenues and 
investment fragment, while intense lobbying from commercial players 
supports public policies that seek to contain publically funded operations.

In this context, public service media further enjoying preferential and 
protected access to resources is under constant scrutiny. Diverting such 
resources away from longstanding, relatively integrated organisations 
with explicit public service remits is increasingly seen as the way to 
open up public service provision to market competition in on-demand 
environments. Sharing out resources often involves top-slicing of 
funding previously ring-fenced for public service media, and making 
their output and production facilities available to third-parties. 
Contestable funding has also been proposed to stimulate desirable 
content and services in line with prescribed criteria.

In line with this theme, indicative perspectives include, but are not 
limited to the following:

* Diffusion of the delivery of public service objectives
* Alternative models of funding public service content and services
* Case studies from different national contexts
* Technology and public service media
* Implications of redistribution of resources for traditional public 
service media and their responses
* Strategies by third-party players and impact on independent content 
producers
* EU state aid, competition and public service communications framework
* Media and information literacies for audiences and users
* Public service ethos, professionalism and the sense of public service 
mission
* Linear, on-demand and converged media
* Public service objectives and the transition from public service 
broadcasting to public service media and public service communications.

The International Journal of Digital Television will describe and 
explain the transition to digital TV and wider trends in television. As 
switchover happens across the globe and television’s operations and 
audiences are transformed, the International Journal of Digital 
Television will be at the forefront of efforts to understand the changes 
and developments. The Journal will bring together, and share, the work 
of academics, policy-makers and practitioners, offering lessons from one 
another’s experience. Content will be broad and varied, evolving as the 
focus shifts from switching off analogue TV to the challenge of 
exploiting digital television’s convergence with the Internet and 
telecommunications. National case studies and comparative studies will 
be a feature, accumulating the evidence for authoritative global 
analysis of the economic, political and cultural factors accounting for 
common principles and national differences.

Please send an abstract of up to 500 words or questions to the guest 
editor by 1 December 2014: Michael Klontzas (M.Klontzas /at/ hud.ac.uk) . 
Invited authors will be notified by 15 December 2014 and full articles 
of up to 8,000 words will be due on 16 March 2015. All submissions will 
be subjected to double-blind peer review.

More information about the Journal and Notes for Contributors: 
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=175
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