[Commlist] Call for Papers: RIPE@2020 - Public Service Media’s Contribution to Society

2020 Conference of the International Association of Public Media 
Researchers / RIPE@2020
October 28-30, 2020, in Geneva (Switzerland)
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Call for Paper Proposals
“Public Service Media’s Contribution to Society”

2020 is an exciting year for public media research: The RIPE initiative 
is transforming into the International Association of Public Media 
Researchers and the tenth biennial conference jointly organized by the 
University of Fribourg’s Department of Communication and Media Research 
(DCM) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will take place on the 
premises of EBU’s Geneva headquarters. The conference will offer an 
opportunity for celebrating RIPE’s legacy and the 70th anniversary of 
the EBU.

Conference Theme
-------------------------

Public Service Media (PSM) organizations across Europe and beyond are 
increasingly under pressure. Due to digitization, media use is changing 
rapidly, with streaming services and online platforms gaining in 
importance and making it harder for legacy media to hold their ground. 
This affects both public and private media. With users and advertising 
shifting to search engines and social networks, the business model of 
newspaper publishers is also under pressure, which, in turn, leads to 
disagreement about PSM’s online activities. In addition, many 
policy-makers are highly critical of PSM due to a belief in the 
efficiency of market solutions or – especially in the case of right-wing 
populist parties – for political reasons. As a result, both PSM’s role 
in a digital environment and its funding are under scrutiny. PSM seem to 
be constantly in the position of having to defend themselves. Following 
attempts at demonstrating the “public value” of PSM, the discussion is 
now turning towards the concept of PSM’s “contribution to society”. 
Communication and media scholars need to critically discuss the 
analytical value and the usefulness of new concepts that are circulated 
in industry and policy-making. The 2020 conference of the International 
Association of Public Media Researchers / RIPE@2020 thus focuses on the 
concept of contribution to society.
Presumably, it is uncontroversial to claim that PSM need to make a 
particular contribution to society in order to have a continuous reason 
to exist in media landscapes characterized by competition and abundance. 
And it should also be self-evident that PSM’s contribution should be 
distinct and distinctive from what private media and online platforms 
(e.g. social media) offer. However, beyond these general statements the 
concept of contribution to society raises the important question of 
which contributions to which society. After all, society is changing. 
Research has focused on a number of trends like transnationalization, 
neo-liberalization, digitization or individualization that deeply affect 
modern societies. Audiences in different media systems are not only 
confronted with more media products than ever before and can become 
involved in production themselves but are also less homogenous or 
monolithic than they were in the past. These trends thus radically alter 
the relationship between professional media organizations and citizens. 
Moreover, they challenge the notion of an all-encompassing public 
sphere, nurturing new ideas like, for instance, of a network of public 
spaces.
Consequently, it is necessary to rethink the role of media organizations 
in general and PSM in particular in a more fragmented society. On the 
one hand, this involves refining the societal contribution of public 
service. Starting from the notion that PSM should, as McQuail (2010, p. 
178) put it, “serve the public interest by meeting the important 
communication needs of society and its citizens”, these needs (e.g., 
contribution to democratic governance and culture, production of 
information and knowledge, cohesion and integration, or progress) and 
the ways PSM can address these needs in unique ways other media cannot 
have to be identified. On the other hand, it is also necessary to 
modernize the ways in which PSM provide their contribution to society. 
Beyond producing content for all kinds of distribution channels, 
platforms and usage scenarios (ranging from the living room to mobile 
consumption), PSM have the chance to involve citizens in production and 
to evolve the ways in which their content reaches audiences (e.g., 
personalization based on algorithms). Moreover, it is necessary to 
discuss how the contribution of PSM to society can be measured.
In order to be meaningful for society and to have an effect on PSM 
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.

Topics of Working Groups
-----------------------------------

Scholars from various research fields of media and communication as well 
as from neighboring disciplines are invited to submit abstracts for both 
conceptual and empirical contributions addressing one or more of the 
following topics. The topics will comprise the working group structure 
for this conference.
(1) Communication Needs of Changing Societies Starting from the idea 
that PSM should meet the communication needs of society and its 
citizens, societal change raises the question of which contributions are 
necessary today in order to meet these needs. Societies are more diverse 
than in the past; many democracies witness the ascent of populist 
parties and illiberal leaders; the amount of media content available to 
citizens is bigger than ever; the commercialization and concentration of 
media is uninhibited; platforms and streaming services gain in 
importance with respect to media use. In light of these changes, it is 
necessary to rethink the contribution of PSM. What role can PSM play in 
restoring the trustworthiness of media and institutions? How can PSM 
mediate between societal groups and integrate societies that are 
drifting apart? How do PSM contribute to political participation, 
culture life, and the realization of individuals’ full potential? And 
how can we measure the impact of PSM and its contribution to society? We 
invite paper proposals that deal with the contribution of PSM in 
changing societies, how this contribution needs to adapt, and how it 
differs from the performance of commercial media.
(2) New Forms of Contribution and Distinctiveness In order to be able to 
make a contribution to society and generate positive externalities, the 
content produced by PSM need to reach citizens in the first place. In 
today’s media landscapes characterized by a plethora of broadcasting 
channels and online services this is not necessarily the case anymore. 
Hence, producing content for linear channels and offering these 
broadcasts on demand is not sufficient. Many PSM invest in web-only 
content that they also make available via third-party platforms like 
Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or TikTok. And gradually, there is an 
understanding that “the” internet is not simply an additional 
distribution channel but allows for a personalization of content using 
algorithms. However, private media show little enthusiasm for these new 
forms of content provision by PSM and worry about market distortion. 
Which possibilities exist for PSM to reach audiences in a digital 
environment? What could a public service algorithm look like? And how 
should public and private media co-exist and/or collaborate in the 
online world? We invite paper proposals that deal with new forms of 
contribution, the distinctiveness of PSM, its relationship to and 
possibilities for collaboration with private media and platforms, and 
the shift from broadcasting to a personalized streaming service.
(3) Involving Citizens, Building Communities Digitization fundamentally 
alters the relationship between media organizations and citizens. This 
change poses a huge challenge for all media organizations. Whereas in 
the past audiences only mattered when measuring media use, now there is 
a need to adjust media production: journalism needs to become more 
dialogic in nature as instant feedback and criticism is now possible; 
and users can contribute to reporting in various ways, e.g. as 
informants or via crowdsourcing. Yet beyond media production, the 
changed relationship to their audience also offers an opportunity for 
PSM to really become a media organization of the people, by the people 
and for the people. What possibilities are there to involve citizens in 
decision-making within PSM or to engage in dialogue that informs 
decision-making? How can PSM build a community among their users that 
also strengthens their legitimacy? And how does PSM matter in 
individuals’ lives in ways that metrics of audience research cannot 
capture? We invite paper proposals that deal with the importance of 
audiences for PSM, the involvement of citizens within PSM, and ways to 
reinvigorate the rooting of PSM in society.
(4) Governance, Communication and Legitimacy Management Recent reforms 
of media policy have also led to stricter regulation of PSM. On the one 
hand, in many countries the remit of PSM – especially with respect to 
online activities – has been defined more firmly and new services 
require public value tests. On the other hand, while still having better 
conditions than private media struck by crisis, PSM are expected to be 
more efficient or confronted with considerable budget cuts. Like other 
media organizations PSM respond to regulatory pressure and try to 
influence policy-making in their own interest. Concepts like 
“contribution to society” thus also can be seen as a strategic 
instrument of legitimacy management to deal with expectations of 
stakeholders. Is the concept of contribution an empty PR tool or is it 
inducing real change within PSM organizations? How does the interplay 
between policy-makers and PSM work in practice? And what role can 
communication scholars play in critically accompanying the change of 
media policy, PSM organizations and their contribution to society? We 
invite paper proposals that scrutinize the concept of contribution, 
focus on the politics of media policy, and the role of communication in 
the governance of PSM.

Submission Requirements
------------------------------------

Paper proposals may be submitted via “Easy Chair” at 
https://secure-web.cisco.com/1fplSJvvd29f1GvJEXFVKvhhXEz2_IYeYSEruasP6q40qaU20syfH-C7-tzthjmxE-hbi26GkOxPla3NU3B3SestPpjdZWkBpGKGDH1T2ObkEVTJiQwbr0rEZVwvy2CHwL6YrPUOhk_WqoJ-maBzFpzWqoR_gXfSffw6c7-xH9hMYWZa5wpZ2tpAGFzSF8dWpXUvRrr_EF3XcEiyHAfSZpImaasqLx6EdVtfT35CuNeFWzDZW_todZggB11iDzwbkRqwElUknf5x-GqGucf2pvg/https%3A%2F%2Feasychair.org%2Fconferences%2F%3Fconf%3Dripe2020%20%28starting%20in%20September%202019%29.%20To%20do%20so%2C%20you%20need%20an%20%2AEasy%20Chair”; 
login. If you do not have one yet, you can create one.

Please enter the following information into the online submission form: 
* the name(s), e-mail-address(es), location(s) and organization(s) of 
the author(s); * the paper’s working title; * an extended abstract (max. 
750 words) explaining the main messages of the paper and how it 
contributes to the conference theme; * 3-5 keywords; * the two working 
group topics the paper is most closely related to.
Additionally, the abstract needs to be uploaded as a Microsoft Word 
file. Please make sure that your Word file is anonymized and does not 
contain any indication of the author(s) either in the text or in meta data.
All submissions will be peer-reviewed (double-blind) by a scientific 
committee. The evaluation criteria are: 1. Relevance to the conference 
theme and fit with one of the working group topics. 2. Conceptual and 
analytic quality as well as theoretical foundation. 3. Clarification of 
methodology if the paper will report on empirical research. 4. Relevance 
to PSM management and practice. 5. Generalizability of insights and 
findings.
Empirical research is highly valued, but we also welcome insightful 
philosophical, critical and theory-driven papers.
RIPE conferences focus on substance, dialogue and results. We therefore 
limit acceptance to about 60 papers. Each paper is assigned to a working 
group. At best we assign 9-12 papers to each group so that every paper 
has sufficient time for presentation and, most importantly, discussion.
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” 
at 
https://secure-web.cisco.com/1oQVhNxQ99HLrydO632aVyLE6Fa-lrHmvK8WfBwAbZWZPa_6YrYurYXEkhf-NFwcuTpdREHY6AdDvyVEGl3gLxovSvE6RY-Wc6PfxmC1RJad-H08MrO10v8tWJH5j7Hlbn90tMYqgQapuikAM4tl-nAUQrvyi7NHZZbv7mGHtkrSzvCW7qgqS6PLmq8P0vQlgCW7ImtnS5YcaPRfCSz5mS-bIXtd7_-kaj0irR58pRfjsG3-13cJ0FW-aN4MK3LL4FCmL-oiTvL-3FjRG8RKVMA/https%3A%2F%2Feasychair.org%2Fconferences%2F%3Fconf%3Dripe2020. 

The conference takes place over two and a half days, starting late on a 
Wednesday morning and ending on Friday around noon. The conference 
language is English.
The International Association of Public Media Researchers plans to 
publish a selection of the papers in a peer-reviewed book handled by 
NORDICOM publishers.
More information about the International Association of Public Media 
Researchers: http://www.publicmediaresearchers.org

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