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