Symposium arranged by the Knowledge Center for Public Service Media (Kpub), the Center of Excellence for Digital Transformations (DigiTrans) and the ECREA Section for Media Industries and Cultural Production.
Public service media (PSM) in Europe are undergoing significant transformations over the last decade. Some of these are necessitated by technological shifts, such as the dominance of digital platforms within contemporary media ecologies. Others are precipitated by political and geopolitical developments. Some actors are questioning the overall need for public service media in a transforming media landscape, and others dispute if they still carry a democratic role.
How can we imagine a future for public service media in Europe? How can contemporary challenges understood and met? And what should be the role of PSM in the future media- and political landscapes of Europe?
This symposium will tackle these issues drawing on current international and comparative research, as well as insights from the Swedish broadcasting companies themselves.
Programme
Presentations, 13:00-14:30
José van Dijck, Professor of Media and Digital Society at Utrecht University
Public Service Media in the age of platformization and Big Tech
Catherine Johnson, Professor of Media and Communication, University of Leeds
Content distribution and independence: a comparative study of European Broadcasters
Jannie Møller Hartley, Professor in Communication and Journalism, Roskilde University
Datafication of Journalistic Practices – An Ethnographic Inquiry
Victor Picard, Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy, the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
Funding democracy: Public media and democratic health in 33 countries
Coffee break 14:30-15:00
Panel discussion 15:00-16:00
K-pub (sh.se/kpub) is a knowledge and research center on public service media at Södertörn university, Sweden.
K-pub is takes as its starting point the rapid technological and industrial shifts as well as the (geo)political challenges for public service media in Sweden and Europe. K-pub seeks to stimulate research and disseminate knowledge in order to enhance evidence-based policy and development.
K-Pub offers:
- An infrastructure for knowledge about public service media: making existing knowledge available to relevant users.
- A platform for knowledge exchange: through publications, seminars, workshops, etc. in cooperation between industry, decision-makers and the research community.
- A forum for learning: by organizing and coordinating education about public service media and about its role in a contemporary media landscape.
- A Hub for research: gathering and coordinating researchers and research projects on the future of public service media, in Sweden and internationally.
K-pub is funded by the research environment Digital Vulnerabilities in Automated Welfare: Infrastructures, Citizens’ Experiences and Public Values (Swedish Research Council, 2024-01837_VR), the ECREA Section for Media Industries and Cultural Production. and the research platform on Digital Transformations at Södertörn university.
Registration until 2 May - see link HERE.
https://www.sh.se/english/sodertorn-university/calendar/events/2025-05-05-the-future-of-public-service-media
