NHK to host global public broadcasting conference in Tokyo

Japan’s public broadcaster NHK will co-host an international conference in Japan next year to discuss visions for the future of public broadcasting.

Themed “Public Service Media Across Boundaries”, the conference in August 2014 will attract scholars and practitioners of public service media from the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America to exchange views on the challenges PSM are facing in the era of globalisation and digitalisation.

NHK, an ABU member, will co-host the conference with the Institute for Media and Communication Research at Keio University under the banner of the Re-Visionary Interpretations of the Public Enterprise (RIPE) project.

RIPE was launched in 2001 to discuss the future of public service broadcasting with collaboration between scholars and public broadcasters. The Tokyo conference will be the seventh biennial event and the first ever held in Asia.

A Call for Papers has been issued and the RIPE conference organisers are inviting contributions on several aspects: cross-boundary issues in PSM policy and governance, transnational audiences, citizen journalism, convergence and PSM in new and young democracies. Abstract submissions are due on 10 January 2014, and more details are available at the conference website.