New Book: The Public in Public Service Media

New Book from Nordicom:The Public in Public Service Media. RIPE@2009
Edited by Gregory Ferrell Lowe

Nordicom, University of Gothenburg, 2010, 276 p. ISBN 978-91-89471-94-8

The importance of reconceptualising what public service broadcasting
[PSB] should be and do in the 21st century is a profile issue in media
policy and strategic development planning. There is growing recognition
that public participation is a necessary if problematic aspect of the
transition to public service media [PSM]. This recognition correlates
with a deepening understanding that the viability of the enterprise
depends on the people paying for it and using its services.

This fourth RIPE Reader demonstrates how the historic insularity of PSB
companies is changing in efforts to restructure and revitalise the
enterprise. The substance features further development of research
presented in the RIPE@2008 conference in Germany, titled Public Service
Media in the 21st Century: Participation, Partnership and Media
Development.

The authors included in this volume query what is required to achieve
participation-readiness in many interdependent facets: strategy
revision, organisational restructuring, retooling production processes,
and redefining professional identities. Approached in two sections, the
first focuses on theories and trends and the second on practices and
performance. The contents document the significance of engaging the
public in, with and through media services, arguing the crucial
importance of the Public in Public Service Media.

For further information see
http://www.nordicom.gu.se/?portal=publ&main=info_publ2.php&ex=303&me=13