The 13th biennial RIPE conference is sponsored by the Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation (PTS) and hosted by the School of Communication at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Our theme focuses on the politics and politicization of public service media (PSM). The organizers welcome proposals for papers analyzing how political forces, trends, processes, and influences affect PSM structures, operations, and performance. There is particular interest in challenges for maintaining independence and ensuring sustainability in a shifting policy and technological environment. RIPE@2026 will convene experts and scholars from around the world, especially including the Global South, in a collaboration to advance understandings that matter for theorization and practice.
Many have observed that politics are an inevitable aspect of public service media policy with significant implications for practice. PSB was established partly on a political foundation in the early decades of 20th century, mainly in Europe, with a mission to serve people as citizens rather than consumers, to preserve and promote cultural diversity, to care about the interests of disadvantaged and minority groups, and above all to maintain an independent stance vis a vis both the state and market. Today, PSB has become PSM and is challenged by digitalization, platformization, international media companies, escalating costs for content rights, especially in sports, public value testing requirements, and uneven competitive performance. Promoting cultural diversity and encouraging tolerance across sociocultural aspects are under attack by far-right political movements.
In the Asia-Pacific region, public broadcasting is navigating development challenges in a context of shifting geopolitical dynamics. Lacking European traditions, Taiwan PTS confronts unprecedented challenge to its budget, its international news role, the intended purposes of the Taiwanese Language Channel, and neo-colonialism dispute over some historical related programs. The Conservative party has been especially active in holding PSM accountable. The rise of commercialization and digitalization has been complicated and complex.
For the first time, the RIPE@2026 conference will focus attention on the politics of PSB/PSM, a critical area of contemporary discourse in a globally inclusive dialogue. The conference welcomes paper proposals relevant to six aspects of crucial importance that although distinct are interconnected.