INESC TEC organises conference on Public Service Media

INESC TEC has joined the RTP (Portuguese public TV network) and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) to organise the conference “Public Service Media in a Small Country with a Global Culture”, dedicated to the themes of public service media and new dimensions of the public broadcasting service. This new designation includes a communication service supported by the State that uses all available platforms, which include, other than radio and television, the online service and mobile applications.

Prior to the conference, there was a workshop led by Karen Donders, a professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, in Belgium, where she discussed the evolution of the public service, the media, and other questions related to media regulation and funding, while presenting a general overview of the situation in Europe. At a time when the future of the RTP is being broadly discussed and when changes are being introduced to its funding procedures, there was a relevant comparison with what is taking place in other European countries. About 10 staff members of the RTP attended this conference, including Daniel Catalão and Mário Augusto.

At the end of the afternoon there was an open conference at FEUP’s main auditorium, which included presentations by Beato Teixeira, from the Board of RTP, and Karen Donders, discussed by a panel composed of Lopes Araújo, director of Legal Services and Institutional Relations at RTP, Júlio Magalhães, director of the Porto Canal (TV channel), and Fernando Zamith, professor of Journalism at the University of Porto. The panel was moderated by Artur Pimenta Alves, former director of INESC Porto, and researcher at INESC TEC.

The organising committee included Artur Pimenta Alves and Vânia Gonçalves (INESC Porto/FEUP/iMinds-SMIT, VUB), and was supported by INESC TEC’s Communication service.

The INESC TEC researchers mentioned in this article are associated with the following partner institutions: FEUP.