The Public Service Media (PSM) Working Group of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites the submission of abstracts for IAMCR 2025, which will be held in Singapore from 13 to 17 July 2025, hosted by the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University.
The deadline for submission is 7 February 2025, at 23h59 UTC.
See the list of all sections and working groups and their remits
See the CfPs of all sections and working groups
IAMCR conferences address many diverse topics defined by our 37 thematic sections and working groups. We also propose a single central theme to be explored throughout the conference with the aim of generating and exploring multiple perspectives. This is accomplished through plenary and special sessions, as well as in many of the sessions of the sections and working groups. The 2025 central theme is Communicating Environmental Justice: Many Voices, One Planet.
Consult a detailed description of the main theme
The Public Service Media (PSM) Working Group invites individual paper and panel proposals that address the conference theme in relation to public service media (PSM) and public media around the world. We also encourage proposals that align with the Working Group theme: Public media, sustainability and environmental action.
In 2025, as environmental crises escalate and calls for social justice grow louder, public media have a pivotal role in advocating for sustainability and action on environmental issues. They provide timely, independent information, education, and entertainment to diverse audiences and are essential to fostering inclusive dialogue about the ecological, geopolitical, and technological uncertainties we face as citizens of a rapidly changing world. PSM’s mission is itself on a knife edge as Big Tech and its AI developments work to distract audiences, obscure its presence and minimize its significance.
For the 2025 conference, IAMCR Public Service Media Group invites papers that investigate the role, activities, and challenges for PSM and public media in increasingly contingent contexts – both environmentally and politically.
We are interested in papers that explore how public media can effectively contribute to sustainable, just communications and collective action on environmental and social justice. You may present research on how PSM and/or public media engage with local and global communities to address pressing environmental concerns or to support collective action on sustainability. You might also explore how public media is seeking to give voice to communities who are fighting oppression and injustice.
We are interested in papers that address these and related ideas:
- Public Media’s role in environmental justice: How can public media raise awareness about environmental issues and amplify the voices of those most affected by climate change?
- PSM and media literacy in the age of climate crisis: How can public media foster critical media literacy to combat misinformation on environmental issues?
- Decolonizing public media: Addressing the legacies of colonialism in PSM and supporting decolonial approaches to communications and environmental justice.
- Public media’s role in crisis communication: Case studies on public media’s role in disaster response, accountability, and providing reliable information during environmental emergencies.
- Sustainability and public media: What are the best practices and policies for integrating sustainability into public media operations, content, and practices?
- Indigenous and community-led public media: Examining the contributions of Indigenous public media initiatives and their impact on environmental advocacy and sustainable practices.
- Public media and youth engagement: How can public media connect with younger audiences on climate issues and empower them to participate in environmental advocacy?
- Innovative technologies in public media: Investigating the role of AI, immersive media, digital platforms, and algorithms in public journalism, with a focus on ethical and regulatory implications and opportunities for fostering sustainability.
- Intersectional public media: How can we consider public media not just as institutions and practices, but through more inclusive and intersectional lenses, such as public media and gender; public media, race, and gender; public media, class, and climate change; public media and cultural disinformation; public media and disability; and so on?
In addressing these themes, and other relevant topics, we welcome both empirical studies and contributions that are normative in character or aimed at conceptual/methodological development. Proposals can be about single national case-studies or be comparative/cross-national in scope. We also welcome historical studies that can contribute, through the lens of the past, to a critical understanding of contemporary issues facing public media. Finally, we welcome papers and panels from around the world and we strongly encourage submissions from researchers, activists, and practitioners from Indigenous and rural communities.
Guidelines for abstracts
IAMCR Singapore will be an in-person conference. There is no remote presentation option in this group. Proposals must be submitted exclusively through IAMCR’s submission system from 3 December 2024 through 7 February 2025, at 23.59 UTC.
Abstract should be between 500 and 700 words, excluding references and optional questions.
It is expected that each person will submit only one (1) abstract. However, under no circumstances should there be more than two (2) abstracts bearing the name of the same author, either individually or as part of any group of authors. The same abstract, or a version with minor variations in title or content, must not be submitted to more than one section or working group. Such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be rejected by the abstract submission system, by the Head of the section or working group or by the Conference Program Reviewer. Authors submitting the same work to multiple Sections or Working Groups risk being removed entirely from the conference program.
Proposals are accepted for both single papers and for panels with several papers (in which you propose multiple papers that address a single theme).
Evaluation criteria
Submitted abstracts will generally be evaluated on the basis of:
- Technical merit - theoretical framework and clear methodology
- Readability
- Originality and/or significance
- Use of or contribution to the field
- Relevance to the section or working group
- Depth of knowledge of the research, theory and/or literature related to the proposed topic as evidenced in the submission
The PSM working group will seek to have a mix of established, early career, student researchers and community activists and practitioners.
Statement on use of AI tools
IAMCR does not encourage or condone the use of generative AI tools to create abstracts submitted for consideration for our conferences. IAMCR values originality, integrity, and transparency in academic work, and believes that human-authored contributions best support rigorous and innovative scholarship in media and communication research. Should an author choose to use a generative AI tool in the preparation of an abstract, we require that they include a clear statement within their submission disclosing the tool's use. This statement must specify: (1) the name of any AI tool used; (2) how the tool was used in preparing the abstract, and; (3) the reason for using the tool. Failure to disclose the use of generative AI in accordance with these guidelines may impact the evaluation and acceptance of the submission.
Languages
The Public Service Media Working Group can only accept abstracts, panel proposals, and papers in English for the 2025 conference. If you wish to secure help translating your abstract from French or Spanish to English, or if you are willing to help as a volunteer translator, please let us know (see contact details below).
Deadlines and key dates
The deadline to submit abstracts is 7 February 2025, at 23.59 UTC. For other key dates see https://iamcr.org/singapore2025/keydates. Dates are subject to change.
Contacts
If you have questions about the Public Service Media Working Group, its themes, submissions, and panels, please contact the PSMP WG Co-Chairs Anis Rahman (<aniscom@uw.edu>), Fiona Martin (<fiona.martin@sydney.edu.au>), and Vice-Chair Yik-Chan Chin (<yik-chan.chin@bnu.edu.cn>).
For information about the Public Service Media Working Group, consult here: https://iamcr.org/s-wg/working-group/psm
