Public Service Media in Ireland following reunification? Comparative approaches and critical questions

In the possible event of the reunification of Ireland, the fate of the current Public Service Media (PSM) organisations in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is unclear. Although imagining PSM for what would be a newly constituted country is in part a speculative exercise, it is becoming less hypothetical and more urgent, requiring thoughtful and responsible planning. Doing so also offers a chance to consider the fundamental purpose and relevance of PSM, particularly pertinent in a high-choice media age continually reshaped by platformisation. The partition of Ireland, which began in 1920, left the island constitutionally divided into two jurisdictions: the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. While there is some cross-border broadcasting activity, such as co-productions or where services are variously available in both jurisdictions, this article considers how any new PSM organisation would need to reflect a reunified Ireland greatly changed in terms of economic development, demographics, and social attitudes, while trying to operate within the norms of core PSM values. This article considers how a new PSM would face numerous challenges, variously financial, cultural and global in their nature, in a society constituted by historically opposed communities – before the challenge of platformisation is even faced. This article makes a wholly original intervention as, to date, no scholarly work has taken on the task of reimagining PSM in the event that the reunification of Ireland occurs.