PSM Research


Welcome to the PSM Research page – an online hub of academic blogs, articles and insights. 

Here you will find a broad selection of recommended journals, reports, websites and guides related to the core values of public service media, as well as specially-commissioned Research Insights written by leading researchers and academics on a chosen subject. This page is produced in collaboration with IAPMR and MJRC.

About

This page is a live resource, bringing together the most recent academic research either about, or of relevance to, public service media. Topics include best practices, country reports and the mounting challenges faced by PSM worldwide such as media capture, diminishing budgets and media convergence.

The resources below have been curated by the Public Media Alliance in collaboration with the International Association of Public Media Researchers (IAPMR) and the Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC). You can find out more about our collaborators at the bottom of the page.


Research Insights

A collection of articles written by leading researchers & academics from around the world, especially commissioned for PMA and IAPMR.

Nothing found.

The State of Public Service Media Worldwide


Every year, the Media and Journalism Research Center releases the 'State Media Monitor' – the flagship study assessing the editorial, financial and governance independence of state-administered media companies across the world.

Download the 2025 report
Screenshot of the title page of the report
Screenshot. Credit: Media & Journalism Research Center.

Sign up to our newsletters

Promote, support and advocate for public service media

Recent publications from PMA


Latest Research

Use the headers below to filter resources

Most of the following resources are open-source but some contain links to articles that require an institutional log-in to view. Please refer to your University, institution or employer if this is the case.

Nordic countries’ digital strategies and third-party platforms

2023
The research examined four Nordic PSM who expressed their doubts regarding the distribution of their content on third party platforms.

Read More

The value of public service broadcasting in Japan during Covid-19

2023
The article analyses the shift in willingness to pay (WTP) for PSM before and after the first Covid-19 outbreak in Japan.

Read More

What is life like without the BBC?

2022
The BBC commissioned this study to help it understand better the value that it delivers to UK households and how this could be improved.

Read More

Public Service Broadcasting in the Online TV Environment

2022
Focusing on BBC iPlayer, this article assesses key challenges that public service broadcasting (PSB) faces in the era of online TV.

Read More

Public service media in the age of SVoDs

2021
Netflix and other SVoDs are disrupting long-established arrangements in national television systems around the world.

Read More

The Public Service Approach to Recommender Systems

2022
Online media consumption has been radically transformed by how media companies algorithmically recommend content to their users.

Read More

The Missing Middle: Reimagining a Future for Tweens, Teens, and Public Media

May 2021
Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have partnered to better understand how young people are engaging with media today in order to help public media better serve Gen Z.

Read More

Covid-TV: Routes to Content during Covid-19

2020
What does the impact of Covid-19 on TV viewing tell us about the future of public service broadcasting (PSB) in the UK?

Read More

Journalism Thrives in Slovakia Despite Growing Oligarchic Control

May 2020
Slovaks have access to a plethora of news platforms, but many of them are in the hands of powerful financial corporations, closely linked with political groups. Nevertheless, swelling demand for accurate, quality information boosts the country’s independent journalism.

Read More

Small Screen: Big Debate

2020
Join the conversation on the future of public service broadcasting in the UK.

Read More

Routes to Content: how people decide what TV to watch

2020
With more than half of UK households owning an internet-connected TV and subscribed to at least one SVOD, this article sought to analyse how people discover and decide what television to watch and explore just how accessible public service television is. 

Read More

News media broadly trusted, views of UK government response to COVID-19 highly polarised

2020
This Reuters Institute factsheet is the first of the UK COVID-19 news and information project and explores how people navigate news and information in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Read More

Trust in Media

2020
Public Service Media are the most trusted source for news in 61% of European countries according to this EBU report. 

Read More

Old, Educated, and Politically Diverse

2019

This report by RISJ analyses survey data from a sample of eight countries to assess the reach of public service news.

Read More

Public Service Broadcasting in the Digital Age

2019

This special issue proposes a reexamination of public service broadcasting (PSB) in the light of the most recent technological, political and economic developments.

Read More

Our Partners

We are pleased to partner with the IAPMR and MJRC for this resource

IAPMR

The International Association of Public Media Researchers (IAPMR) brings together quality academic and industrial research from different disciplines. We support the continual evolution of public service media by aggregating theory and practice.  We look critically from industrial, production, audience, technological, economic and societal perspectives. We run conferences, produce publications and communicate knowledge to academia, industry, governments, and publics.


MJRC

The Media and Journalism Research Center is an independent media research and policy think tank that seeks to improve the quality of media policymaking and the state of independent media and journalism through research, knowledge sharing and financial support. MJRC continues the work of the Center for Media, Data & Society (CMDS), which until October 2022 operated as a unit of Central European University (CEU).


Header Image: Students Experimenting With Video Software stock photo. Credit: TommL/iStock