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.

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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.

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Latest Research

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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.

Public Service Media and Public Funding

2023
Recent public debates in several European countries have shown that public service medias’ public funding has become a controversial topic.

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How Do Public Service Media Innovate?

2021
The authors explore to what extent public media rely on institutional links and tight coupling with the environment to develop new products.

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Distilling the value of public service media

2022
This paper shows the problem of proposing one definition of public value, given the diversity of the spaces in which public media operate.

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Campaigns against PSM: Hot air or existential threat?

2022
This paper examines how populist campaigns have threatened PSM and proposes some potential responses to these challenges

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Are public service media distinctive from the market?

2022
This study assesses whether public service media supply a distinctive and informative news service compared to market-led media.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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What are the ethical concerns behind ‘recommendations’?

2022
As PSM organisations now match other media platforms and content providers in offering recommendations, what are the ethical concerns they need to consider?

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State Media Monitor: The world’s state media database

2022
The CMDS has made available its global database of state-administered media organisations, with information on how they are funded, managed and editorially controlled.

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Finding the funds for journalism to thrive

2022
A policy brief by UNESCO that explores options to support media viability. "It makes 22 actionable recommendations."

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Public service: A Swedish overview of knowledge (Swedish)

2022
A new research report by Nordicom provides an overview about "central issues regarding public broadcasting in Sweden."

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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