Public Service Media: Bridging Values and Trust
REPORT
Public Service Media: Bridging Values and Trust
Minna Horowitz & Alessandro D’Arma | EBU
2023
Trust is at the core of journalism and the media profession and has been one of the main concerns of recent academic research in media and communication. Public service media have been challenged in the last few years by the rapid rise of new technologies such as social media platforms. With disregard to values such as accountability and accuracy, these platforms and their constant flow of information, has led to a wave of distrust in the news and media institutions. Rather than looking at the erosion of trust induced by surveillance capitalism, this research focuses on the reasons why public service media have generally remained trusted institutions. Built around core values of public service media such as universality, independence, excellence, diversity, accountability and innovation, this study offers new perspectives on the relationship that links trust and public service media.
Business models and sustainability in the newspaper industry
JOURNAL
Business models and sustainability in the newspaper industry: Perspectives from European and North American executives
Paulo Faustino | Journal of Digital Media & Policy
2023
The digital revolution has created significant challenges to the viability of media economic models while also broadening prospects for editorial organisations and journalists. This article seeks to comprehend the viability of media business models and how media executives modify their practises to deal with digital change in a competitive market. For this article, media executives from three US newspapers (from the United States of America and Canada) and three European newspapers (from Ireland, England, and France) were interviewed. All of the newspaper firms interviewed continue to face substantial problems in their search for ways to ensure the sustainability of their business models in order to motivate their partners, shareholders, and employees while also contributing to more diversity in the information market.
Public service media as drivers of innovation
JOURNAL
Public service media as drivers of innovation: A case study analysis of policies and strategies in Spain, Ireland, and Belgium
Sabela Direito-Rebollal and Karen Donders | Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research
2023
Public service media (PSM) organisations must adapt to the post-broadcast era by innovating, staying current with new content consumption methods, and experimenting with the plethora of options that interactivity presents for audience involvement. They still have a duty to fulfil their public service mandate. This article examines PSM’s innovation strategies and policies to determine if they are becoming more user-centric rather than technology-centric. It assesses the innovation policies set forth by public broadcasters, as well as whether these priorities are consistent with the innovation objectives put forth by academics for PSM organisations. Three public broadcasters – RTVE (Spain), RTÉ (Ireland), and VRT (Belgium) – with diverse sizes and locations in various political, cultural, and economic contexts are the subject of this article. It finds that innovation is still predominantly centred on technology.
Nordic countries' digital strategies and third-party platforms
JOURNAL
Digital strategies and third-party platforms: How Nordic public service media are reframing their audio strategies for the future
Aura Lindeberg | Journal of Digital Media & Policy
2023
This paper indicates the relationship between broadcasters and third-party platforms. The research examined four public service media organisations in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway who expressed their doubts regarding the distribution of their content on third party platforms. According to this study, PSMs’ ties with third-party platforms have gotten more complex , calling into question PSM’s value of universalism and the study also argues that national media policies are unable to regulate international audio distribution.
Public Service Broadcasters' Strategies About Radio Apps
BOOK
The Listener of the Future: Exploring Public Service Broadcasters’ Strategies About Radio Apps
Marta Perrota | The Bloomsbury Handbook of Radio
2023
The article explores how public service radio stations switch to digital services and what principles they adopt in order to compete with apps like Spotify. These platforms have created dedicated applications, investing heavily in terms of content, metadata tactics, algorithms, and the fruition experience – fluid, agile, and personalised – on smartphones, in cars, and at home via smart speakers. Certainly, most European public service broadcasters, who are currently in the midst of a lengthy and complex digital transformation, have taken on this issue with zeal, but with what idea of the listener in mind? What specific ideas of the public role have been common in encouraging the adoption of effective digital competition solutions? What were the strategies in place to reinvent the content access experience? What sparked their interest? What types of audiences, if any, did they chose to deliberately target? This work aims to investigate the idea of the listener concept, which is at the heart of the vision of the future of radio condensed in a digital tool that allows listeners to play their part. If one of the primary goals of public service is universality, how can this notion be reconciled with the future development of radio apps?
The value of public service broadcasting in Japan during Covid-19
JOURNAL
The value of public service broadcasting in Japan during COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of WTP by Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition
Hisanobu Kakizawa | Telecommunications Policy
2023
The article analyses the shift in willingness to pay (WTP) for public service media (PSM) before and after the first Covid-19 outbreak in Japan. NHK Japan’s public broadcaster offered pay subscriptions to get premium services. Based on the data of the NHK survey WTP estimation was noted. During the pandemic, NHK increased public service educational and medical programmes to combat Covid-19. This led to increased WTP, the satisfaction level of viewers, and the value of journalism. The data also revealed that the WTP for PSM fell slightly as a result of the reduction in sports programmes.
How Business Can Support a Healthy Infosphere
REPORT
Investing in Facts: How the Business Community Can Support a Healthy Infosphere
Marius Dragomir | CIMA
2023
The report emphasises the relationship between the private sector and independent media and why the private sector should care about independent media. It studies three countries’ – Czechia, Romania, and Serbia – media and business sectors, and examines how efforts have been made to counter disinformation and boost independent media. The business community in all these three regions has different reasons for supporting independent media but all of them have realised that a healthy business environment can only thrive if the community is well informed. In addition, the report highlights limitations experienced by the business sector, lack of financial resources, and absence of communication between independent journalism and the private sector.
Integrating Ethnic Content into Public Service Broadcasting
REPORT
Integrating Ethnic Content into Public Service Broadcasting
Centre for Law and Democracy
2023
When working towards a democracy, it is important that ethnic content can be integrated into public service broadcasting (PSB). This Note looks at how this can be achieved. In democracies, the overall regulatory system for broadcasting has tools and mechanisms to help aid and encourage broadcasting material and content that is a rough representation of the population. Broadcasters also take measures to ensure they serve the needs and interests of all members in society. This Note looks at ways to promote ethnic voices in PSB.
What is life like without the BBC?
REPORT
Deprivation Study: What is life like without the BBC?
MTM
2022
The Deprivation Study set out to uncover the value of BBC to its audience. The study took away all BBC services from 80 households from 16 different locations. Before the study, 30 households neither wanted to pay or receive BBC services, 30 households wanted to pay less of the BBC TV licence, and the last 20 households were happy to pay full licence or more. After nine days without the BBC, results of this study found that 42 of the 60 ‘pay nothing’ and ‘pay less’ households changed their minds and became willing to pay the full licence fee or more. Another 4 households from the ‘pay nothing’ households also changed their stance to at least be willing to the licence but pay less of it. The results reveal that people underestimated the value of the BBC and found that they were elements unique to BBC that led them to feel the licence was worth it. “When households are without the BBC and assess its role and what they missed, the majority re-evaluated the value of the licence fee and what the BBC brings.”
Between the Fourth Estate and the Fifth Power
REPORT
Public Service Media in Europe: Between the Fourth Estate and the Fifth Power
ORF Public Value Texts
2022
ORF is required by law to provide comprehensive quality control. In addition to the Public Value Report and the Annual Report, this consists primarily of elements created with the help of scientific expertise: The “Audience Panels”, during which the audience‘s opinion on various program pillars is explored, are evaluated by a social science institute. The representative survey on program appreciation, among other things, is conducted by social scientists, as is the testing of the quality profiles – the self-commitments of ORF editors to various program genres. And ORF‘s annual public value study, which has been published for years in cooperation with other European public broadcasters, is entrusted to outstanding experts, especially from the field of communications science. Not only the ORF-programmes with their public mission and remit to inform and educate on TV, radio, and online, but also ORF quality control is thus closely linked to scientific knowledge.
Consequently we reacted positively to the request of RIPE founder Greg Lowe and the University of Vienna to hold a separate ORF Day in Vienna for RIPE, the most important scientific conference on public service media. This first day of the conference focuses on the exchange between journalism and science on the conference topic “Between the Fourth Estate and the Fifth Power”. In addition, this issue of PUBLIC VALUE TEXTE publishes the extended abstracts of the scholars invited to the conference. We
would like to thank Michael-Bernhard Zita and Regina Außerwöger from the University of Vienna for organizing the conference and all the authors for writing the abstracts.
[Text sourced from ORF]