Public Service Media and Public Funding
JOURNAL
Public service media and public funding: A three-country study of willingness to pay versus perceived dispensability
Annika Sehl | European Journal of Communication
2023
This study analyses results based on an online survey in France, Germany, and the UK in regards to public service media funding. The study explores the respondents’ “willingness to pay” for PSM versus the opinion that PSM is dispensable. The study finds that although most doubted PSM’s dispensability, they also believed that if the licence was determined by them, they would pay a much smaller amount. Therefore, the study concludes it is important to understand the factors that may impede people’ willingness to pay.
How Do Public Service Media Innovate?
JOURNAL
How Do Public Service Media Innovate? An Analysis of Product Development by European PSM
Annika Sehl & Alessio Cornia | Journalism Studies
2021
This paper examines how PSM innovate new products for digital news. To what extent does PSM rely on “institutional links or on tight coupling with the environment” during development of new products? Following interviews with public media workers, the findings conclude that when developing a new product, the public service mission, its audience and purpose are all taken into account. It finds that PSM also copy one another, as their structure and mandate are similar. But PSM does not simply copy other digital born media players who are already popular with younger audiences but rather PSM innovation is led with PSM values.
Distilling the value of public service media
JOURNAL
Distilling the value of public service media: Towards a tenable conceptualisation in the European framework
Azahara Cañedo, Marta Rodríguez-Castro, and Ana María López-Cepeda | European Journal of Communication
2022
This paper examines the challenges of defining the public value of public service media. Looking at the multiplatform era, this research attempts to establish a definition of public service media’s value which can keep its validity for a longer period of time in an era of constant change. In doing so, the results demonstrated the complexities associated with a single definition of public value.
Campaigns against PSM: Hot air or existential threat?
JOURNAL
The populist campaigns against European public service media: Hot air or existential threat?
Annika Sehl, Felix M. Simon and Ralph Schroeder | International Communication Gazette
2022
In Western democracies, right-wing populism is gaining momentum. This paper explores possible responses to the challenges raised by right-wing populists who often criticise PSM of being biased against them. Looking at Austria, Germany and Sweden, this paper examines the commonalities and similarities of PSM in these countries and the attacks they receive. The paper asks whether right wing populists pose more of a threat to PSM and if so, is this threat isolated or does it indicate the potential for a bigger and more continued pattern going forward?
Are public service media distinctive from the market?
JOURNAL
Are public service media distinctive from the market? Interpreting the political information environments of BBC and commercial news in the United Kingdom
Stephen Cushion | European Journal of Communication
2022
With many citizens having access to a variety of media, this paper questions whether public service provides a distinctive and informative news service compared to private media? It found that BBC news and commercial public service platforms mainly covered politics, public affairs and international issues, plus BBC news online covered more informative topics than the market-based media which reported more on celebrity and entertainment news. In addition, where public service media reported with a world view perspective, market-driven media reported news with a UK perspective.
Public Service Broadcasting in the Online TV Environment
JOURNAL
Public Service Broadcasting in the Online Television Environment: The Case for PSB VoD Players and the Role of Policy Focusing on the BBC iPlayer
Maria Michalis | International Journal of Communication
2022
In the era of online TV, this article assesses the main challenges faced by public service broadcasting (PSB). As of yet, the development of BBC iPlayer reveals that online TV has not fundamentally changed PSB, because of the interrelationship between VoD services and tv linear offerings. This article examines how PSB could be revived through personalisation and public service algorithms with the help of online TV.
Public service media in the age of SVoDs
JOURNAL
Public service media in the age of SVoDs: A comparative study of PSM strategic responses in Flanders, Italy and the UK
Alessandro D’Arma, Tim Raats and Jeanette Steemers | Media, Culture & Society Journal
2021
This paper examines the response of public service media to the expansion of streaming services like Netflix and their disruption to established national television models around the world. This paper found that the response of PSM to the disruption caused by giant stream services is due to factors including the country’s governmental support for the role of PSM, and market size. It also found that PSM responds through different strategies one of which is production collaborations.
The Public Service Approach to Recommender Systems
JOURNAL
The Public Service Approach to Recommender Systems: Filtering to Cultivate
Jockum Holden | Television & New Media Journal
2022
The use of algorithms that recommend content to their users has dramatically transformed online media consumption. PSM is catching on and have adopted these algorithms into their own systems to personalise how their online content is distributed. However, since these algorithms cater to a more commercialised recommending system, it could make them incompatible with PSM values, which is to disseminate diverse content. This study gives an in-depth knowledge of how PSM have modified these recommender systems to suit a non-commercial setting.
What are the ethical concerns behind 'recommendations'?
REPORT
What are the ethics behind ‘recommendations’?
Elliot Jones | Ada Lovelace Institute
2022
As public service media organisations now match other media platforms and content providers in offering personalised recommendations on their apps and websites, what are the ethical concerns they need to consider when building these systems? This report from the Ada Lovelace Institute examines this question. The objectives of public service media are completely different to those of private entities – where the latter use personalisation as a tool of increasing engagement and monetisation, the former must use it to serve their principles of openness, accountability, and public service. They also need to be more transparent in how the recommendation systems themselves work.
State Media Monitor: The world's state media database
WEBSITE
State Media Monitor: The world’s state media database
Center for Media, Data & Society, Marius Dragomir
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.
“Nearly 80% of the 546 state-administered media companies in 151 countries covered by this report lack editorial independence, analysis of the State Media Matrix data shows. More than 80% of the 436 media outlets whose editorial agenda is controlled by the government in various ways are media companies that fall into our state-controlled media category comprising outlets predominantly funded, managed and editorially controlled by the government.”
Read more: The State of State Media (CMDS)
