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]
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.