Radio audience in European minority languages: Important reality and structural correlation
JOURNAL
Radio audience in European minority languages: Important reality and structural correlation
Iñaki Zabaleta-Urkiola, Tania Arriaga-Azkarate, and Aitor Castañeda-Zumeta | European Journal of Communication
This paper looks at the audience of public radio channels in indigenous minority languages across Europe, including examples from Spain, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Researchers found that in areas of high mutual intelligibility – where the language could be understood by most people – audience reach of minority channels were significantly higher than in regions where the language could not be broadly recognized. They also found that these public media organizations proved to be important in cultural preservation and re-energizing the language, allowing for a more diverse group of people to speak the minority language and improving cultural diversity within the broadcasting region. In some areas minority radio outperforms their majority language counterparts, demonstrating their impact and showing large amounts of audience reach, which justifies increased funding and a key role within the public media sphere in countries with indigenous languages that demand representation.
Projections: The Social Internet
REPORT
Projections: The Social Internet
Henry Cooke & Ian Forrester | BBC Research and Development
This report focuses on the BBC, examining how the public broadcaster can use social media to connect with increasingly isolated online audiences. The authors highlight a pronounced shift away from addictive and algorithmic social media platforms like TikTok towards smaller and more private group chats or social spaces. For PSM this means a digital movement away from a large presence on larger social media platforms, into a wider variety of smaller spaces. This shift requires a higher variety of content across more topics, along with embedding themselves into online communities and establishing an engaged and collaborative relationship with their audiences.
Framing Nordic public service media: Comparing policy discourses in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
JOURNAL
Framing Nordic public service media: Comparing policy discourses in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
John Grönvall and Kari Karppinen | European Journal of Communication
This article surveys the public service media (PSM) landscape of the four Scandinavian countries over the last 10 years to determine the ways in which the role of PSM have changed. The authors found clear national differences in the roles of PSM within each country, although they shared common problems, such as competition from private media companies, rising disinformation via social media and an increased difficulty in reaching younger audiences. However, Nordic PSM were most affected by expanded political polarization, with populist leaders advocating against the need for a well-supported public media apparatus and questioning their worth for society.
Global platforms, new media generations and Anglo-American hegemony: An exploration of young audience viewing and language preferences in four European countries
JOURNAL
Global platforms, new media generations and Anglo-American hegemony: An exploration of young audience viewing and language preferences in four European countries
Andrea Esser and Jeanette Steemers | Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies
This study identifies the screen usage of younger audiences between the ages of 16 and 34 in Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands and Italy. It found that young people have moved away from locally-produced content, with their focus shifting toward English-language productions. US-based major streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video dominate long-form consumption in these countries, although British content has continued to increase in popularity on the continent. Usage of the English language forms a significant reason for British production’s success, with young audiences more likely to consume due to the accessibility of the language.
News Literacy and Public Service News Broadcasting: Is There a Connection? Evaluating News Literacy Among Viewers and Non-Viewers of PSB News Programming in Austria
JOURNAL
News Literacy and Public Service News Broadcasting: Is There a Connection? Evaluating News Literacy Among Viewers and Non-Viewers of PSB News Programming in Austria
Kimberly Callecod-Weinrich and Janez Krek | SAGE Open
This study examines the effect of television news programmes run by public broadcasters on the news literacy of consumers. Based on a survey, the authors examined groups of public-broadcast viewers and non-viewers, finding that people who regularly consumed public news were far more likely to be news literate. These findings suggest that public broadcasting allows for an enhanced ability for audiences to evaluate news content, demonstrating its importance to the media landscape.
The rise and fall of European media: EU policy in the streaming era
JOURNAL
The rise and fall of European media: EU policy in the streaming era
Jean K Chalaby | European Journal of Communication
This article looks at European broadcasters, arguing that – despite the persistent efforts of the European Union – a trans-national media industry has failed to take shape on the continent. The author examine the development of pan-European media consolidation in the 1980s and 90s, with the 1989 Television Without Frontiers Directive ensuring the free movement of television content within the European market. Their research shows that this growth slowed dramatically in the 2010s, as digitization and the rise of major US-based streaming platforms led to revenue stagnation for legacy broadcasters. To prevent continued decline, Chalaby argues that European authorities need to increase their support for locally-based media platforms.
Smart TV Users and Interfaces: Who’s in Control?
JOURNAL
Smart TV Users and Interfaces: Who’s in Control?
Ramon Lobato, Alexa Scarlata, Bruno Schivinski | International Communication Journal
As smart TVs are flooding the market and increasingly replacing traditional non-connected TVs, very little is known about how smart TVs are used once they were bought.
Based on the case study of Australia, the authors examined the usage habits of smart TV owners, in particular the agency people have in relation to smart TV apps and interfaces. This study shows how unevenly the ability to customise a smart TV is across society and brings up how these findings could impact the current policy debates about prominence regulation.
How public service media are changing in the platform era: A comparative study across four European countries
JOURNAL
How public service media are changing in the platform era: A comparative study across four European countries
Marius Dragomir & Miguel Túñez López | European Journal of Communication
Public service media (PSM) benefit from certain advantages such as access to public funding and technical infrastructure, as well as a special regulatory framework allowing them to reach almost the entire population. However, this special position in society does not protect them from various challenges to which they are regularly confronted, including economic and political pressures or opposition from privately owned media. In the recent year, the shift to platforms has also brought its series of challenges.
This research looks into the transformation of four European PSM in response to the pressures related to platformatisation and how they adapt to this new digital landscape while maintaining the core values of PSM.
The shadowy realm of news avoidance
JOURNAL
The shadowy realm of news avoidance
Johan Lindell, Zofie Basta, Alexandra Brieger, Sayaka Fukada, Sarah Greiner, Marta Marcora & Christopher Mc Taggart | Nordicom
In this study, the authors explore a new approach to news avoidance, as “a form of negative social action embedded in a negative social space – a realm of the
lifeworld filled with non-doings and non-appearance.” By analysing a case study that took place in Sweden during the Covid–19 pandemic, where a number of people disconnected from national public service news, the authors demonstrate that avoiders of news from public service media occupy relatively precarious social positions. Their research also showed that a broader negative social space was an influencing element for news avoidance.
How public service media are changing in the platform era: A comparative study across four European countries
JOURNAL
How public service media are changing in the platform era: A comparative study across four European countries
Marius Dragomir & Miguel Túñez López | European Journal of Communication
2024
The platformisation of the public sphere has profoundly reshaped the media landscape, exerting particular pressure on public service media (PSM).
The imperative to uphold PSM’s core values—universality, independence, excellence, diversity, accountability, and innovation—has become increasingly complex amid the shift to digital ecosystems. These principles, essential to PSM’s role in democratic societies, now face additional strains as digital platforms alter traditional models of content distribution and audience engagement.
This article seeks to examine the evolution of PSM in response to these pressures in four European countries: Austria, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom.