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]
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?
Funding Democracy: Public Media and Democratic Health in 33 Countries
REPORT
Funding Democracy: Public Media and Democratic Health in 33 Countries
The International Journal of Press/Politics | Timothy Neff and Victor Pickard
Published: 2021
Neff and Pickard’s new report provides further evidence that where public media is better funded, with secure funding and regulatory frameworks, they are “consistently and positively correlated with healthy democracies”, and that citizens are more likely to engage in democratic processes. The study is based on a framework by Hallin and Mancini of North American and European media systems, and in correlation with the rankings of the 33 countries in the top two tiers of The 2019 Democracy Index (“full” and “flawed” democracies), developed by The Economist’s Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The Contribution of NRK to Norwegian Media Diversity
REPORT
The Contribution of NRK to Norwegian Media Diversity
A review from The Norwegian Media Authority to the Ministry of Culture
Medietilsynet
Published: November 2021
“In a report published on 29 November 2021, the Norwegian Media Authority (NMA) concludes that the public service media provider NRK contributes positively to media diversity and to the overall offer to the public by fulfilling its public service broadcasting remit and by working with other actors in the Norwegian media market. A detailed summary of the report is now available in English.
The objective of the report, commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, was to identify how NRK contributes to diversity of content and exposure, whether it fulfils its duty to cover thematic and geographic blind spots and how the competitive effects of its activities impact on the media market. on online news and current affairs.
The review is based on the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data and studies from a wide range of sources including NRK, public authorities, consultants and academic researchers and takes into consideration input from the media industry.”
[Text sourced from the European platform of regulatory authorities]
British Public Service Broadcasting, the EU and Brexit
REPORT
British Public Service Broadcasting, the EU and Brexit
Department of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK | Mike Berry, Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Inaki Garcia-Blanco, Lucy Bennett and Joe Cable
Published: 2021
This paper analyses the historic role of Britain’s major public service broadcaster, the BBC, in reporting the European Union. To do this it combines a content analysis of two datasets of BBC broadcast and online coverage from 2007 and 2012 with a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with former and current senior BBC editors and journalists. The research finds that BBC coverage in the pre-referendum period was closely tied to major events – such as summits – and elite party conflict. These patterns in coverage were primarily a consequence of the lack of traditional news values inherent in most EU stories and the impact of the wider political and media landscape. The consequence of these patterns in coverage was to present audiences with a restricted, negative and largely conflictual picture of Britain’s relationship with the EU which is likely to have fuelled rather than inhibited the growth of Euroscepticism.
[Text sourced from the Taylor and France Online]
The State of State Media
REPORT
The State of State Media
A Global Analysis of the Editorial Independence of State Media and an Introduction of a New State Media Typology
Center for Media, Data and Society, CEU Democracy Institute | Marius Dragomir and Astrid Söderström
Published: 2021
CMDS Director Marius Dragomir introduces a new tool to assess the editorial independence of the world’s state media and finds that nearly 80% of 546 state-administered media companies in 151 countries lack editorial independence.
[Text sourced from CMDS]
Public service media in Europe: law, theory and practice
Book
Public service media in Europe
Law, Theory and Practice
Routledge | Karen Donders
Publication date: June 2021
Contributing to a rethink of Public Service Media, this book combines theoretical insights and legal frameworks with practice, examining theory and policy development in a bottom-up manner.
It explores the practices of Public Service Media across Europe, assessing the rules that govern Public Service Media at both the EU and the National Member State level, identifying common trends, initiated by both the European Commission and individual countries, illustrating the context-dependent development of Public Service Media and challenging the theories of Public Service Broadcasting which have developed an ideal-type public broadcaster based on the well-funded BBC in an atypical media market. Seeking to further explore the actual practices of Public Service Media and make recommendations for the development of more sustainable policies, this book offers case studies of rules and practices from across a variety of EU Member States to consider the extent to which public broadcasters are making the transition to public media organisations, and how public broadcasters and governments are shaping Public Service Media together.
This book is a must-read for all scholars who take an interest in Public Service Media, media policy and media systems literature at large. It will also be of interest to practitioners working in government, Public Service Media and commercial media.
(Text sourced via Routledge)
Countering Disinformation
WEBSITE
Countering Disinformation
Cardiff University | Arts and Humanities Research Council
2020
“Disinformation is a growing risk to the health of many democratic systems. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, this project will assess how leading UK public service media are counteracting it in news reporting.”
This project is the largest of its kind in the UK and focusses on the content produced by The BBC, Channel 4 ITV and Sky News. It aims to provide a “comprehensive understanding of how British public service media and audiences are developing practices to address and counter disinformation. “
Achieving Viability for Public Service Media in Challenging Settings
Book
Achieving Viability for Public Service Media in Challenging Settings
A Holistic Approach
James Deane, Pierre François Docquir, Winston Mano, Tarik Sabry, Naomi Sakr
Part of the CAMRI Policy Briefs series.
Multiple international organisations recognise the value of public service media (PSM) as an essential component of democratisation. Yet how can PSM achieve viability in settings where models of media independence and credibility are unfamiliar or rejected by political leaders? This Policy Brief considers the issues, research and policy options around achieving viability for PSM. It concludes with six recommendations that are relevant to policymakers, practitioners and media studies specialists