Reporting facts: free from fear or favour

REPORT

Reporting Facts: Free from fear or favour

UNESCO | Marius Dragomir
Published: 2020

Preview of In Focus report on World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development

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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. “

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Organisational culture

Organisational Culture of Public Service Media: People, values, processes

REPORT

Organisational Culture of Public Service Media: People, values, processes

Dr Michał Głowacki and Professor Lizzie Jackson
2019

Organisational culture
Credit: Dr Michał Głowacki and Professor Lizzie Jackson
In 2015-2019 Dr Michał Głowacki and Professor Lizzie Jackson investigated the internal organisational cultures of ten successful high technology clusters in North America and Europe to identify strategies to support the evolution of Public Service Media worldwide. 

Four media clusters were located in North America: Austin (Texas), Boston/Cambridge (Massachusetts), Detroit (Michigan) and Toronto (Canada). European clusters included London (UK), Warsaw (Poland), Copenhagen (Denmark), Brussels (Belgium), Tallinn (Estonia), and Vienna (Austria). To answer the question ‘what people, values and processes’ should Public Service Media embody going forward we found there is an urgent need for adaptation. Without internal change there is likely to be a decline in the ability of PSM to survive within the fast-evolving contemporary media and communications production and distribution landscape.

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RIPE

Universalism in Public Service Media

Book

Universalism in Public Service Media

RIPE@2019
Edited by Philip Savage, Mercedes Medina, Gregory Ferrell Lowe
Published by Nordicom

Since the start of telephony and later in broadcasting, the pursuit of universal service has legitimated the ownership and operation of media as a public trust.
RIPE
RIPE@2019 book cover. Nordicom

Until the 1980s, this principle was the bedrock for the broadcasting mission and is still a mandated requirement for public media companies today. But in practice, the universalism ideal was largely abandoned in the 1980s as media deregulation promised more competition, innovation, and vigorous economic growth. Some of this came true, but at a worrisome cost. Growing distrust in media today is partly rooted in the illusion that more media in more platforms would inevitably ensure better media in all platforms. There is now more of everything on offer except social responsibility. This collection interrogates the historic universalism mission in public service broadcasting and explores its contemporary relevance for public service media. Taking a critical perspective on media policy and performance, the volume contributes to a much-needed contemporary reassessment that clarifies the importance of universalism for equity in access and provision, trustworthy content, and inclusive participation in the context of advancing digitalisation and globalisation. The collection situates universalism as an aspirational quest and inspirational pursuit. Researchers and policy makers will find the collection valuable for conceptualisation and strategic managers will find it helpful as a principled basis in the pursuit of improved reach and value.

(Text sourced via RIPE & Nordicom)

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The Value of PSM

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The Value of PSM

This European Broadcast Union publication from January 2020 showcases the value that public service media brings to European citizens.

The content is available on the EBU website, via login.

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The Journalism AI

REPORT

The Journalism AI

Charlie Beckett

Abstract

The Journalism AI report is based on a survey of 71 news organisations in 32 different countries regarding artificial intelligence and associated technologies. A wide range of journalists working with AI answered questions about their understanding of AI, how it was used in their newsrooms, and their views on the wider potential and risks for the news industry.

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A Pillar of Democracy on Shaky Ground

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A Pillar of Democracy on Shaky Ground

Kondrad Adenauer Stiftung

Abstract

This report gives an overview of public service media in South East Europe; referring to the ten countries, which the Media Programme of the KonradAdenauer-Stiftung covers. From Croatia to North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the Republic of Moldova, liberalised media markets have emerged following the collapse of socialism and its state-controlled media systems. State broadcasters have become public service media. For the first time, essential information about individual public broadcasters is being gathered. Media experts from the respective countries write, among other things, about the history, the legal framework, the financing model and organisational structures in place. The chapters are supplemented with the results of a A Pillar of Democracy on Shaky Ground vi recent representative opinion poll commissioned by the Media Programme and conducted by the research institute Ipsos.

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Democracy & PSM

REPORT

Democracy & PSM

EBU

Abstract

A healthy democracy is strongly linked to a healthy public service media.

‘Democracy & PSM’ demonstrates how countries with robust public service broadcasting systematically rank higher in core democratic indicators. Our correlations show the benefits associated with a strong and well-funded public broadcaster.

The research shows that in countries where PSM is well-funded and enjoys a high market share:

  • People are more active in politics
  • There is more political stability and an absence of violence
  • Corruption is under control

(Login required.)

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Public Broadcasting: The Latin American Exception

JOURNAL

Public Broadcasting: The Latin American Exception.

The Political Economy of Communication 7(1), 105–109.

Martín Becerra

Abstract

An edited version of a talk at the panel The Future of Public Broadcasting: How to Win Back our Hearts? Forum Media and Development, Berlin, November 2018.

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Public Service Broadcasting in the Digital Age

JOURNAL

Public Service Broadcasting in the Digital Age

Journal of European Television History and Culture. Volume 8 – Issue 16 – 2019. Special Issue

Jérôme Bourdon, Mette Charis Buchman and Peter B. Kaufman (eds.)

Abstract:

This special issue proposes a reexamination of public service broadcasting (PSB) in the light of the most recent technological, political and economic developments. Traditional public service broadcasters, ideally designed to serve citizens rather than consumers to inform the national conversations in well-informed democracies, face the double challenge of commercialization (since the 1980s) and digitization (since the 1990s). The question of their survival in this context has been posed again and again. The need for a redefinition seems inevitable.

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