Połońska, Eva/Beckett, Charlie: Public Service Broadcasting and Media Systems in troubled European Democracies

Public service broadcasting is the terrain par excellence within today’s media systems on which political power and media logic interact and overlap. This study will argue that public service broadcasting politicization arising in certain democratic regimes cannot be effectively explained if attention is uncritically paid to the same theoretical grounds upon which media scholars rely to study the corresponding phenomenon in the West. By relying on content and legal analysis of the proceedings concerning five terrestrial channels by the Broadcasting Complaint Commission of South Africa between 1994 and 2014, and on three interviews with civil society representatives, the article will discuss the concept of entrenched politicization as a more proper analytical tool to assess subtler forms of media politicization.

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‘Europe 1992’: The audiovisual challenge

Gazette (Leiden Netherlands) ◽

10.1177/001654929204900105 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 49 (1-2) ◽

pp. 75-97 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Jan Servaes

Keyword(s):

European Community ◽

Public Service ◽

Telecommunication Services ◽

Public Service Broadcasting ◽

Cultural Considerations ◽

European Policies ◽

Balanced Flow ◽

Total Freedom ◽

Media Systems ◽

The One

The article discusses the changing role of the European Community and its impact on national media systems and policies. It claims that the EC-policies advocate total freedom to provide services across borders, and that, therefore, total liberalization may lead to a future cultural synchronization and economic oligopolization of Europe. The main arguments presented are: 1. The national, and especially the European policies regarding telecommunication services in general and broadcasting in particular are based on economic in stead of cultural considerations. This trend will continue after 1992. 2. The public service broadcasting structure and philosophy has undergone major changes throughout the last decades. These changes, initiated by internal as well as external factors, have affected the organizational and finance structures, and the programming of public service broadcasting. 3. It is questionable whether the European policies will be in the advantage of the so-called smaller countries in the European Community, like for instance Belgium or the Netherlands, on the one hand, and whether these policies will be able to secure a free and balanced flow of information, ideas, opinions and cultural activities within the Community on the other hand.

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Public Service Broadcasting, Hard News, and Citizens’ Knowledge of Current Affairs

10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.38 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Toril Aalberg ◽

Stephen Cushion

Keyword(s):

Public Service ◽

News Media ◽

Public Affairs ◽

Future Research ◽

Public Service Broadcasting ◽

Commercial Media ◽

Main Challenge ◽

Current Affairs ◽

Media Environments ◽

Media Systems

Public service broadcasters are a central part of national news media environments in most advanced democracies. Although their market positions can vary considerably between countries, they are generally seen to enhance democratic culture, pursuing a more serious and harder news agenda compared to commercial media . . . But to what extent is this perspective supported by empirical evidence? How far can we generalize that all public service news media equally pursue a harder news agenda than commercial broadcasters? And what impact does public service broadcasting have on public knowledge? Does exposure to public service broadcasting increase citizens’ knowledge of current affairs, or are they only regularly viewed by citizens with an above average interest in politics and hard news?The overview of the evidence provided by empirical research suggests that citizens are more likely to be exposed to hard news, and be more knowledgeable about current affairs, when they watch public service news—or rather news in media systems where public service is well funded and widely watched. The research evidence also suggests there are considerable variations between public broadcasters, just as there are between more market-driven and commercial media. An important limitation of previous research is related to the question of causality. Therefore, a main challenge for future research is to determine not only if public service broadcasting is the preferred news provider of most knowledgeable citizens, but also whether it more widely improves and increases citizens’ knowledge about public affairs.

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From Public Service Broadcasting to Soci(et)al TV

Nordicom Review ◽

10.1515/nor-2016-0037 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 38 (1) ◽

pp. 65-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Heidi Keinonen ◽

Oranit Klein Shagrir

Keyword(s):

Comparative Study ◽

Public Service ◽

Audience Participation ◽

Media Environment ◽

Public Service Broadcasting ◽

Social Tv ◽

National Media ◽

Media Systems

AbstractIn a changing media environment, television is being transformed by the adoption of practices such as audience participation and interactivity. This article analyses the ways in which managers and producers in Finnish and Israeli public service and hybrid television companies perceive participation and interactivity. We suggest that while these concepts can be described by hybrid broadcasters using the technologically- and commercially-oriented concept of ‘social TV’, the term does not adequately address the perceptions of socially-oriented public service broadcasters (PSBs). Hence, we propose the society- and value-oriented concept of ‘soci(et)al TV’ in an effort to conceptualise the PSBs’ perceptions concerning the adoption of interactivity and participation practices while they seek to fulfil their social commitments and objectives. Our argument is based on a comparative study of two different broadcasting models (public service vs. hybrid) in two national media systems and cultures.

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Public Service Television in a Multi-Platform Environment

VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture ◽

10.18146/2213-0969.2014.jethc066 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 14 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Oranit Klein-Shagrir ◽

Heidi Keinonen

Keyword(s):

Digital Media ◽

Public Service ◽

Service Agency ◽

Technological Environment ◽

Media Environment ◽

Public Service Broadcasting ◽

Economic Transformations ◽

National Media ◽

Media Systems ◽

The One

Cultural and economic transformations have encouraged television companies to turn their attention to multi-platform practices so as to increase their compatibility with the changing media environment. While digital media provide public service broadcasting (PSB) institutions with new opportunities for meeting their public commitments and maintaining their relevance in national media systems, PSB is also faced with additional challenges. One of these is the tension between public service values on the one hand and digital technologies and practices on the other. In this article we discuss how Finnish and Israeli PSB managers and producers perceive the opportunities and challenges of multi-platform production. In both countries public service broadcasting is striving for public legitimacy and relevance in a changing technological environment. However, the two countries currently find themselves at quite different stages: Israel has a struggling public service agency, while Finland boasts a strong broadcasting company.

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‘Terrible things happen’: Peter Bowker's Occupation and the Representation of the Iraq War in British Television Drama

Journal of British Cinema and Television ◽

10.3366/jbctv.2013.0130 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 206-223 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stephen Harper

Keyword(s):

Public Service ◽

Iraq War ◽

Television Drama ◽

Narrative Space ◽

Public Service Broadcasting ◽

Military Involvement ◽

British Military ◽

Discursive Strategy ◽

Historically Situated ◽

Invasion Of Iraq

Peter Bowker and Laurie Borg's three-part television drama Occupation (2009) chronicles the experiences of three British soldiers involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. By means of an historically situated textual analysis, this article assesses how far the drama succeeds in presenting a progressive critique of the British military involvement in Iraq. It is argued that although Occupation devotes some narrative space to subaltern perspectives on Britain's military involvement in Iraq, the production – in contrast to some other British television dramas about the Iraq war – tends to privilege pro-war perspectives, elide Iraqi experiences of suffering, and, through the discursive strategy of ‘de-agentification’, obfuscate the extent of Western responsibility for the damage the war inflicted on Iraq and its population. Appearing six years after the beginning of a war whose prosecution provoked widespread public dissent, Occupation's political silences perhaps illustrate the BBC's difficulty in creating contestatory drama in what some have argued to be the conservative moment of post-Hutton public service broadcasting.

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