Public Service Broadcasting: A View from Scotland

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Beveridge
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Media Policy ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Media Regulation ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
Full Expression ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses public service broadcasting in Scotland. The relationship between broadcasting in Scotland and broadcasting on a UK basis is analogous to that between the UK film industry and Hollywood. At the very least, it can be defined as neglect: sometimes benign; sometimes malign but in many cases, and over many decades, a refusal to enable the culture(s) and identities of the nation of Scotland to find full expression. It is argued that the Scottish Parliament should be fully responsible for media policy and media regulation in and for Scotland, including BBC Scotland. BBC Scotland also needs to have control of its own scheduling and to adopt an opt-in rather than an opt-out policy towards programming, thus taking account of the distinct and distinctive nature of the Scottish television and media market and patterns of consumption.

Devolution and Communications Policy in Scotland

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Schlesinger
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Communications Policy ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
The Media ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Media Concentration

This chapter illustrates how ‘most of the Holyrood political class has been reluctant to explore the boundaries between the devolved and the reserved’, even on less life-and-death issues such as broadcasting. Conversely, it also tells of at least one post-devolution success story for classic informal pre-devolution-style ‘Scottish lobbying’ in Westminster. Scotland is presently one of the UK's leading audiovisual production centres, with Glasgow as the linchpin. The capacity of the Scottish Parliament to debate questions of media concentration but also its incapacity to act legislatively has been observed. There are both political and economic calculations behind the refusal to devolve powers over the media via the Communications Act 2003. Ofcom now has a key role in policing the terms of trade for regional production that falls within a public service broadcaster's target across the UK. The BBC's position as the principal vehicle of public service broadcasting has come increasingly under question. The Gaelic Media Service set up under the Communications Act 2003 has a line of responsibility to Ofcom in London. Scottish Advisory Committee on Telecommunications (SACOT) determined four key regulatory issues needing future attention by Ofcom.

The Purposes of Broadcasting – Revisited

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Petley
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Uk

This chapter focuses on a report on the future of broadcasting in the UK commissioned in 1960 by the then Conservative government. It suggests that the most significant part of the report for current debates about the future of the BBC in particular, and of public service broadcasting in general, is its robust and combative dismissal of the populist approach to television — an approach which thoroughly infused many of the attacks on the report and which has become a hallmark of the many onslaughts on public service broadcasting in the intervening years. Today, we desperately need an analysis of both the strengths and weaknesses of public service broadcasting as it currently exists, as well as a blueprint for its future, which is as profound, challenging, well-informed, and intellectually self-confident as was the report when it was published in 1962.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Edmiston
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

This book has examined the relationship between inequality and social citizenship through the everyday accounts of notionally equal citizens in austerity Britain. In doing so, it has sought to establish how citizens perceive and negotiate the material and status hierarchies that condition their lives. In particular, whether and how individuals experiencing relative deprivation and affluence develop distinctive modes of reference, attachment and engagement when it comes to welfare and social citizenship. Since the Great Recession, public service reforms and fiscal recalibration have resulted in an increasingly individualistic and commodified welfare settlement in the UK. These developments have given rise to fault lines in the subjectivity and political agency of social citizens that need to be understood within and as contributing towards systemic processes of inclusion and exclusion. Through a schematic summary of the key themes and lessons that have emerged from this book, this concluding chapter considers what this reveals about the rise of anti-social citizenship and its implications for welfare policy and politics going forward.

Public Service Broadcasting and Social Networking Sites: The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation on Facebook

2013 ◽  
Vol 146 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hallvard Moe
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Media Policy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
The World

Social networking sites have become staples in everyday life in many parts of the world. Public service broadcasters have ventured on to such services, aiming to reach new users. This move triggers a line of question about the borders between the public and the commercial, the control of content and the shifting power in media policy. Focusing on the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation's use of Facebook, this article offers insights into what exactly is new about the challenges posed by social networking sites, and explores how this instance of hybrid arrangements impacts on our understanding of public service media.

scholarly journals Public Service Broadcasting: The challenge of representing ethnic minority audiences

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-51
Author(s):  
Gurvinder Aujla-Sidhu
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Target Audience ◽  
Radio Station ◽  
Director General ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Media Construction ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Uk

This paper examines the problems the BBC has in engaging and representing minority audiences. The Director General of the BBC, Tony Hall, has claimed that he wants the future BBC to “represent every family and community in the UK” (June 2014). Not an easy feat when the BBC’s own research indicates that it is failing to attract ethnic minority audiences (BBC Service Review 2012). Critics such as Hall (1990) have suggested the problem is the media construction of “race” as an issue and its definitions. The paper will focus on the BBC Asian Network, a radio station which was almost closed down in 2010, ostensibly because it was the most expensive BBC radio service to operate, and had very low listener figures. Producers and Editors explain the issues they face in attracting and retaining the target audience.

Children and Public Service Broadcasting

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Livingstone ◽  
Claire Local
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Television Viewing ◽  
Children's Television ◽  
Online Content ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
On Demand ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Television Plays

Much has been said about the future of public service content, the growth of multiple platforms, new market and regulatory pressures, and changing audience preferences and practices, among other widely debated topics. However, little attention has been paid to the role that public service television plays in educating, entertaining, and broadening the horizons of children in the UK. This chapter focuses on how public service television can better serve a child audience that spends on average at least 35 hours per week consuming broadcast, on-demand, and online content. It discusses how children still view public service television on a television set; whether children's television viewing really in decline; the case for online provision of children's public service television; the case for online provision for children of other public service content; and the case for enhancing the ‘discoverability’ of children's public service content.

Television and Public Service: A Brief History1

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Broadcasting Policy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
British Culture

This chapter traces the history of public service television. The history of British public service broadcasting policy in the 20th century is characterized by a series of very deliberate public interventions into what might otherwise have developed as a straightforward commercial marketplace. The creation of the BBC, the launch of an ITV network required to produce public service programming, and the addition of the highly idiosyncratic Channel 4 gave the UK a television ecology animated by quality, breadth of programming and an orientation towards serving the public interest. At each of these three moments, the possibilities of public service television were expanded and British culture enriched as a result. The 1990 Broadcasting Act and the fair wind given to multichannel services may have ended the supremacy of the public service television ideal. However, public service television has survived, through the design of the institutions responsible for it, because of legislative protection, and as a result of its continuing popularity amongst the public.

scholarly journals Principles for a second century of film legislation

Legal Studies ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 609-630
Author(s):  
Daithí Mac Síthigh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Theatrical Performances ◽  
Executive Action ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

Following a century of legislation about film and the film industry in the UK, and the latest in a series of reports on ‘film policy’, this paper investigates the relationship between law, policy and film. Case studies on the definition of ‘film’ in a time of technological and cultural change consider the privileged position of the cinema in terms of censorship and tax, including the new phenomenon of ‘alternative content’; that is, live relays of theatrical performances. Institutional change is assessed and criticised, particularly the abolition of the UK Film Council and the steady move from statute to executive action. The paper sets out a case for the role of the state to be set out in legislation and the cultural consequences of legal definitions to be taken more seriously.

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