Abstract
The past three decades or so have witnessed profound changes in the circumstances of national public service broadcasting (PSB). Always a weak and marginalized phenomenon in the US, its position in Europe has evolved – with a number of important variations among the national narratives – through transformations in the media landscape, the development of media technologies, the altered position of the nation state, demographics and ideological shifts. Thus the expansive growth of the commercial media sector, coupled with policies and regulation strongly shaped by neoliberal thinking, have become a challenge not just for public broadcasting but also for the notion of citizenship and the vision of democracy as well. Further, processes of globalization generally, and the development of the EU in particular, coupled with increasingly heterogeneous populations, necessitate a new compass for navigating its course. And, not least, the growth of online multimedia, where more and more people are engaging in increasingly interactive ways and even generating content, necessitates fundamental renewal with regard to both goals and strategies for PSB. What we see emerging is a transition to what is now being called public service media (PSM), operating via a variety of platforms.
The kinds of questions that these changes raise are not just of a practical or administrative character, they are ultimately political. This does not by any means suggest that the answers are self-evident, but it does mean that they have been and will be contested; there are many actors and interests involved, often with competing scenarios for the future. There has of course been no dearth of research literature and debate about public service, and not least a number of significant anthologies have appeared in recent years. Yet there are still very good reasons for reading this excellent collection; it offers an impressively broad thematic terrain and array of analytic perspectives.
Consisting of 23 chapters, this volume addresses a number of key questions: what key strategies do public service enterprises need to renew themselves while yet maintaining their public service principles? How can/should PSM integrate the new media platforms? How well are European media and cultural policies dealing with enlargement and integration? How are we to understand the notions of a European public sphere and of European identity, and how is this manifested in European media? How do PSM beyond the EU function today, and how do their economies connect with European PSM?
After a short Introduction, the volume is divided into two major sections. The first, comprising 10 chapters, offers various theoretical angles on the political and regulatory dimensions of PSB. The second section, with the remaining 13 chapters, provides national empirical case studies. Part 1 covers the major analytic themes, including key points of policy contention. Karol Jaubowicz in chapter 1 tackles a range of issues, not least in regard to the audiences of PSM, who are increasingly becoming content generators, and the question of how the multi-platform character of the contemporary situation can be met via restructuring and new funding strategies. The editor’s own chapter 2 maps the evolution of PSB in the UK and Europe from the angle of pluralism and argues that a consolidated funding model is more likely to enhance its future prospects. The next two chapters, by Maria Michalis and Mark Wheeler, respectively, explore the EU’s complex and problematic relationship to PSB. In chapter 5 Barbara Thomass addresses the classic question of a European public sphere, but not just in normative terms: she offers concrete policy suggestions that point to a model of multiple public spheres anchored in national PSB with online PSM extensions establishing transnational linkages.
From the horizon of news, Farrel Corcoran in chapter 6 takes up the democratic concerns of civil society and political engagement at the EU level, and how the journalism of PSB could provide better support. Katherine Sarikakis further pursues the notion of citizenship in chapter 7 by arguing for the importance of the cultural domain for democracy. She advocates a transnational PSM system, facilitated by the coordination of normative standards to strengthen critical civic involvement.
Transnational broadcasting is a major feature of the contemporary media environment, and this has become one of the key challenges for PSB. Jean K. Chalaby addresses this theme in chapter 8, focusing in particular on the issues of markets and languages. Children occupy an important position in any vision of PSB and PSM; Allesandro D’Arma and Jeanette Steemers engage with this topic in chapter 9 via a comparative analysis of the BBC, RAI and PBS in the US, underscoring the crucial factor of funding for children’s content. In the final chapter of the first part, Greg Ferrell Lowe and Teemu Palokangas introduce the perspective that PSB, as it now gradually transmutes into PSM, should be treated and managed as a valuable brand, taking advantage of the trust and respect it has built up over the years. They suggest that this will provide a successful strategy for differentiation in the competitive and crowded media landscape.
Taken together, these analytic chapters make abundantly clear the convoluted character of the PSB and PSM terrain. The array of stakeholders and conflicting interests involved; the economic, cultural and political factors to be confronted; and the ever-ongoing technological developments – all serve to generate a policy and regulatory complex that is quite daunting – at the national, EU and broader international levels. Not least, a cumulative message of these analyses is to signal the problematic character of market forces in this context. The authors are not anti-market, but they indicate in various ways the inadequacies – and even the dangerous consequences – of promoting unrestrained market mechanisms for developing a future vision of PSB and PSM. From their various perspectives, they indicate how intricate and difficult the media component of democracy can be. At the same time, it also becomes obvious that merely invoking democratic rhetoric is not enough. There is much work to be done, and this point is brought home very concretely in the empirical national chapters of the second part.
As the editor indicates, there is a logic to the selection of the case studies. Included are five large EU countries: the UK (written by Jeremy Tunstall), France (Raymond Kuhn), Germany (Runar Woldt), Italy (Cinzia Padovani), and Spain (Bienvenido León). There are two small EU countries: Austria (Josef Trallel) and Greece (Stylianos Papathanassopoulos), and a non-EU country, Switzerland (included in the chapter by Trappel). We have also a large East-Central European country, Poland (Pawel Stepka), and a small one, Hungary (Márk Lengyel). It would have been desirable if this European selection had included one of the Nordic countries, given their particularly strong tradition of PSB; on the other hand, we are offered the edifying inclusion of four countries beyond Europe: the US (Walter S. Baer), Canada (Philip Savage), Australia (Gay Hawkins) and New Zealand (Trisha Dunleavy).
These case studies are structured around a unifying comparative framework, comprising a set of key parameters of PSB and PSM, such as funding, political independence, the distinctiveness of PSB services and content, and the role of PSB in contributing to a multicultural society. While each chapter inevitably highlights certain aspects more than others, this comparative structure greatly adds to the utility of the book, as does the detailed index. The broad scope of this volume, its analytic horizons, its coherent structure and, not least, its timeliness, make it an essential contribution to the contemporary literature on PSB and its transition towards PSM.