ECREA16-Abstract

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Thursday, November 10

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PP 140

How the Public Values Public Service Broadcasting

N. Just

, M. Buechi

, M. Latzer

University of Zurich, IPMZ- Media Change & Innovation Division, Zurich, Switzerland

The debates on the future of public service broadcasting (PSB) are not coming to a rest and continue to challenge both the concept and the attendant orga‑

nizational structure of public service broadcasters (PSB) in Europe. Traditionally, PSBs were responsive to and held accountable by politics. However, market

pressure, increasing individualization, diversified media use and rising opposition to fees have led to a situation where PSBs gradually discover the general

public as their target for accountability. Consequently, PSBs aim to justify their existence by explaining, consulting and conversing with the public through

different means. While much is known about the arguments of politics and private media with regard to public service media, the opinions of the public are

rarely considered. This paper contributes to closing this research gap by focusing on the attitudes of the public regarding the significance and performance

of PSB in times of media change. Based on a national representative survey (n=1121), this paper explores the attitudes of the Swiss population with regard

to the importance of public service in general and the fulfillment of the remit by the Swiss PSB (SRG) in particular. First results show that two thirds (67%)

of the Swiss population agree that a public service remit is still important. There are, however, important socio-demographic differences: Higher education,

income and age correspond with higher levels of appreciation of the importance of public service media. Similarly, men and Internet users agree to larger

extents than women and Internet non-users. While there is a high appreciation of the general importance of public service, the Swiss population agrees

much less with the assessment that the SRG does a very good job in fulfilling this remit (44%). There are no differences regarding education but younger

respondents agree less and are at the same time the group that is most undecided. In order to shed more light on the attitudes of individuals towards

public service, this paper will further examine the relation between people’s appraisal of public service and their value priorities. In order to scrutinize this

link between human values and attitudes/opinions the paper draws from the well-validated theory of value structure and content developed by Shalom

H. Schwartz (1992, 1994). It surveys three basic values that can be considered particularly important for the appreciation of PSB: hedonism (pleasure,

self-indulgence), self-direction (creativity, freedom), and security (safety, stability). These represent the opposing dimensions of openness to change vs.

conservatism. We hypothesize that a supportive attitude towards PSB and a greater agreement of how well the SRG fulfills this remit correlates positively

with values that stress security, while respondents with value priorities in support of change and novelty approve less of it. Altogether this paper contributes

to an empirically-based understanding of the public’s attitudes towards PSB, which might inform both policy-makers and PSBs in their pursuit of an ade‑

quate strategy in the digital age.

PP 141

Public Service Media`S Own Social Network – Necessity or Utopia?

C. Gerard-Wenzel

, T. Steinmaurer

University of Salzburg, Communication, Salzburg, Austria

European Public Service Media (PSM) struggle with a decline in reach and market shares, accompanied by a debate about their contribution to democratic

society. Therefore, PSM are searching for new ways to attract their audiences online. At this point, social networks represent a good choice for public service

media in order to fullfil their remit concerning participation and social inclusion. They have increasingly focused on using social networking sites in order to

promote their content and engage with their younger users (Moe 2013). BBC News, for example, has 27.898.557 Likes on Facebook (February 2016). This is

almost three times as much as the New York Times has (10.789.153 Likes). However, social networking sites like Facebook are commercial enterprises and

have the potential to negatively affect democratic discourse. As Parrilla, Gadringer and Trappel (2014) pointed out:„Facebook is primarily a forum for dis‑

cussing and communicating topics other than politics (e.g. gossip, social interest stories, entertainment)“, and furthermore,„Facebook works as a forum for

bypassing the media by politicial parties and institutions more than as a tool for the political empowerment of citizens“ (Parrilla/Gadringer/Trappel 2014:

19). Using Social Networking Sites like Facebook, therefore actually contradicts the idea of PSM creating an inclusive and diverse public sphere. Because

of these reasons, the questions arises if creating an own public service social networking site would help PSM in order to contribute to public discourse and

generate„Public NetworkValue“ for society (Wenzel/Steinmaurer 2015). However, the possibilities of Public service media to provide or use Social network‑

ing sites are restricted in many european countries. In Austria, for example, the law prohibits the provision of a PSM social network. Therefore, the authors

will adress the following research questions: -What are the activities of european Public Service Media on Facebook like (User Engagement, Content Market‑

ing), and do these activities contribute to democratic discourse? - Is there a societal need for a genuine public service social network? - Which kind of legal

restrictions can be found for these activities? In order to answer these questions, the authors will analyse different Public Service media organisations (BBC,

ORF, ARD, NPO) and their activities on Facebook. Secondly, the authors will elaborate on the different theoretical perspectives that can justify an own social

networking site (such as Digital Commons and Public Network Value), but also draw on a specific perspective on freedom of broadcasting as a „serving

freedom“ that cannot be classified along with the traditional subjective liberal human rights` aim at holding off interference of the state. Instead, it has to

be guaranteed by law in an objective way. This perspective supports a strong role of public service media in the online environment. The question if PSM

are allowed to provide their own social networks depends on the definition of broadcasting, as the fundamental right of freedom of broacasting justifies

greater engagement of PSM online (Degenhart 2011).