The Value of Public Service Media

The worth of public service media is under increasing scrutiny in the 21st century as governments consider whether the institution is a good investment and a fair player in media markets. Mandated to provide universally accessible services and to cater for groups that are not commercially attractive, the institution often confronts conflicting demands. It must evidence its economic value, a concept defined by commercial logic, while delivering social value in fulfilling its largely not-for-profit public service mission and functions. Dual expectations create significant complexity for measuring PSM’s overall ‘public value’, a controversial policy concept that provided the theme for the RIPE@2012 conference, which took place in Sydney,

This book, the sixth in the series of RIPE Readers on PSM published by NORDICOM, is the culmination of robust discourse during that event and the distillation of its scholarly outcomes. Chapters are based on top tier contributions that have been revised, expanded and subject to peer review (double-blind). The collection investigates diverse conceptions of public service value in media, keyed to distinctions in the values and ideals that legitimate the public service enterprise in media in many countries.

Content

Preface

Prologue
Paul Chadwick

The Value of Public Service Media
Fiona Martin, Gregory Ferrell Lowe

Defining Public Value in the Age of Information Abundance
James Spigelman

Comparing ‘Public Value’ as a Media Policy Term in Europe
Hallvard Moe, Hilde Van den Bulck

The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing? Economic Arguments and the Politics of Public Service Media
Peter Goodwin

The Concept of Public Value & Triumph of Materialist Modernity: ‘…this strange disease of modern life…’
Michael Tracey

A Market Failure Perspective on Value Creation in PSM
Christian Edelvold Berg, Gregory Ferrell Lowe, Anker Brink Lund

What Media Value? Theorising on Social Values and Testing in Ten Countries
Josef Trappel

The ‘Digital Argument’ in Public Service Media Debates: An Analysis of Conflicting Values in Flemish Management Contract Negotiations for VRT
Karen Donders, Hilde Van den Bulck

Multi-stakeholderism: Value for Public Service Media
Minna Aslama Horowitz, Jessica Clark

Disaster Coverage and Public Value from Below: Analysing the NHK’s Reporting of the Great East Japan Disaster
Takanobu Tanaka, Toshiyuki Sato

Media Literacy Promotion as a Form of Public Value? Comparing
Stoyan Radoslavov

Extending the Public Service Remit through ABC Pool
Jonathon Hutchinson

Public Value and Audience Engagement with SBS Documentary Content: Go Back To Where You Came From & Immigration Nation
Georgie McClean

Finding the Value in Public Value Partnerships: Lessons from Partnerships Strategies and Practices in the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Flanders
Tim Raats, Karen Donders, Caroline Pauwels

The Authors