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Broadcasting For The People?
They have it almost anywhere they have antennas, but few publics seem satisfied with public broadcasting. Around the world, citizen and activist groups are calling for reform. Governments and public-broadcasting administrators are feuding, resulting in budgets everywhere being slashed and "reappropriated." All of this while major networks
struggle to reinvent themselves. It's not just that these sprawling bureaucracies and political machines have to face up to the digital age. The dilemma goes far deeper: how to fund, regulate and enforce a broadcasting system with a civic mission, but insulate it from the interests of economics and politics?
From cross-national collaborations in southeastern Europe to reformist declarations in southern Africa, MediaChannel affiliates weigh in on the challenge of maintaining a media enterprise for and of the people.
-Aliza Dichter, editor
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The Freedom Imperative
This comprehensive study, which surveys public broadcasting in Australia, France, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K., finds three essential ingredients: adequate resources,
public accountability and, at the core, independence. Infant democracies face the challenge of protecting public-service media from state control, but for established democracies the influence of the marketplace may pose the greatest risk to public
broadcasting's freedom. From ARTICLE 19, January 1 1999
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The CBC's Death Rattle
As it bleeds cash and alienates its audience, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — possessor of an unmotivated "civil servant" staff and timid, even faulty, news reporting — may be the first major public broadcaster to succeed at suicide. So fears former CBC journalist Dan MacLeod, who investigated the state of the CBC for MediaChannel and found very few people willing to talk about it — except to say they've turned it off. From The Media Channel, July 12 2000
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Broadcasting Beyond Borders
In a region filled with ethnic, national and international tensions, public broadcasting's impact extends beyond (shifting) state boundaries. In April, 2000, the public-service broadcasters of South East Europe (SEE) came together to initiate a plan for regional cooperation. The SEE collaboration — in addition to working together to reform and improve their own systems, learning from models in the West and sharing training, content and codes of ethics and standards — will seek to use media to "promote peace, stability and democracy." From Baltic Media Centre - International Media Development, April 3 2000
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Freeing Post-Totalitarian Media
This draft article by Slavko Splichal and Sandra Basic Hrvatin explores the public broadcasting paradox: how to preserve freedom and independence from state and market pressures yet exert regulation to support equal access and representation for the
marginalized. Condemning the current system in post-Yugoslavia Slovenia, the authors suggest a tripartite model: a state broadcaster, a commercial division, and a separate sector for the people. From International Press Institute, September 1 1997
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The Public Vs. The State
In southern Africa, audience share isn't the problem. Public broadcasting is the primary way citizens get news and commentary. But it has also become highly identified with state control. Articulating a model the rest of the world would do well to consider, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) calls for an editorially independent system that represents the full range of the public in all its diversity. It should provide for a multiplicity of views, take active steps to include minority representation, and become an active sponsor of indigenous culture and content that supports cultural and community interaction. From Media Institute of Southern Africa,
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Lapdogs and Democracy Don't Mix
A project of national and international free-press and democracy groups, the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) has issued a damning report on the ZBC, the sole publicly funded broadcaster in Zimbabwe. In the wake of recent elections, MMPZ denounced the political and civic affairs coverage of the ZBC as partisan and
obstructive of democracy. The report, which calls the monopoly broadcaster "anti-constitutional, unethical and discriminatory," is a case-in-point for the independent regulation of public broadcasters. From Media Institute of Southern Africa, July 8 2000
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Minding The Mandate
Critics accuse America's public-service media of abandoning their mission. But as MediaChannel affiliates and contributors report, public broadcasting may yet be put back on track — especially with a push from the public.
From The Media Channel, July 19 2000
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The British Revolution
The BBC has a controversial new director-general, restructuring plans which will cut over 1000 jobs, and broadcasting and consumer groups demanding a new, independent regulatory structure. It's high drama for the grande dame of public broadcasting. Now, the latest news
in this series of special reports points to a coming showdown between a government and culture secretary — who plans reform through a communications bill — and a BBC busy resetting its course. From Guardian Unlimited, July 17 2000
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Lord Reith's Legacy
This essay from Mick Underwood outlines the history of British public-service broadcasting, from the vision of Lord Reith, the BBC's first director-general, in the 1920s, to the state of "Auntie BBC" in the digital age. Overviewing the work of major theorists on the topic, Underwood also takes a hard look at the upper-class biases of "the Beeb," and makes a solid case that the broadcaster will have to seriously reinvent itself to deal with the new tech. From Communication, Cultural and Media Studies Infobase, June 2 2000
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AS THE MEDIA WATCH THE WORLD, WE WATCH THE
MEDIA.
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