Public service media and multilevel governance : Citizen participation in the networked society – The Spanish case (2024)

International Journal of Communication, 2021

Technological convergence has forced television networks to reinvent themselves as multiplatform online distribution media, which may lead such networks to question the utility of the public media system and its financing models. At the same time, a global economic crisis caused budget cuts for public service broadcasters, forcing the closure of some of them. First, it was the Greek ERT in June 2013. The same year, in November, a regional Spanish public television was closed as well; this was also due to political decisions. This article presents a study of the reopening of this regional Spanish Public Service Media (PSM) in 2018. This is a singular case in Europe, as it was the first PSM that was conceived from the outset as a convergent media network. The results show many challenges related to political action, which reveal the need for an effective governance system that can provide PSM that are neutral and independentpublic service media, convergence, media ecosystem, public service broadcasting, public television.

Journal of Communication, 2008

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk

The future of public service broadcasting (PSB), and its role for democracy and culture in an age of globalization and digitalization, is a disputed issue among communication scholars, journalists, the general public and politicians. The PSB institutions are dependent on political support for their survival, and they have to live up to cultural policy obligations. The focus of this analysis is on the rhetoric employed in the white papers on PSB and overall cultural policy, produced between 2005 and 2007 in Norway and Sweden. The analysis shows that both countries emphasize the need to secure an inclusive public sphere, a vivid democracy and a national culture. The rhetoric differs in the sense that the Norwegian focus is on PSB as a tool for achieving cultural policy goals, while the Swedish focus is more on why the idea of PSB is important in itself.

Nordicom Review, 2011

The future of public service broadcasting (PSB), and its role for democracy and culture in an age of globalization and digitalization, is a disputed issue among communication scholars, journalists, the general public and politicians. The PSB institutions are dependent on political support for their survival, and they have to live up to cultural policy obligations. The focus of this analysis is on the rhetoric employed in the white papers on PSB and overall cultural policy, produced between 2005 and 2007 in Norway and Sweden. The analysis shows that both countries emphasize the need to secure an inclusive public sphere, a vivid democracy and a national culture. The rhetoric differs in the sense that the Norwegian focus is on PSB as a tool for achieving cultural policy goals, while the Swedish focus is more on why the idea of PSB is important in itself.

The report shows how the distinct features of the Nordic model—distilled from the analysis by Hallin and Mancini —changed in recent years: Does the press remain strong, widespread, and characterized by political parallelism? Is there still an active state ensuring media pluralism and a strong public broadcasting service? Ohlsson concludes negatively, arguing that the Nordic countries’ media systems have lost their distinctive characteristics. He also states that the differences between the five Nordic countries are too big to make them fit into one model. A clear shortcoming of the publication, however, is that it fails to place the Nordic region in a comparative perspective that would shed light on common international tendencies. The liberalization that has affected the Nordic media markets has had an even deeper impact in other countries in the Western hemisphere, and it would have been most relevant to observe the actual “displacement” of other national markets toward the liberal model and beyond.

Nordicom Review

The present article discusses the importance of the early years of mass communications in order to understand the shaping of them – the power of creating mass media for whole nations. It begins with references to scholars studying large nations and asks whether their results can be generalized to smaller countries. Therefore, it uses Norway as a case study. To what degree were Norway’s four major mass media – press, film, radio and television – formed institutionally in their early years? And if they were formed in this way, how long did the consequences of such a formation last? These questions have been neglected topics in research, so in order to answer them we also need to rethink the connections between the different media.

Nordicom Review, 2012

This article summarises findings from a research project on the digitisation of Norwegian newsrooms, analysing trends in the industry and changes in user-habits. Findings suggest that most journalists are positive about the digitisation of the newsroom but fear that cut- backs in staff will prevent them from exploiting the potential of the new technology. They also fear that too much focus on technical skills will leave less space for critical journalism. Findings also suggest a correlation between resources used to develop the online edition and the perceived ethical standards of the content. More online journalism leads to a higher degree of scepticism among the readers. There are two different justifications for using resources on the online edition. Some newspaper executives hope to use the online edition to recruit new readers to the paper edition while another group hopes to develop the breadth of market service through a portfolio of publishing platforms.

The ‘networked society’ has become a popular idea in national media policy and cor-porate strategy, including for public service media at national and European levels. It is equally notable in acad ...

European Journal of Communication, 2021

During the last decades the Nordic media model has been challenged by neoliberal policy and welfare retrenchment. This study asks about the extent to which the values, functions and institutions of the "media welfare state" are supported by the adult Swedish citizenry, despite political mobilization against it. Drawing on a national survey (n = 2003) this study shows that the media welfare state is generally well-supported by the population. Using exploratory statistical analysis, we identify a media welfare state of mind. While widespread in the population, this attitudinal constellation is more common in older segments of the population, in the working-class, and by those who frequently use and trust public service media. The main conclusion is that support for the media welfare state primarily can be explained by political attitudes, where left-leaning and GAL-oriented individuals are more positive than people holding right-wing and TAN-attitudes.

This article provides an overview of the mediatisation approach, which for the last twodecades has gradually become a systematic concept for understanding and theorising thetransformation of everyday life, culture and society in the context of the ongoing transformationof media. The article is divided into four sections. The first section addresses theongoing transformation of media and the emergence of a computer-controlled digital infrastructurefor all symbolic operations in a society; some of the new types of media are alsopresented. In the second section, the development of the mediatisation approach as a reactionto media changes is explained, and the central assumptions and conditions of thisapproach are discussed. This section also shows why, in addition to actual mediatisationresearch, historical mediatisation research is also necessary to understand the developmentsoccurring today. The third section clarifies this and discusses how the transformation ofmedia produces a transformation of everyday life, culture and society; this section also presentssome results of empirical studies. The fourth and final section provides some preliminaryideas about how to establish a necessary third branch of mediatisation research,which offers a critical view with reference to civil society, besides actual and historical mediatisationresearch.KEYWORDS transformation of media; media change; digital infrastructure; symbolic operations;transformation of everyday life; mediatisation; historical research; critical research; civilsociety

"The article discusses the background and origins of research on media institutions as afield, and especially assesses the development and status of Norwegian research on broadcasting institutions. It is demonstrated how the field has developed, both quantitatively and qualitatively, through three key phases: the era of broadcasting monopolies; the“new media situation” in the 1980s and 1990s; and the era of convergence; globalization andcommercialization from the late 1990s. A key purpose is to discuss the theoretical perspectives and implicit and explicit assumptions upon which the research is based. Further, thearticle points to shortcomings and gaps in our knowledge of how media institutions evolve and operate. In closing, it is suggested how the field may maintain its relevance in an erawhere the very concept of a “broadcasting institution” is becoming more blurred.Key Words: media institutions, broadcasting, Norway, research overview"

Nordicom Review, 2014

Technological convergence has forced television networks to reinvent themselves as multiplatform online distribution media, which may lead such networks to question the utility of the public media system and its financing models. At the same time, a global economic crisis caused budget cuts for public service broadcasters, forcing the closure of some of them. First, it was the Greek ERT in June 2013. The same year, in November, a regional Spanish public television was closed as well; this was also due to political decisions. This article presents a study of the reopening of this regional Spanish Public Service Media (PSM) in 2018. This is a singular case in Europe, as it was the first PSM that was conceived from the outset as a convergent media network. The results show many challenges related to political action, which reveal the need for an effective governance system that can provide PSM that are neutral and independent.

Nordicom Review 28(Jubilee Issue): 149-167, 2007

The article discusses the background and origins of research on media institutions as a field, and especially assesses the development and status of Norwegian research on broad- casting institutions. It is demonstrated how the field has developed, both quantitatively and qualitatively, through three key phases: the era of broadcasting monopolies; the “new media situation” in the 1980s and 1990s; and the era of convergence; globalization and commercialization from the late 1990s. A key purpose is to discuss the theoretical perspec- tives and implicit and explicit assumptions upon which the research is based. Further, the article points to shortcomings and gaps in our knowledge of how media institutions evolve and operate. In closing, it is suggested how the field may maintain its relevance in an era where the very concept of a “broadcasting institution” is becoming more blurred.

It is commonly believed that the Nordic countries, in general, and the Scandinavian coun- tries, in particular, are so much alike that they constitute a common media system - of- ten termed democratic-corporatist. But a review of recent studies on power and democ- racy in Sweden, Norway and Denmark shows that there is most probably no such thing as one

Gothenburg University, 2023