Media Institutions And Society - Is public service broadcasting an obsolete idea?

Authors Avatar

Media Institutions And Society – Is public service broadcasting an obsolete idea?

                It is hard to try and define the term public service broadcasting but it can be loosely termed to ‘inform, educate and entertain.’ This is what the Lord Reith, the first Director General of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), intended to do in Great Britain. ‘The concept of public broadcasting, in Reith’s mind had…an idea of a broadcasting role in the formation of an informed and reasoned public opinion as an essential part of the political process.’ (Public Service: The History of a Concept – Paddy Scannell) As can be seen by that statement, Reith saw television just more than as a form of entertainment or past time, he considered it to be a powerful and important tool to help and educate people. And it seems it has been doing this every since the very start but due to the technological developments that have taken place such as satellite and cable technology, digital television and the internet, this has meant that the concept of public service broadcasting is being questioned. We are now starting wonder if public service broadcasting is now an out of date idea and if we need to move ahead with the time as the technology has developed further than the need for something like public service broadcasting.

                The start of public service broadcasting can be traced back to the start of the BBC in 1927. It is based on the beliefs of programming of cultural diversity and to be able to provide programming for all minorities to be represented fairly. There is a very strong demand for quality programmes that do more than just entertain people. It is more important to create programmes that might be costly rather commercial programming that would be low budget and would appeal to only the majority, and none of the minority groups. Public service broadcasters have the obligation to listen to the public as they are relying on their support as technology develops and the future of public service broadcasting is threatened. It is intended to independent from government influence and each corporation and company will be independent from any political party leanings, most likely, controlled by politically independent boards. Apparently this has been a reputation that the public service broadcasting channels have so far successfully upheld, despite the few slip-ups that might occur. Public broadcasters are seen to be accountable to the public, for example, as a result of the licence fee that the public pay to view quality programming.

Join now!

However, public service broadcasting came under attack the in 1980s’ and the 1990s’ for rumours of misused funds and too much importance compared to commercial channels and companies. There has also been the idea that the public service channels are ‘dumbing down’ to compete in the global new market, so that they do not lose their customers to an annual subscription of Sky digital. A great example of this is the recent surge in American programmes that were initially only available on satellite or cable channels but programmes such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer air on BBC2 or Friends on C4, ...

This is a preview of the whole essay