Public Service Media and the Internet: Two Decades in Review

Authors

  • Alessandro D'Arma University of Westminster
  • Steven Barclay PhD Student, University of Westminster
  • Minna Aslama Horowitz University of Helsinki

Keywords:

public service broadcasting, public service media, Internet, literature review

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 21st century, public service broadcasters (PSBs) have been confronted with the rise of the Internet as a mainstream medium of communication. This has sparked a debate on the transition from PSB to public service media (PSM). In this article, we present a review of the academic literature on PSM and the Internet produced from 2000 to 2021. We focus on contributions interrogating the implications of PSM’s online activities for the delivery of public service values. We identify seven streams of research and show how, as a whole, this body of work has highlighted the main tensions and dilemmas that PSM organizations have faced, given their special nature, when engaging with the technological affordances of the Internet. Researchers have also shown how the delivery of public value can be enhanced via PSM’s online services. Arguing for the continued relevance of PSM, they have reasserted traditional values while also identifying new roles that PSM are called to play in the context of today’s digital communications.

Author Biographies

Alessandro D'Arma, University of Westminster

Senior Lecturer

Steven Barclay, PhD Student, University of Westminster

I joined CAMRI in 2017 as a Doctoral Researcher on a Quentin Hogg Studentship. Previously, I worked in the television industry as a video editor, mainly making educational films. I have also worked in teaching in various contexts including schools, language schools and community arts. My current research explores the history of media policy, television and radio as a public service of education, educational media, and language and communication in media. In 2018 I was the research assistant on the British Academy funded project ‘Marshall Plan Films about Turkey produced by British Filmmakers.’ I also received a research grant in 2018 from the History of Education Society to digitise the Institute of Education’s Radiovision collection. I am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, having completed the University Certificate of Special Study (U Cert SS). I have taught on the modules Media and Society and Media and Globalisation at Westminster. I hold an Honours Degree in History and Philosophy from Glasgow University, an MA in Media Studies from The University of Amsterdam. I also have a PG Dip in Russian language and a HND in Television Production.

Minna Aslama Horowitz, University of Helsinki

Minna Aslama Horowitz is a Docent at the University of Helsinki. She is affiliated with the research consortium the Democratic Epistemic Capacities in the Age of Algorithms (DECA) and the Nordic Observatory for Digital Media and Information Disorders (NORDIS) of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO). She is a Fellow at the Media and Journalism Research Centre and St. John’s University, New York.

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Published

2023-12-26

Issue

Vol. 18 (2024)

Section

Articles

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