European public service television and the cultural‐educational logic: A comparative analysis of children's and youth programming

One of the most recurrent themes in studies on European television trends, is that the policies of liberalization and deregulation have caused the industry to follow a more market‐oriented or crass commercial logic. New technologies and policies have led to an explosion in the number of commercial channels; new financial, organizational and programming strategies; increasing pressure from advertising and multinationals; and a decreasing role of the state in production and distribution.

This paper looks at how such pressures have affected the policies of European public service broadcasters (PSBs), by concentrating on their traditional commitment to education in an analysis of children's and youth programmes as an index of this change.     

Public service broadcasting,children’s television,and market failure: The case of the United Kingdom

Domestically produced children’s television is frequently highlighted as both an area of market failure, and also as an area where children’s changing consumption habits necessitate new and different ways of thinking about funding children’s content across a range of platforms. In the light of a recent U.K. proposal to set up a Public Service Content Fund to support “genres” under threat, including children’s programming, this article considers how you fund diverse high-quality children’s content in a more challenging media environment where children’s content is arguably still a market failure “genre.” The first part of the article provides context by outlining the market failure characteristics of children’s content as a framework for analyzing the validity of market failure arguments across a range of platforms. It then investigates the causes of perceived market failure in the U.K. children’s television production market. The final part examines the implications of recent U.K. policy responses to provision for children that seek to address market failure through (1) the possible introduction of a contestable fund for public service content; (2) more stringent obligations on the British Broadcasting Corporation; and (3) the re-imposition of quotas on commercially funded public service broadcastings (ITV, Channel 4, Five). Drawing on regulatory and stakeholder responses, it concludes that attempts to overcome market failure in U.K. children’s television appear unsuited for funding the longer-term curation, distribution, and discovery of new types of content on platforms other than broadcasting.     

“Touching the sentiments of everyone”;: Nationalism and state broadcasting in thirties Mexico

This paper provides a historical perspective on the intersection of media, popular culture, and nationalism through a study of the broadcasting policies and programs of one of Mexico's earliest government radio stations. This study analyzes the musical programs that formed the centerpiece of government radio programming in order to evaluate the racial and class ideologies imbedded in the nationalist discourse of state broadcasters. By viewing these government programs through the lens of a broader literature on nationalism in the Third World and among diasporic communities, it is possible to identify a fundamental tension in Mexico's official nationalism between a search for the roots of an “authentic”; ethnic identity, and a need to position Mexican culture within the constellation of Western “civilization.”; Finally, this paper investigates audience reactions to state broadcasts in order to explore the meaning of early broadcast nationalism for Mexico's radio listeners.     

A bibliography of studies of radio and television program content, 1928–1958

Unlike a telephone or telgraph cable, a broadcast, once sent out over the air, can only be “stopped” at the receiving end. If the potential listeners have radio receiving sets able to pick up the broadcast, it can only be stopped by causing such radio interference as to make it difficult or impossible to listen to the original broadcast. Over the years, several nations have assumed the large cost of producing such interference, or “jamming,” so as to prevent their citizens from listening to the broadcasts of other nations. An expensive and often inefficient technique, jamming was then believed preferable to allowing unrestricted and uncensored international communication by radio. Mr. Ranjan Borra, who was associated with All India Radio and with the Voice of America for several years and is currently on the staff of the Library of Congress describes both the background and some of the encouraging recent developments in the field of jamming and other impediments to international broadcasting.     

Broadcast profitability: A comparison of profits from broadcast and non‐broadcast segments of public corporations

To understand the broadcast segments of multi‐industry companies, it is important to consider the revenue demands of their parent companies. This article develops a methodology for analyzing the profitability of broadcast and non‐broadcast segments and applies that methodology in an examination of publicly held corporations.     

Comment on commissioner Loevinger's “limits of technology in broadcasting”

FCC Commissioner Loevinger's article appeared in the Fall, 1966 issue of the Journal of Broadcasting (Vol. X, No. 4, pp. 285–298)     

“Pick and choose” opinion climate: How browsing of political messages shapes public opinion perceptions and attitudes

ABSTRACT

High-choice media environments allow people to cocoon themselves with like-minded messages (confirmation bias), which could shape both individual attitudes and perceived prevalence of opinions. This study builds on motivated cognition and spiral of silence theory to disentangle how browsing political messages (both selective exposure as viewing full articles and incidental exposure as encountering leads only) shapes perceived public opinion and subsequently attitudes. Participants (N?=?115) browsed online articles on controversial topics; related attitudes and public opinion perceptions were captured before and after. Multi-level modeling demonstrated a confirmation bias. Both selective and incidental exposure affected attitudes per message stance, with stronger impacts for selective exposure. Opinion climate perceptions mediated selective exposure impacts on attitudes.     

A Review of “Knowledge Management: Historical and Cross-Disciplinary Themes”

No abstract available for this article.     

“Youth service librarians…are not just providers of books”: Caregivers' perceptions of the value of public library services during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, libraries had little opportunity to gather data on what resources were needed or valued by families during this unprecedented crisis. To understand how caregivers perceived the value of learning resources provided by public libraries, interviews with 26 caregivers were conducted. To analyze the interviews, Sørensen's (2021) framework was adopted and three recurring types of value were examined: provision of resources, role of libraries in communities, and promotion of social capital. Findings indicated that caregivers valued the provision of resources such as book bundles and online programming. Further, caregivers had new appreciation for the community aspect of libraries and for libraries as providers of social resources. In addition, caregivers valued the sense of trust they felt towards libraries and librarians. Findings have potential to inform future decision-making processes concerning learning resource provision, particularly during times of crisis.