Public broadcasting has fallen into disrepute – currently because of the allegations of corruption against the recalled RBB director Patricia Schlesinger and her management team. So it’s good when someone else paints a completely different picture – in this case from the European Broadcasting Union, which represents publicly funded broadcasting in Europe as an interest group, in a study that is intended to show where things are headed could.
Led by Alexandra Borchardt, who has made a name for herself as an expert in digital journalism and currently directs the Journalism Innovators Program at the Hamburg Media School, a team of journalists and researchers recently published a total of 16 case studies and 40 Compiled expert interviews.
Concrete examples show how the public service could make itself indispensable. “Establishing a close connection with the public” and “serving with determination a diverse audience that would otherwise not be served,” according to the authors, are the greatest challenges.
It is not concealed how difficult it is to initiate innovations. The problems of the public broadcasters cannot be lumped together either. In countries like Hungary and Poland, they have already degenerated into state radio that blatantly runs government propaganda. Compared to Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Great Britain or Switzerland, however, ARD and ZDF often find it difficult to meet the required impartiality and distance from the state in their reporting.
The study is encouraging and commendable – and should be read in particular by senior management in public service broadcasters. Unfortunately, it rather outlines how much potential there is in public service broadcasting and how user-friendly it should be – and not how bureaucratic and unworldly it actually is with its many hierarchical levels, its nested structures and its incrustations.
