Page 59 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

48 COMMUNICATION AND CITIZENSHIP

One model is the centrally controlled market economy. Its underlying
rationale is that the terms of and rules by which competition is
conducted should be centrally determined according to the public
interest. One example of this approach is provided by the British TV
system, in which free-market competition is tempered in a number of
ways. The largest organization, the BBC, is publicly owned and is
expected to set quality standards since it is run for the public good
rather than private gain. The other main players in the system—ranging
from a regionally based commercial network (Channel 3), a public trust
corporation (Channel 4), local TV stations (cable TV) and a national
commercial consortium (B Sky B)—are differentiated in organizational
terms in order to promote choice. The principal TV channels are also
funded mainly by different sources of revenue (licence fee, advertising
and subscriptions) in order to avoid the uniformity induced by direct
competition. And all TV channels are subject to content controls,
though with varying degrees of stringency and policed in different ways.
The full complexity of the system need not be described here. Built
into its design are a number of central objectives: quality defined in
terms of a negotiation between elite norms and audience ratings;
diversity defined in terms of a mix of different types of programme
rather than of values; and political representation defined in terms of
Westminster consensus rather than popular dissensus. However, these
objectives can be changed and modifications can be made in the system
to achieve this. Thus, a number of reforms have been proposed which
would strengthen broadcasters’ autonomy from politicians, and extend
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the ideological and cultural range of programme output. Indeed, one
of the advantages of the centrally controlled approach is that systemic
modifications can be effected relatively easily: the disadvantage is that
this facility can be abused.
An alternative approach represented by the Dutch broadcasting
system takes the form of a mandated market economy. Both airtime and
the use of publicly owned production facilities, with technical staff, are
allocated in the Netherlands to different groups on the basis of the size
of their membership defined by the sale of their programme guides.
This results in a plurality of organizations from commercial groups like
TROS to VARA (with close links to the Labour Party) and the NCRV
(a conservative, protestant organization), each providing a
comprehensive package of services. None of these groups, unlike the
central news service, is required to adopt a bi-partisan approach. The
intention is to produce a broadcasting system that reflects a wide
spectrum of political opinion and cultural values. But although the