Freedman, Des (D. J.). 2019. “Public Service” and the Journalism Crisis: Is the BBC the Answer? Television & New Media, 20(3), pp. 203-218. ISSN 1527-4764 [Article] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/23068/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address:
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[email protected] ‘PUBLIC SERVICE’ AND THE JOURNALISM CRISIS – IS THE BBC THE ANSWER? The allure of the BBC If journalism is in crisis (Anderson et al. 2014, Pickard 2011) then who or what can save it? Of course, this crisis takes many forms yet whether the crisis affects the formerly stable professional models of liberal democracies or authoritarian environments characterized by clientilism and complicity, one potential solution is regularly proposed: an independent public service news media that is strong enough to defy the pressure of both government and market and to serve citizens without fear or favour. In this heady narrative, it is the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in particular that is often claimed to offer the best prospect of impartial, high-quality journalism that is insulated from narrow considerations of profits or politics. So, for example, in an interesting collection of case studies that demonstrate how media in a range of countries – from Latin America to Eastern Europe and from Kenya to China – have been ‘captured’ by a combination of government and business interests (Schiffrin 2017), the promotion of ‘transparently funded public service media’ is held up as a key policy measure that would help to address the problem (Nelson 2017).