Exploring entertainment in public service media : culture between politics, technology, and commerce
Type
doctoral thesis
Date Issued
2021-09-20
Author(s)
Barclay, Alexander
Abstract (De)
This thesis is a study of entertainment in public service media (PSM). The evolution of technology, government regulation, viewing practices and industrial organisation have significantly increased audiences content choices. Consequently, public service media are confronted with the challenge of reaching their diverse audiences of citizens and thus fulfilling their role in contributing to the public sphere. Entertainment is a highly moralised concept with negative connotations; in this thesis, it is approached from the perspective of psychology and economics, building on an ecology of attention paradigm. Television studies have mainly addressed entertainment with a focus on programmes; by contrast, this study contributes a pan-entertainment view in the context of PSM. This exploratory study takes a mixed methods and multidisciplinary approach to entertainment in PSM. PSM differ from commercial media in that they address the audience as citizens. This research proposes considering the entertained citizen on each of three following levels: co-decider, contributor, individual. Centred on the individual enjoyment experience, public service entertainment attracts an audience for hedonic or eudaimonic purposes. It is conceptualised as aiming to develop positive subjective emotions and positive individual traits, as well as to have a positive impact on the individual physical or psychological system or on the collective social system. The concept of public service entertainment is used both in a programme and portfolio approach, built on the five layers of public service media in a network era: connection, curation, creation, software and hardware. A review of the history of Swiss PSM SRG SSR and its four member organisations offers a comparative view of the development of the mandate and practice in regard to entertainment in the context of evolving technological, economic and regulatory conditions. Eleven lessons are drawn from this history pertaining to entertainment, new technology, market dynamics, and Swiss policymaking and culture. PSM face the constant evolution of technology and viewer practices, calling for the organisation and its offering to adapt. In this context, labs have emerged as a common instrument for PSM to drive innovation. In a comparative empirical study of innovation labs and teams at 12 PSM, this research reviews the mission, legitimacy and operational capabilities of labs and their evolution over time. The challenges and opportunities such teams offer their organisation are critically discussed, notably innovation transfer and performance measurement. This research proposes seven roles an innovation team may play within a public service media: the think tank, the strategist, the do tank, the coordinator, the facilitator, the interface, the editorialist. The findings of this study contribute to research on PSM policy. It also provides policymakers and practitioners with both a conceptual contribution for public service entertainment and a framework for approaching innovation labs. Overall, this thesis argues that entertainment is central to the future of PSM: to define, defend and execute its mandate; to have a positive impact on individuals and the society it serves.
Language
English
Keywords
Medienpolitik
Fernsehpolitik
Kommunikationsgeschichte <Fach>
Unterhaltung
EDIS-5090
entertainment
portals
Public service media
ecology of attention
HSG Classification
not classified
HSG Profile Area
None
Publisher
Universität St. Gallen
Publisher place
St.Gallen
Official URL
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
264358
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
Dis5090.pdf
Size
4.88 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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