The evolution of european audiovisual public service media in the platform era: coping with technological pressures, disinformation, and media capture
- Autores: Marius Dragomir
- Directores de la Tesis: Francisco Campos Freire (dir. tes.), José Miguel Túñez López (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universidade de Santiago de Compostela ( España ) en 2025
- Idioma: inglés
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Xosé López García (presid.), Iván Puentes Rivera (secret.), Maria Michalis (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Comunicación e Información Contemporánea por la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: MINERVA
- Resumen
Despite benefiting from a host of advantages and privileges including access to public funding, substantial technical infrastructure, and a tailor- made regulatory framework enabling them to reach nearly the entire population public service media (PSM) have long grappled with a variety of challenges. These challenges include resistance from privately owned media entities, antagonism from diverse political factions, relentless critiques from audiences, and unyielding pressure exerted by state authorities.
While some PSM organizations have fared better in weathering these storms, successfully repelling various attacks, others have distinguished themselves by building high levels of public trust, owing to their capacity to maintain impartiality in political reporting. Certain outlets are renowned for the exceptional caliber of their news content. However, many have forfeited their credibility and steadily dwindling audience shares as a result of unrelenting external pressures.
Arguably, one of the most transformative challenges has arisen from platformization a trend that has proven especially disruptive for PSM institutions. Adjusting to the rapidly evolving digital ecosystem has presented them with a daunting task.
This thesis employs a normative and empirical framework designed by the thesis author to explore the wider ramifications of platformization on public service media. It examines what these shifts mean for the vitality of Europes infosphere and, by extension, the durability of its democratic infrastructure.
Grounded in the belief that PSM is a cornerstone of Europes media ecosystem, the central aim of this thesis was to explore, articulate, and analyze both the risks and opportunities unleashed by platformization, which have reshaped PSM organizations performance. Additionally, it examined other significant contemporary trends and recent transformations affecting these entities. The research sought to assess the effectiveness and viability of the strategies adopted by various European PSM organizations to navigate the seismic shifts brought about by the platform economy.
Crucially, what rendered this work distinct from existing scholarship was its focus on evaluating the extent to which, amidst these transformational tides, PSM organizations have succeeded in preserving the core values underpinning their public mission, as enshrined by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU): universality, independence, excellence, diversity, accountability, and innovation.
The thesis reached a key conclusion: as PSM organizations evolve to adapt to the demands of the platform economy, they are transforming into fundamentally different institutions, requiring a recalibration of their mandates to reflect PSMs reimagined role in todays complex media landscape.
Their sustainability both in terms of accountability to governments and relevance to audiences will hinge largely on how effectively they communicate and uphold their public mission.
To this end, this study identified two primary obstacles bedeviling PSM organizations in this new context. First, there remains an urgent need to devise a publicly supported and viable funding model that aligns with their operational functions anathema to conventional business models. Second, addressing long-standing issues such as political interference and government influence is just as pressing, as these continue to undermine the editorial independence that lies at the heart of PSMs public interest ethos.
Altogether, their ability to rise to these challenges is, in no small measure, what will determine the course of their relevance and survival in an era of perpetual change.
With state-controlled media systems proliferating across the globe, maintaining public interest in the media has never been more critical. This goal can be protected by either strengthening the independence of PSM organizations or bolstering alternative outlets that serve the public good. This thesis homes in on the former, asserting that a resilient PSM ecosystem has become indispensable, particularly as tech giants many of whom are increasingly intertwined with political power swiftly tighten their grip on the platform economy.
To unpack the core research questions underpinning this thesis, the investigative work was split into two distinct stages.
The first stage embarked on a historical exploration of documents, shedding light on the key areas most affected by ongoing transformations in PSM. This inquiry drew extensively on materials from several projects envisioned, spearheaded, and executed by the author since 2005. These include Television Across Europe, an initiative that initially spanned 20 European nations before narrowing its lens to nine; Mapping Digital Media, which assessed media landscapes across 56 countries worldwide; Media Influence Matrix, an ongoing endeavor that has extended its reach to 41 nations since 2017; and State Media Monitor, another ongoing project analyzing state media landscapes from a sample of 170 countries globally.
In the second stage, document analysis took center stage to interrogate the pressing challenges that have plagued PSM over the past decade. The research work rested on the conceptual foundations developed during the former phase of research, aligning evidence with structured theoretical insights.
Furthermore, the articles in the compendium of this thesis feature a suite of specialized methodologies used to sharpen the analytical lens and critically assess the proposed theories. These approaches span the development of the normative and empirical framework for the research of PSM, which formed the theoretical bedrock of this research.
