Public Service Media for Critical Times: Connectivity, Climate, and Corona

In this chapter, Graham Murdock analyses the role of public service media in the contemporary times of crisis that have been shaped by connectivity, the climate crisis, and the COVID-19 crisis. Using lots of examples, the political economy of communication approach, and Habermas’s concept of the public sphere, the chapter points out that Public Service Media is not something of the past, but is needed for guaranteeing a vivid and democratic public sphere in the digital age. The chapter points out the potentials of public service media for creating and maintaining digital public spaces that advance information, education, entertainment, and participation.

This chapter is a written and amended version of a talk by Graham Murdock that he gave on 15 February 2021 at a webinar that was part of the AHRC project “Innovation in Public Service Media Policy” (https://innopsm.net/) and its research focus on “Envisioning Public Service Media Utopias”. A video of the talk is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4dJSzyW_GM.