Theories of the Information Society, Third Edition - Cryptome

INFORMATION AND DEMOCRACY
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is the principle that adequate information ought to be made available so as to
contribute significantly to the public’s exercise of sound judgement on a whole
range of social, economic and political concerns.
Since the late 1970s we have been experiencing in Britain (and elsewhere
where versions of the public service ethos are found) what has been called, somewhat
overdramatically, a ‘crisis of public service broadcasting’. It is a crisis that
many perceive to be being resolved in a diminution of broadcasting’s public
sphere functions. There have been two major fronts on which this crisis has been
fought, the political and the economic. On one side there have been attacks on
broadcasters from those who regard them as a part of a ‘new class’ of privileged,
smug and state-supported elites who are both ‘leftists’ and disposed towards
‘nannying’ the wider public (i.e. berating audiences in superior tones with antimarket
ideologies), and yet ‘accountable’ neither to government nor to private
capital, nor even to the audiences whose licence fees keep the BBC going. On
another side has emerged an economic critique that contends that the BBC is
profligate with public funds, takes money without offering accountability to those
taxpayers who provide it. This critique urges a new sovereignty to the ‘consumer’,
who ought to be ‘free to choose’ what programming is to be provided (Barnett
and Curry, 1994).
These sides have combined in an assault that has led at times to reductions
in budgets, many outside interventions complaining about ‘bias’ and ineptitude,
and further introduction of commercial practices. Behind all this, of course, is the
enthusiasm for the market that has been so much a feature of recent times. The
weakening of public service broadcasting, therefore, is most often cast in terms
of enthusiasm for ‘competition’ and ‘choice’ (liberalisation and deregulation) and
‘privatisation’ (ending state support in favour of private shareholding).
While the BBC is the focus of attention amidst these changes, consequences
for British commercial television ought not to be neglected. As was said earlier,
Independent Television in Britain was marked by the impress of public service
demands, especially in strictures about the kind, quality and scheduling of news
and current affairs programmes. These have traditionally been placed in peaktime
slots, the most significant of all being the nightly News at Ten, which was
moved to a later slot where it would not interrupt proven popular television such
as movies, soaps and game shows, then returned to its original slot in face of
vigorous competition.
From another direction comes erosion of public service broadcasting institutions
by new means of delivery, notably from satellite and cable television
services, especially in the guise of Rupert Murdoch’s Sky television service and
its diet of ‘entertainment’ (sport, movies and ‘family’ programmes). The fear is
that, should the audience share of public service channels continue to fall, support
from involuntary taxation and claims to address the ‘general public’ will become
untenable. After all, how can the involuntary tax that is payable by each television
owner to fund the BBC be supported when the BBC channels are watched
only by a minority of the audience?
We are able to see a marked deterioration in the health of public service
broadcasting. Alternative mediums are appearing committed, not to informing
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