The Price of Plurality - Stakeholders - Ofcom

1 The Purpose of Plurality215From these essays emerges a fi nal thought about how the publicvalues of the past might take a different form in the future. Indeed,in defi ning a new core task for the public broadcast institutions,this might be the most important idea of all to capture. Once wecould assume that, if public service content was made, it would beviewed. Regulation determined its quality, regulation determined itsavailability. In moving from analogue to digital television, we havemoved from a distribution economy to an attention economy. In thedigital world, where the sheer volume of unmediated informationbecomes an obstacle to comprehension, the greatest challenge maynot be the production of programmes of public value but the fi ndingof them by the citizen. Excellent public service content may simply fallshort in its reach and impact. In the digital world, the most importantrole of the PSB may therefore be as a validator and editor, the trustedfi lter that authenticates the value of whatever content it offers. Thesuccessful public service broadcaster may reinforce plurality byaggregating content which it has sifted and selected through itsown intelligence, and offer it up to the user with the guarantee oftime well spent. Even then, how public service content can gainsuffi cient prominence in a world of global internet search enginesremains a challenge yet to be confronted. In the internet world,public institutions cannot presume any more to impose themselvesupon citizens and demand their attention; but they can help to shapeindividual and collective experience. The digital world is incorrigiblyplural, but the enduring role of the public service broadcaster maybe to ensure that anyone can experience those fl ashes of insight thatcan transform an individual’s life. PSB in the digital age can still be thesextant by which the consumer and citizen can navigate the contenton which an informed democracy and culturally self-aware society isbuilt.Endnotes1. Louis MacNeice, Collected Poems, ed. E. R. Dodds (London: Faber & Faber,1966).2. All charts are from the Ofcom Public Service Broadcast Review 2008.3. In some cases, of course, these channels are only available on subscription,though Sky News, for the time being, remains free to air on DTT.