edition-dw-akademie-in-the-service-of-the-public-functions-and-transformation-of-media-in-developing-countries-pdf

Conclusions and Recommendationsnew PSM, was ongoing. Nevertheless, B92 still provides an importantand comprehensive service to the public, certainly incomparison to its competitors.Universal, national coverage is not fully provided in thesecases: Freedom Radio only broadcasts in some regions in thenorth of Nigeria. It offers internet streaming but of course thisis not available to all. 1 Until 1996 B92 was a local communityradio station which could only be heard in Belgrade. After thatthe program was rebroadcast by numerous stations in almostall parts of the country. It wasn’t until 2006 that this mediaoutlet received nationwide licences for radio and TV.Another issue is that these media outlets have no governingbodies representing different elements of society to assure thediversity, distinctiveness, and independence of the programming.The contribution Freedom Radio makes to the publicsphere and to social integration depends upon the decisionsof a board of directors which mainly belong to one family. Sothere’s always a risk that the public service functions of thisstation could suffer if this family were to choose other prioritiesor if the ownership structure changed.At B92 it was always the founders who assured the publicservice ideals. They are still active in the B92 Trust which assuresthe editorial independence and viability of the mediaoutlet. Nonetheless, it is now the main investor who has thestrongest influence on the company.Both B92 and Freedom Radio have always been very innovativeas far as programming and the use of modern digital technologyare concerned. B92 was first present on the internet asearly as 1996. Freedom Radio was one of the first in Nigeria tooffer live streaming and apps for smartphones as well as socialmedia. It is clear that in this respect they have always performedbetter than the state media and public service media.These special private media outlets are close to their audiencesand enrich their media landscapes.According to the approach of the “public service ethos”(Chapter 2.2), these exceptional organizations deliver an importantcontribution to their media landscape. They advancethe ideas of media in service of the public and create a healthyquality-oriented competition towards a public service systemof media. We therefore call them Alternative Public ServiceMedia (APSM) (see also Box p. 280).APSM offer objective and independent news journalism inprofessional quality, forums for public debate, societal orientation,and criticism. However the criticism of the governmentand its administration as well as agenda setting and in-depthjournalism may be limited, depending on the general journalismculture and situation in the media landscape. These mediaare, in contrast to most former state broadcasters, particularlyinnovative with respect to technology or programming. Theyfulfill at least some of the functions relevant to the integrationof society, such as education, entertainment, and strengthtolack of political will and to the difficult situations within andaround the PSM: bureaucratic structures, limited engagementfor change by the staff, and a want of leadership by the managers.But scarcity of funds to advance change processes, bothon the part of the media outlets as well as media developmentactors, is also a decisive factor.In many cases there was also a lack of long-term planningand coordination among international actors. Only very limitedmonitoring and evaluation systems were in place. Insteadof carrying out needs assessments, identifying local partners,and building the required expertise and sustainable structures,media development actors limited themselves to doingwhat they were good at, mostly capacity building in short terminterventions. They missed the opportunity to take a structuredand more complex methodological approach towardsorganizational development.RQ 3: Which public service functions can be provided by communityand private media?To answer this question we assess our findings from the casestudies according to the public service functions, with thedifferentiation between the two general functions, creatinga public sphere and supporting integration, as developed inchapter 2.1. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the objectivesof community and private media are not necessarily tofulfill these functions in the way a PSM would be required to.The two private media outlets in our study – Freedom Radioin Nigeria and B92 in Serbia – both fulfill a large number ofthese functions. Freedom Radio is strong with respect to facilitationof debate, balanced election reporting, criticism, andsocial orientation. It broadcasts regular news programs severaltimes a day which offer both national and internationalnews items. Nonetheless, in some journalistic fields such asregional news, in-depth research, and agenda setting there isroom for improvement. But in the context of the Nigerian medialandscape, this performance is already extraordinary. Thebroadcaster also supports integration with programming in 13languages, cultural programming, entertainment, and education– just as a PSM should. From a PSM one would possiblyexpect more service in the latter areas, but given the fact thatFreedom Radio only has one channel in each region it covers,its performance here is still admirable.B92 generally performs well in all aspects of journalism –from debate to investigative journalism. In the 1990s underthe Milošević regime it was one of the few media outlets thatoffered Serbian citizens independent and well-researched information.It also gave a voice to disadvantaged sectors of society,enabled cultural expression and cohesion and providededucation.But since new owners took over following the financial crisisin 2007/2008, the quality of the news has deteriorated andintegrative functions have been reduced. B92 has given up onsome of its public service ideals and become a commercialbroadcaster – in a time when the transformation of RTS, the1Only 38% of all Nigerians used the internet in 2013.Source: http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspxEdition DW Akademie In the Service of the Public 283