“What Can Audience Research Findings Tell Us about the Public Value of Public Service Media?” This question was explored by Prof. Dr. Uwe Hasebrink and PD Dr. Jan-Hinrik Schmidt, who published their insights in German in the journal UFITA Archive for Media Law and Media Studies in its second issue of 2024.
The issue of UFITA Archiv für Medienrecht und Medienwissenschaft and the article “Was können Ergebnisse der Publikumsforschung über den Public Value öffentlich-rechtlicher Medien aussagen?” can be purchased via the Nomos Verlag website.
Summary of the Article
The article discusses how audience research could contribute to determining the public value of public service media providers. Starting from the premise that public value is defined by the fulfillment of socially desirable communication functions, the article argues that audience inclusion is essential to determining whether the services provided within given technical and organizational media structures effectively fulfill these functions. First, audience research is classified within the canon of alternative methods for involving audiences in determining public value. Second, a conceptual framework for audience research is proposed to make it easier to compile relevant findings and condense them into reliable statements that carry weight in the discourse on public value and the fulfillment of public service media’s mandate. Third, three studies relating to different components of the functional mandate of public service media are outlined, examining their offerings with varying degrees of detail. These studies demonstrate how the common conceptual framework can integrate findings from differently designed, detailed studies. This provides a basis for systematically considering the audience perspective when determining public value.