/Project
VALCOMM PROJECT
General objectives
This project is structured around four general objectives which are divided into a total of 24 specific objectives.
01
To study how PSM organisations from different European media models work with the notion of public value through a three-pronged approach: creation and management, evaluation and communication.
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Specific Objective 1: Map the WSP systems of all European countries to identify which ones work directly with the notion of public value.
SO2: To examine, from a normative perspective, the public value propositions, values or principles that European WSPs integrate in their own definition.
SO.3: Identify the most popular methods developed by European MSPs to assess their public value, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
SO.4: To study the corporate communication strategies deployed by European broadcasters to communicate their contribution to society and their stakeholders.
SO. 5: To discover the citizens‘ perspective on the values that should guide PSM in the different European national contexts, in order to identify commonalities and divergences both between contexts and between companies’ and citizens’ proposals.
SO6: Identify stakeholders (political, economic and social) for European SMPs, explore their expectations of public value and determine how their perspective is integrated into the management of SMP corporations.
02
To analyse how European MSPs create public value through the identification of democratic, social, cultural and communication needs of society and the actions deployed to meet these needs.
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Specific Objective 7: To observe how European MSPs promote democratic principles and how they act to undermine political and social polarisation in the context of growing right-wing extremist attacks.
SO8: Compare the main anti-disinformation strategies implemented by European MSPs in order to identify commonalities and establish models of success.
SO.9: To observe how European MSPs contribute to media and digital literacy and to assess the extent to which these strategies are effective.
SO.10: To relate the first sustainability strategies developed by the European
European WSPs with the dual aim of raising environmental awareness and promoting greener and more sustainable practices within the media industry.
SO11: Detail recent changes in the regulation and governance of MSPs to determine whether the trend is towards strengthening their independence and democratic functioning.
SO.12: Analyse the financial models of European PSM reforms and diagnose the impact of both digitisation and national regulation on the stability of their budgets.
SO.13: Determine to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a change in the definition of the values originally assigned to the European MPC.
03
To observe how European MSPs open up to participation, thus becoming more democratic organisations, and to collaborate and promote the creation of public value.
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Specific Objective 14: To identify how creative participation is fostered through the involvement of the citizen public in the co-creation of content, by investigating the most common attitudes among European MSPs towards this type of participation, depending on the choice of formats and the objectives pursued.
SO.15: Map structural participation pathways in the governance and decision-making of European MSPs in order to identify successful models.
SO.16: Examine European MSPs’ collaboration strategies with other industry players to diagnose whether they contribute to the extension of public value in the communication market in which they operate.
SO17: Calculate the economic impact of the Spanish, national and regional systems of MSPs by developing a multiplier to help determine the industrial value of MSPs from a quantitative perspective.
SO.18: Consider the recent line of research in academia on the possibility of decentralising the provision of PSM, complementing the contributions of traditional public broadcasters with funding and other public interest media.
04
Examine whether European MSPs’ innovation, digitalisation and platforming strategies enhance their public value creation in today’s communication ecosystem.
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Specific Objective 19: To assess the state of development of WSPs’ digital transformation strategies in different European contexts to determine whether they are already equipped to deal with digital, convergent and transmedia communication.
SO.20: Study how innovation is conceived in European MSPs, what their long-term strategies are and how they are implemented on a day-to-day basis.
SO.21: Map the creation of innovation labs and media accelerators as part of the innovation strategies of European MPCs, analysing their objectives, their collaboration with other actors and their results.
SO.22: Examine how European MSPs have developed their own platforms and determine their perspective on the application of algorithms, personalisation and recommendation strategies, and user data protection.
SO.23: Identify the prevailing trends in the relationship between European MSPs and technology giants, from social media platforms (Facebook Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, etc.) to video-on-demand platforms (Netflix Amazon, HBO…) as well as video sharing (YouTube), in order to determine whether they foster the public value of their content.
SO.24: Examine the use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, bots and blockchain by European MSPs in order to examine whether these can contribute to furthering their public service objectives.
Hypothesis
This research project is based on the main hypothesis that the adoption of public value strategies by public service media is beneficial on many levels (including individual, societal and business). Firstly, orienting PSM activity towards the creation of public value (along the entire value chain) would imply benefits at the individual level, as each individual citizen could enjoy a more valuable and higher quality media service.
Secondly, at the societal level, this type of strategy would imply the presence of public actors within the media ecosystem, who would work to strengthen democratic structures and promote social values that ultimately favour coexistence.
Thirdly, public broadcasters would fulfil their public service mission more efficiently, as the implementation of this type of strategy necessarily involves more reflection on the enhancement of individual, social and industrial value along the value chain. Furthermore, it is also argued that the adoption of public value strategies, through the separation of governance and decision-making aspects, would contribute to improving the relationship with the different stakeholders in PSM organisations, thus reinforcing their legitimacy.
Project timeline (2022 - 2024)
HOME VALCOMM
- Document analysis
- Questionnaire preparation, design and testing
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
- Interviews with experts
- Non-participant observation
- Quantitative data collection
- Survey implementation and analysis
PROJECT CLOSURE
- Focus groups with stakeholders
- Non-participant observation in Spain
- Evaluation model of public value indica
Methodology
The research method on which this project is based is the multiple case study, which allows robust results to be obtained from the study of individual cases through the application of replication logic (Yin, 2018). The case study is a widely accepted method for the study of communication policies, as it favours the approach to the complexity surrounding this object of study (Broughton Micova, 2019). In a first phase, the cases of the BBC (UK), ARD (Germany), VRT (Flanders, Belgium), ORF (Austria) and LTV (Latvia) are taken as a sample.
- This selection is the result of a combination of three criteria:
- The representation of media systems established by Hallin and Mancini (2004) and extended in subsequent literature that extends these models to Eastern European countries that had been neglected in the original work (Rantanen, 2013).
- The inclusion of regional PSM models that can serve as a reference for Spain.
- The selection of PSM organisations that work openly with the notion of public value and/or value systems.
- A methodological triangulation will be applied to these cases using the following techniques: documentary analysis, in-depth interviews and non-participant observation.
