Challenges to public service news programmes in Spain: Professionals and viewers’ discourses wavering between institutional reform and counter-reform

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study analysing the perceptions held by both Spanish public service television (TVE) news professionals and viewers as regards the main challenges faced by Spanish public service broadcasting (PSB), some of which are also common to European PSB. The global changes of the last decade have created a new social, economic, political and technological context to which PBS channels must adapt. Achieving the pluralism demanded by public institutions, differentiating themselves from commercial channels and forging a closer relationship with their audiences are three of the chief hurdles that must be overcome. PSB channels in the Mediterranean region are faced with a further obstacle: maintaining their independence from government, an issue that has led TVE to implement a number of reforms and counter-reforms in the period from 2006–2012. Regarded as a symbol of the public service duty of state-owned broadcasters, news programmes are central to achieving these goals. Therefore, this work intends to contribute to a research agenda, linking audience research to production studies and analysing the broader media policy context (Livingstone, 1998: 2–5), by approaching the complex dynamics between communication policies and specific interpretations of media discourses in Europe. In the case of Spain, this analysis shows that in the period from 2006–2011, PSB news professionals highly valued their new-found independence. However, the seemingly modest increase in viewers’ support does not bode well for the healthy development of PSB in Spain in a scenario in which institutional support is weak.