Composite indicators as an innovative methodology for Communication Sciences: implementation for the assessment of European public service media

Abstract

The currently dominant scientific production model in the field of Communication exhibits an excess of standardization towards mainly empirical work that is overwhelming caried out using quantitative techniques based on simple statistical analyses, in many cases limiting the presentation of results to a reading of the available data. This article presents an innovative proposal in this area, designed as a new form of dissemination and scientific presentation, with the objective of constructing three composite indicators that, when applied to European public service media, will enable the assessment of the perception of their social value, independence, and management efficiency. Another aim of the study is to provide a comparative vision of these three aspects in all the countries of the European Union except Malta and Luxembourg. This methodology is innovative because it explains the process in detail and justifies the validity of the documentary sources that were used to facilitate its replication or questioning, and reinforces the discussion of the results obtained by evaluating the robustness of the indicators created, before determining which was the most appropriate and comparing the results with a multicriteria decision analysis technique, the Topsis method (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution), proposed by Hwang and Yoon (1981). The results show that the synthetic indicators constitute an innovative, original, and validatable methodological tool that can contribute to the advancement of research in Communication.