The Problems with Reimagining Public Media in the Context of Global South

Anis Rahman

doi:10.21810/strm.v6i1.88

Abstract

This paper puts forward a case from the global south into the discussion of public media. It pays particular attention to Bangladesh, an epicenter of a thriving media system in South Asia. From a political economic perspective in this paper I ask: can the state broadcaster BTV be a public media? Based on a combination of methods including in-depth interviews and document analysis, I locate four problematic areas including political instrumentalization, commercialization, struggle for autonomy, and contradictory policy responses â€“ all which impede BTVâ€™s ability to perform as a public media. I argue that this inability has to be understood not as a failure of the state but as a result of colonial legacy, post-colonial transformation, as well as a derivative of neoliberal market-orientation of communications in the global South.

Highlights

Over the past several decades, Public Service Broadcasting ( PSB) has been subject to a combined commercial, political and ideological assault, everywhere in the world and on every front – but “most strikingly in northwest Europe – the heartland of PSB” (Lowe & Steemers, 2012, p. 9)
A range of comprehensive literature and diverse case studies has been produced by Re-‐Visionary Interpretations of the Public Enterprise (RIPE) in this regard
Given that there is a general lack of fully-‐fledged PSB in many developing countries; public media scholars pay a little attention to explore the prospect of public media in the contexts of global South

Summary

Introduction

Over the past several decades, Public Service Broadcasting ( PSB) has been subject to a combined commercial, political and ideological assault, everywhere in the world and on every front – but “most strikingly in northwest Europe – the heartland of PSB” (Lowe & Steemers, 2012, p. 9). Even though the British made some effort, in the waning years of colonial rule, to bequeath a truly public service system to her colonies Such efforts were, wish-‐ ful, as the newly independent states in no time turned the semiautonomous broadcasting corporations into government agencies, which left them vulnerable to official manipulation. Owing to liberaliza-‐ tion, privatization, and globalization of satellite broadcasting, the priority of public broadcasters in India has been gradually shifted from pursuing a public agenda to capitalizing and materializing the public good (Thomas, 2010) Within this plurality, following the postcolonial tradition, political biases of media have been highly normalized by the political regimes. It has a potential coverage of 93 per cent of the 165 million national population,

Hallin and Mancini identify three ideal media systems

Findings

Conclusion