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Is Wife Swap a public service programme?
142/Patricia Holland
Patricia Holland identifies the dangers lurking behind rigid definitions
Is Wife Swap a public service programme? And what about Holidays in the Axis of Evil? Or Mark Thomas, Weapons Inspector? Or repeats of Till Death Us Do Part? When Ann Robinson tested the nation’s IQ from a studio ranked with volunteer guinea pigs, there was a line up of rocket scientists and a phalanx of blondes. Was that public service?The answer, of course is that the whole notion of a ‘public service’ programme is either nonsensical or dangerous. Nonsensical because it is impossible to define, dangerous because it would drive programmes which aspire to be ‘public service’ into tight little worthy ghettoes and would inhibit innovation, humour and dreaming up new and subversive formats. The most interesting programmes are usually the ones that don’t fall into categories.
Why does it matter? The recommendation from the Conservative Party’s Broadcasting Policy Group for the OFCOM review of public service broadcasting was that there should be a pot of money - contestable funding - which is up for grabs for any broadcaster who can prove that this programme is ‘public service’. Get rid of the BBC and the licence fee, release the other terrestrial channels from their draggy public service obligations, but make tax payers’ money available for the worthy stuff. Leaving aside the desirability of direct government funding for such politically sensitive areas as news and current affairs, it is fairly obvious that the only way this could work is by knowing - and by being sure about it, because lot of money would hinge on it - which programme is which. It needs a ‘narrow’ definition of public service, which pins it down to certain genres (and this was earnestly argued for at a recent seminar* by Barbara Donoghue of the London Business School, a member of the Conservative group).
It seems that OFCOM, with its commitment to reducing regulation and freeing up the television market, is tempted by this view - if not in its most extreme form. Its own review is explicit that public service broadcasting should not be defined by types of programme. But at the same time it sets out to identify what is public service television and what is not - chiefly so that those broadcasters that are not can get on with the serious business of competition and not bother their heads with content regulation.
OFCOM begins by assuming that what it describes as ‘PSB’ (and even the use of that glib abbreviation prejudges the question) is something tangible, which can be identified, defined and, where necessary, supported. It is as if this special bit could be inserted into the television output without any dialogue with the surrounding programmes - whereas what happens at the moment is a productive confrontation between different programme ideas and influences. Trash television has its moments, and the need to attract an audience and compete with Big Brother stimulates the driest of political slots. To assume that some broadcasters may be ‘public service’ whereas others needn’t bother, misreads the history of British television, which has evolved through a series of pragmatic compromises between commercial companies, regulation with a strong public commitment, and the BBC and its licence fee - with a strong input from creative programme makers. A diversity of funding mechanisms has strengthened this system.
The ecology depends for its mix on the frivolous as well as the deadly serious, and the flashes of insight into family life and contemporary mores that come from Wife Swap are even more fascinating because no one is setting out to educate us.
* Seminar organised by the International Institute of Communications
Last modified: Saturday, October 9, 2004
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More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
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The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
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DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Government Policy
Public Service Broadcasting Campaign: E-activism site launched
A new framework for Public Service Broadcasting
THE BBC’S FUTURE
Fox censured by Ofcom
ITV Franchise Fees Review
BBC Charter Renewal Debate - Winning a voice for licence fee payers
The Graf report on BBC Online
BBC CHARTER REVIEW (July 2004)
More from Ofcom
New Ofcom documents
CPBF Response to Ofcom Review of Public Service Broadcasting, Phase 1 – Is Television Special?
Defending Public Service Broadcasting
The danger of top-slicing
Campbell’s alter ego
Without Comment
Privatising spin
Submission to the DCMS on the Review of the BBC’s Royal Charter.
Backing the BBC
Where is liberalisation taking the British media?
DON’T BE COWED: The BBC after Hutton
GCHQ whistleblower gagged.
A Spin Free Regime for Blair?
The end of public service information
Hutton, Kelly and the BBC
What public policies are needed in the face of the marketisation of the audio visual sector?
Ignored at Our Peril
Free Press Editorial - Asset Stripping ITV
Labour & Television Policy
Spin In Retreat
Storms Ahead for the BBC
