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In order that the new information technologies can impart knowledge
-and the power that goes with it-, there needs to be an level
of information far more developed than it is today, ensuring that
society's basic information requirements are being met by the
electronic media available to the majority of people around the
world, i.e. radio in rural areas and television in urban centres.
The complex realities of the 21st century need to be brought
to the attention of every man and woman around the world. There
is a huge task ahead to inform the poorly informed as well as
the wrongly informed and it needs to be done by sources whose
language, cultural background and social environment are shared
by the listeners, viewers and internet users.
The broadcasting public service remit is not only a matter of
culture, but first and foremost an indispensable tool for society's
good governance and for democracy, a prerequisite for the information
society.
A world rating agency of electronic media
at the service of society
No objective data being presently available on this subject from
a global perspective, the World Radio and Television Council (WRTVC)
is creating a rating agency to measure the performance of electronic
media at the service of society in every country of the world.
The rating agency will consider radio, television and new digital
services from the point of view of society's good governance,
citizens' empowerment and participation. In multi-channel and
multi-platform media landscapes, the rating agency will particularly
consider how consumers find ethical reference points, beacons
of trust and integrity, to guide them in the maze of new services,
opportunities information and entertainment newly made available
on all kinds of support.
The WRTVC is a non-governmental organization created ten years
ago to defend public service broadcasting across the world through
civil society. The WRTVC definition of public service broadcasting,
published in five languages by UNESCO, is widely recognized as
the standard definition.
The rating agency will be run by an independent Swiss institution,
the Media and Society Foundation in Geneva.
International certification of a broadcaster's social contribution
The Media and Society Foundation will also run a certification
agency for broadcasters, based on international standards of the
social contribution of electronic media.
The certification process will be an independent audit of a broadcaster's
social performance, as well as a chance for training personnel
and improving services.
A certified broadcaster will benefit from a quality guarantee
strengthening its position towards civil society, government and
international organizations.
Defining indicators
The WRTVC's is presently defining the appropriate indicators to
evaluate the social performance of electronic media and the objective
contribution of public service broadcasting in this regard.
With the support of the Hoso-Bunka Foundation, Tokyo, it has
developed "A candidate list of key PSB performance criteria",
prepared by the British independent consultant Peter Menneer,
a former head of BBC audience research.
The WRTVC also benefited from a introductory paper by Paolo Baldi,
director of the Strategic Information Service of the European
Broadcasting Union (EBU) on "PSB's performance and accountability
: looking for pertinent evaluation criteria" and discussed
the feasibility of the observatory with several international
consultants.
At the end of 2001, the WRTVC took the opportunity of a strategic
meeting at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, with representatives
of broadcasters' associations, regulatory authorities, civil society
movements, universities, educational groups, etc. to gather their
inputs.
Delegates from five continents unanimously supported the concept
of the rating agency. The whole process is from now on conducted
by a strategic group of seven: Micheline Vaillancourt, director
of TV regional and corporate affairs, CBC French TV, Montreal, Canada,
Ana Maria Miralles, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellin,Colombia,
Vladimir Gaï, Division of Communication Development, UNESCO,
Paris, France, Abdelkader Marzouki, general secretary of C IRTEF
(Conseil international des télévisions d'expression
française), Brussels, Belgium, Javad Mottaghi, director of
AIBD (Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development), Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, John F. Musukuma, general secretary of SABA (Southern
African Broadcasting Association), Windhoek, Namibia, Pierre Wiehn,
CSA (Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel), Paris, France,
and Guillaume Chenevière, Chairman of the WRTVC, Geneva,
Switzerland.
Defining and testing the evaluation
criteria
The WRTVC is in the process of defining the evaluation criteria
to be tested during the year 2002.
Professor Louis Balme, International Standardization and Certification
Services, New York, leads a preliminary research on the evaluation
of the media landscape in 5-6 selected countries and on conditions
needed for the electronic media to be able to offer the services
expected by society. This is done through group interviews using
the Affinity Diagram Methodology. Three groups will be selected
in each test country, representing professionnals (television,
radio and internet people), users (viewers, listeners, internet
surfers) and experts in the field (university professors, writers,
regulators, etc.).
Mark Ellis, the Knowledge Agency, London, in conjunction with
Paolo Baldi, EBU Strategic Information Services, Geneva, has prepared
a research on how European broadcasters are accountable for their
public service remit. The object of this research is not only
to collect and consolidate data, but to create an international
movement to adopt standard measurements of the public service
performance of broadcasters. It is urgent to find more significant
measures for public service than mere audience results.
The rating agency is to start operating during the year 2003
in selected countries and should be operational in 2004.
The defining and testing phase is sponsored by the Hoso-Bunka
Foundation, Tokyo, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation,
Bern, hopefully by OFCOM, the Swiss regulatory authority, and
by EBU
Experts' guidelines
The experts' mandate includes guidelines to the selection of
appropriate evaluation criteria.
1) Technical, political, and economical requirements)
- Technical: Selected criteria must be clear, easy to measure,
and, to all possible extent, undisputable.
- Political: They must be acceptable to recognized public service
broadcasters, regulatory authorities, international organizations,
etc. The WRTVC observatory needs standards enjoying a global
consensus.
- Economical: Gathering the necessary information must not require huge expenses, which would hamper the feasibility of the whole operation. It would be foolish to request audience figures from developing countries where they do no exist : the WRTVC is in no position to create and operate local research institutes …
2) Flexible approach according to regional differences
Even though stemming from the same root, applied criteria will vary
from continent to continent and, on the same continent, from region
to region.
In modern, industrial states, the public enjoys numerous and
varied audiovisual services; a vast amount of data is available.
The main problem is one of selection : what are the services which
society really needs ? are those accessible to every citizen ?
can they be distinguished from futile entertainment and biased,
misleading information ?
In developing countries, services are few and data scarce. One
must concentrate on basic elements whose operational definition
is of great significance : financing, local content, independence,
representation of minorities, unbiased reporting, etc.
In transition societies, emphasis will be put on services insufficiently
covered by traditional media literature : nation building, conflict
prevention, post civil strife reconciliation, economic development,
social justice, dialogue between opposing interests, relevant
and responsible information…
Three angles of approach to the evaluation process will be used
and probably combined:
3a) Definition of public broadcasting
The WRTVC/UNESCO brochure "Public Broadcasting : Why ? How?"
provides a widely recognized definition. The basic criteria of
public service broadcasting are :
3a1, access to a majority of people in each segment
of the population
3a2, diversity of contents matching the diversity of interests,
opinions and cultures within the general public
3a3, national and local content reflecting the society where
the listeners/viewers live
3a4, independence, impartiality and pertinence of information,
enlightening citizens and enriching democratic life
3a5, quality and creativity : setting high standards, leaving
a mark, extending the range of programme choice
3a6, promoting national culture, including audiovisual production,
as well as cultural pluralism
3a7, stable and adequate financing, independent from political
as well as commercial pressures
3a8, legal status ensuring effective independence from state interference
Criteria 3a 3,7, and 8 can be evaluated objectively though a standard
grid (see
note 1).
Criterion 3a1 will be better measured, where audience research
is conducted, through the notion of reach, whose significance
has been underlined by Peter Menneer. Other indicators, suggested
by Paolo Baldi, can also give useful indications : number of
receivers available, power and reach of the transmitters, presence
on all or a portion of technical supports available, etc.
Criteria 3a 2, 4, 5 and 6 require a more complex approach (see
note 2)
3b) Ecology of the audiovisual landscape
The 2001 Windhoek Conference, organized by UNESCO in Namibia
to celebrate the 10th
anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom, was
used by African civil society representatives to stress the need
of free, responsible and pertinent electronic media. The draft
of an "African Charter on Broadcasting 2001" was discussed
and agreed by the assembly; it defines the basic criteria for
a healthy, balanced audiovisual landscape :
3b1, three-tier system : public service, commercial,
and community broadcasting
3b2, freedom of expression, diversity, free flow of ideas and
information
3b3, regulation authorities independent from government and political
parties
3b4, open and participatory process in frequency spectrum allocation
3b5, quota of local content as well as of local independent productions
3b6, all state and government controlled broadcasters transformed
into public service broadcasters with an explicit mandate, editorial
freedom, public participation, and prohibition of one-sided reporting
and programming in regard to religion, political belief, culture,
race and gender.
3b7, community broadcasting defined as broadcasting for, by and
about the community, whose ownership and management is representative
of the community, which is non-profit and pursues a social development
agenda.
3b8, access to new information and communication technologies,
particularly through community-controlled centres.
All these criteria, with the exception of 3b2, can be evaluated
objectively through a standard grid (see
note 1). 3b2 requires a more complex approach (see
note 2)
3c) Public needs and expectations
Qualitative audience research demonstrates that the public needs
and expects definite services from electronic media, but that people
often see the media as a machinery on which they have no influence,
either because it is controlled by the state, or because it is produced
from far away sources such as Hollywood.
A research conducted in Switzerland in 1998 reveals that the public
wishes electronic media to provide social and ethical contributions:
- to serve the minorities
- to feature and explain multiple views on factual items
- to promote individualized services (interactivity, on demand
programmes, etc.)
In the " BBC Evidence to the License Fee Review Panel",
1999, what society needs and expects from the BBC is summarized
as follows:- a civilizing force
- a benchmark for quality and innovation
- support for democratic debate
- the investment engine for high-quality domestic content
- cultural "glue" for the nation
- educational impact
- creating an information society for the many not the few.
A comparison of results of such research in each country where it takes place
might provide a typology of standard needs and expectations.
Conclusion
The "product" of the rating agency will be an objective,
regularly updated evaluation of the social impact of each country's
audiovisual landscape. It will include a similar evaluation, with
specific criteria, of transnational programmes such as CNN, BBC
World, Al Jazeera, or Euronews.
It will be up to the WRTVC to develop recommendations, warnings,
alert signals from the information furnished by the rating agency.
The agency will examine the social impact of a country's whole
broadcasting system, whether it includes public service or not,
but the WRTVC is confident that the presence of bona fide public
broadcasting does improve the contribution of electronic media
to social development, and vice versa.
The WRTVC itself is the fist "target "of the agency,
whose findings will also be made available to all interested parties
: regulation authorities, international organizations, government
agencies, broadcasters' associations, civil society movements,
universities, private companies, individual broadcasters, etc.
A healthy and balanced audiovisual landscape, where citizens'
needs and expectations are given serious attention, is essential
to the good governance of society and to the democracy. It is
a prerequisite of the Information Society.
The Media and Society rating agency will provide the international
community with a clear and objective view, country by country,
of the situation in this regard.
Through its certification process, it will provide public broadcasters
across the world with international recognition and support, as
well as opportunity for training personnel and improving services
to society.
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