Covid-19 and public service mediaImpact of the pandemic on public television in Europe

  1. Miguel Túñez-López 1
  2. Martín Vaz-Álvarez 1
  3. César Fieiras-Ceide 1
  1. 1 Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
    info

    Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

    Santiago de Compostela, España

    ROR https://ror.org/030eybx10

Journal:
El profesional de la información

ISSN: 1386-6710,  1699-2407

Year of publication: 2020

Issue Title: Pluralismo informativo

Volume: 29

Issue: 5

Type: Article

DOI: 10.3145/EPI.2020.SEP.18 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: El profesional de la información

Abstract

This article analyses the response of European Public Service Media to the crisis caused by Covid-19, especially the impact of the pandemic on Europe’s major public broadcasters, with a particular focus on technical and professional constraints, alterations in audience volume and habits, production strategies, type of broadcast content and journalists’ routines. The research is based on public information from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and 19 in-depth, structured interviews with a convenience sample of innovation and strategy managers from public broadcasters in Austria (ORF), Belgium (VRT and RTBF), Denmark (DR), Finland (YLE), France (France TV), Germany (ARD and ZDF), Great Britain (BBC), Ireland (RTÉ), Italy (RAI), Netherlands (NPO), Portugal (RTP), Spain (RTVE), Sweden (SVT), Switzerland (RTS) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The results indicate that the corporate projection of PSM was increased by emphasising their role as essential services and their defence of the values that characterise them. The pandemic forced the adaptation of programme production from technical standards to an emotional approach, accelerating a formal hybridisation with native online contents. Dependence on software grew and newsmaking processes were altered towards ‘remote journalism’. Changes are drawn that may be maintained in the future.

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Funding information

This article is a result of the research project (RTI2018-096065-B-I00) of the Spanish State Programme for R+D+I aimed at the Challenges to Society of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MCIU), State Research Agency (AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) on “New values, governance, financing and public audiovisual services for the Internet society: European and Spanish contrasts.”The author Martín Vaz-Álvarez is the beneficiary of an FPU contract (ref. FPU19/06204) granted by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Spanish Government.

Funders

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