Public service media from a Nordic horizon: Politics, markets, programming and users

The Nordic countries have a tradition of strong support for their public service media and have also developed public service models that are characterized by their relatively small size and small populations. Moreover, the companies have many years’ experience of collaboration within the region – particularly with regard to coproduction of programs.

On the contemporary international arena, within organizations such as the UN and UNESCO, there exists a fundamental conviction that public service media – which are neither commercial nor state owned and which are free from political influence – foster well-informed and enlightened citizens and therefore constitute a cornerstone of democratic development.

Given this interest, Nordicom has carried out extensive work in the arena of public service media in the Nordic region – all within the frame of what we have chosen to call A Nordic Public Service Media Map. The aim of the project is to elucidate a framework for public service media – showing how the concept of public service media is operationalized in terms of the growth of democracy, the public space, media pluralism, cultural diversity, gender and social tolerance. The results of these efforts include recent research findings and statistical overviews.

This publication is the second volume in Nordicom’s series, Nordic Public Service Media Map, which is a part of the globalisation strategy of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The book contains a number of qualified analyses of public service media carried out by Nordic media scholars.

Publisher: Nordicom
Year of Publication: 2013