Media Capture and Its Contexts: Developing a Comparative Framework for Public Service Media

Abstract

Media capture, a situation in which the media can no longer function independently but is controlled by vested interests, has been researched as a concept and empirical phenomenon in a variety of contexts. The capture of Public Service Media has received less scrutiny, even though media organizations with a public service mandate are facing increased pressures from governments and commercial competitors alike. This chapter proposes a framework for assessing the impact of media capture on Public Service Media organizations in different national contexts. It highlights the importance of both media systems and public discourses in understanding the forms in which Public Service Media capture can emerge and become manifest.

Media ownership transparency in Europe: Closing the gap between European aspiration and domestic reality

“…Media power is itself based in part on the ability to expose information that might eventually lead to correction of abusive practices (Stiglitz, 2017: 9–10). Because this role is inevitably compromised where the media are ‘captured’ by powerful political and economic interests (Dragomir, 2019), ownership transparency is a necessary component of any regulatory environment designed to foster investigative journalism and media diversity. In particular, it provides policymakers and regulators with the information they need to develop, monitor and enforce ownership limits and media-related competition rules.…”

“…Although societies are increasingly characterized by communicative abundance, many of the largest media companies at the national level have developed into strongly consolidated multinational corporations (Birkinbine et al, 2017). Traditional media owners are being replaced by new actors, such as private equity firms without an obligation of transparency to shareholders; national or transnational business oligarchs with a great deal of political influence, and even states or state-owned companies (Crain, 2009; Dragomir, 2019; Foster, 2012; Noam, 2018; Schiffrin, 2017). At the global level, digital players such as Google, Facebook and Apple increasingly determine the rules of the game (Nechushtai, 2018; Newman, 2019).…”

The Shifting Roles of Journalists and Audiences : Experimenting with Participatory Journalism in Hungary’s Constrained Media Environment

“…By 2013, a large segment of the Hungarian news media was already under the political and economic control of the government, a situation which media theorists defined as media capture (Dragomir, 2019).…”

“…Media capture, a "situation where most or all of news media institutions are operating as part of a government-business cartel that controls and manipulates the flow of information with the aim of protecting their unrestricted and exclusive access to public resources" (Dragomir, 2019), took place in subsequent phases in Hungary.…”

Public Service Media: From Epistemic Rights to Epistemic Justice

“…In their actual practice, of course, PSM organisations only imperfectly adhere to their normative ideal. At worst, in countries where they are captured by political and economic interests, PSM are part of the problem rather than part of the solution (Dragomir & Aslama Horowitz, 2021). And yet, the starting point of this chapter is that PSM-both as a philosophy and in its practical realisation, however imperfectly, in countries where PSM organisations are to some degree insulated from political pressures-are an essential element of today's digital media environment that needs preserving and strengthening in order that a healthy informational space flourishes.…”