Reimagining Public Service Media: Navigating Change and Exploring Public Consensus in the Czech Republic

Incorporating perspectives of various key stakeholders, this book critically explores the state and future of public service media (PSM), and maps areas of consensus upon which a renewed social contract for PSM could be built.

Broadening the debate beyond normative frameworks and drawing on perspectives other than elite and expert opinions, this book represents a vital contribution to the discussion over PSM’s present and future. The study uses the Czech Republic as a case study, a representative Central and Eastern European (CEE) country that, following the fall of its Communist regime, successfully transformed its former state-run media propaganda system into PSM. Employing a mixed-methods research design, it provides empirically-based insights from three groups, namely: the general public, PSM’s audience and source of funding; politicians and members of PSM supervisory bodies; and PSM journalists and managers. This book synthesises the perspectives of these three groups, focusing on the common ground in their expectations and evaluations, and exploring where the societal consensus lies in terms of the public service PSM should provide and the public value it should bring. The analysis pays particular attention to the unique position of PSM in smaller countries and within the CEE region.

Reimagining Public Service Media is recommended reading for advanced students and researchers in fields including Media Ownership, Media Regulation, and Media and Politics.

Marína Urbániková is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Media Studies and Journalism at Masaryk University, Czech Republic. Her research focuses on public service media and its regulation, journalistic autonomy, the safety and security of journalists, and gender in journalism. Beyond academia, she is a co-founder of the Czech NGO Women in Media, a platform dedicated to addressing the challenges faced by female journalists.

Klára Smejkal is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Media Studies and Journalism, Masaryk University, Czech Republic. Her research focuses on trust in institutions, public service media, studies of audiences in fragmented media environment and production in the audiovisual industry. She has been participating in several research projects and has co-authored publications in journals such as International Journal of Press/Politics or Media, Culture & Society.

Iveta Jansová is the Head of the Department of Media Studies and Journalism at Masaryk University, Czech Republic. She holds a PhD in cultural and media studies and has worked at multiple journalism departments in the country. Her research interests include audience studies, fan studies, cultural studies, and television studies, with a focus on the representation of marginalized identities, and the portrayal of women in crime genre in TV.

Lenka Waschková Císařová is an Associate Professor at the Department of Media Studies and Journalism, Masaryk University, Czech Republic. Her teaching and research focus on changes in journalistic work, local media, media ownership, emotions in journalism, and the transition of media markets. She is the author and editor of several journal articles, book chapters and books on related topics.