From Public Service to Public Interest and Beyond in British Broadcasting Regulation

Abstract

This article will focus on the evolving rationale for broadcasting regulation and understandings of the national interest in the UK, deconstructing the ongoing reconfiguration of the terms ‘public service’ and ‘public interest’, as well as ‘public control’ and ‘public value’, within regulatory documents, to argue that there has been an increasing marginalisation and reconstruction of the notion of ‘public service’ in favour of an approach that privileges competition above all else.

Keywords

• BBC
• public control
• public interest
• public service
• public sphere
• public value