Television plays an important role in the society as the TV is still considered to be one of the main sources of information. The development of the Internet and other sources does not eliminate the television broadcasting importance. Still, the information delivery to the particular audience has become a real problem due to a number of reasons.
The fragmentation of audiences in the 21st century affects the expectations, demands and requirements for Public Service Broadcasting in many reasons. The main idea of this paper is to consider these reasons with highlighting the situation in the world Public Service Broadcasting in general.
Public Service Broadcasting is defined as the mix of different programs aimed at informing about some interesting things, educating and entertaining people with the purpose to encourage audiences’ betterment in general (Bignell 2004, p. 312). Still, there is another definition of this notion which states that Public Service Broadcasting is the way people are given an opportunity to get the entertainment high quality information and education on the equal terms as the main idea of broadcasting is to make sure that the audience is satisfied (Saurombe 2006, p. 13).
There are a lot of different purposes of the broadcasting and some of them have been defined by the UK government. First of all, the Public Service Broadcasting is aimed at satisfying the needs of the customers as the direct consumer of the services. Second, the Public Service Broadcasting is aimed at informing a democratic and independent society and supporting the cultural heritage of the country.
Third, the television serves for the business sector development as advertising is one of the most important aspects of Public Service Broadcasting (Foster & Meek 2008). To make sure that all these functions are met, the Public Service Broadcasting is to face the requirements of all the customers. However, the successful broadcasting is not that easy in the modern conditions as the communication is too high and a lot of different aspects influence the success of the affair.
Therefore, each type of the programs and movies which are presented on the television may be considered as the public service on TV. It should be mentioned that the broadcasting companies face a number of difficulties with the audience due to globalization. Looking at the audience of the 21st century, it is possible to say that it is too varied and distinguished. This fragmentation of the audience has become possible with the globalization of different spheres in the world.
The change of the socio-political situation has created the situation at the broadcasting market in the US where other countries have an opportunity to show their programs. Digital broadcasting becomes more and more popular even though the USA programs remain dominant (Papathanassopoulos 2002). However, this is not a great deal as the US broadcasts its programs all over the world.
The domination in the society does not create too bid problem for the companies, especially advertising ones. The fragmentation of the audience is considered to be the central problem which impacts the expectations, demands and requirements for Public Service Broadcasting.
Considering the problem from the point of view of advertisers it is possible to state that the companies face a number of challenges. Thus, being broadcasted all over the world, the companies should remember about cultural, financial and other differences. Moreover, the perception of the world different countries have may impact the understanding of the ads (Juneau).
Thus, paying attention to ads, it may be concluded that Public Service Broadcasting is considered as the economic platform for business development. This is correct, still, the mentioned problem make the situation more complicated. The more diverse the audience, the more problems and complications connected with financing the companies experience.
Moreover, each country where the company broadcasts has specific political, cultural and social peculiarities which may have contradicting vision of the reality presented in the ads (Picard 2003). Considering the expectations of the public service broadcasting sphere, the commercialization of the whole sphere is an inevitable outcome. Considering the sphere on the example of the African countries, it may be stated that working with the advertising companies, the public service broadcasting is going to get as much profit as possible.
The fragmentation of the audience demands from the companies more financial input, thus, the desire to increase the profit from advertising in the future may become the priority which may spoil the industry in general and change its principles stated in the definitions of the sphere (Berger 2009).
Being public services, broadcasting companies are aimed at serving in the interest of the consumers of the services. The interests of the consumers are checked via their response to the broadcasts. The past research presented the different papers showed that the audience reacted on political and social information. Still, the current situation shows that the public service broadcasting is directed at human ignorance.
The television provides so much useless information that it is impossible to avoid the phrase, the more we learn, the less we know. Watching TV people are not really interested in what they are watching. TV has become something like the background noise which is necessary for people to create the vision of outside presence. This can be explained by the presence of too much information which does not carry any useful knowledge (Walker 2000).
The abounding in advertising adds to this effect. Even though the main idea of television is to deliver useful information aimed at creating public opinion, the modern situation does not reflect this purpose at full extend.
Therefore, it may be concluded that the fragmentation of the audience does no serve any good either for society or for the public service broadcasting services. It is important to state that being directed at different audiences, the broadcasting has become full of useless information for others. Thus, while the broadcast of the program aimed at one segment, other people should either listen to the information without perceiving it or looking for a more interesting programs.
The commercialization of the broadcasting also brings some particular changes in the modern broadcasting. However, expecting to get more varied customers and consumers of the services, the fragmentation creates a number of problems which are to be solved.
The globalization in all spheres of the modern life adds to the effect of the diversity in the broadcasting which just increases the flow of information which is not always interesting to all layers of population. Moreover, expecting to get more profit, the companies are to increase their expenses as well.
Reference List
Berger, G 2009, Beyond Broadcasting: the future of state-owned broadcasters in Southern Africa. Web.
Bignell, J 2004, An introduction to television studies, Routledge, Oxford.
Foster, R & Meek, K 2008, Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom: A longer term view. Web.
Juneau, P 2000, Public broadcasting: Why? How? Web.
Papathanassopoulos, S 2002, European Television in the digital age, Polity, Cambridge.
Picard, RJ 2003, ‘Assessment of Public Service Broadcasting: Economic and managerial performance criteria’, Auditing Public Broadcasting, vol. 10 no. 3, pp. 29-44.
Saurombe, M 2006, The impact of media commercialization on public service broadcasting: The case of radio Zimbabwe after the adoption of the Commercialization Act. Web.
Walker, K 2000, “Public service broadcasting and new distribution technologies”, in S. Wyatt et al (eds.), Technology and In/equality: Questioning the Information Age, Routledge, London, pp. 61-85.