Multiplatforming Public Service Broadcasting: The Specialist Factual Independent Production Ecology in the UK's Digital Television Landscape

多平台公共服务广播：英国数字电视领域的专业事实独立制作生态

• 批准号: AH/H018522/1
• 负责人: James Bennett
• 金额: $ 23.13万
• 依托单位: London Metropolitan University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2010 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FH018522%2F1
• 关键词: Multiplatforming; Public; Service; Broadcasting; Specialist

This project investigates the changing production ecology of the UK's independent specialist factual production sector in relationship to the role and future of public service broadcasting (PSB) in the emerging digital television landscape. The digitalization of television, a process of switchover to be completed by 2012, brings with it better sound and visual quality, a growth in the number of channels available and increasingly 'converges' television's production practices, programming forms and audiences with other forms of digital media. From the development of websites associated with particular programs, through to the advent of interactive, mobile and online TV, television might be thought of as a 'multiplatform' experience. Television is no longer simply the 'box in the corner', but experienced and produced across a range of screens, sites and technological platforms. This expansion of channels and platforms brings about increased competition for audiences, who have seen their choices for how, when, where and what kind of television to watch expand dramatically. As a result, traditional broadcasters are experiencing a continuing decline in the number and amount of time audiences spend watching TV. This has called into question the role of PSB as a funding and regulatory model for UK television, with the media regulator, Ofcom, recently suggesting that the future of PSB is at a crossroads.Public service broadcasters are responding to these challenges with new commissioning, technologies and production strategies. Our study focuses on the BBC's and Channel 4's adoption of multiplatform production and commissioning strategies, which seek to exploit content and engage viewers across a range of digital media platforms. Such strategies not only produce new TV forms, but require new production practices. However, these changes and pressures are not only experienced by the broadcasters, but also by the independent television production sector, which increasingly includes digital media companies, which supply programs and content to them. This project seeks to understand the function both independent production companies and these multiplatform practices have in shaping the future of PSB in the digital age. We do this by firstly examining the role that specialist factual independent production companies play in contributing to the shifting characteristics of PSB in the UK. Secondly, we position this role in relation to the way in which the production cultures of this sector respond to and creatively negotiate the move to multiplatform television as part of the wider commercial, regulatory, technological and cultural challenges of the digital age. We examine specialist factual programming as a genre both traditionally associated with notions of PSB, but also recently ranked as one of those most highly valued by participants in Ofcom's first phase of its current PSB review. To do this, rather than simply examine the amount of specialist programming produced or the audience's reaction to it, we seek to unpick the industry's own understanding of this genre's role in contributing to distinctive characteristics of the UK's PSB landscape. By drawing on interviews with, and participant observation of, workers in the independent specialist factual production sector, as well as with commissioners and key players in the broadcasting industries, our research will establish what challenges and opportunities digitalization brings PSB. We then test these 'self-theorizations' by examining the programming practices and content of the independent sector, regulatory documents and discourses circulated within and by the television industry through trade journals, press releases and other trade artifacts. By disseminating this research to industry, regulators, audiences and higher education institutions, this project will therefore make an important contribution to understanding the future role and shape of PSB.

该项目调查了英国独立专业事实制作部门不断变化的生产生态，以及公共服务广播（PSB）在新兴数字电视领域的作用和未来。电视的数字化是一个将于2012年完成的数字化进程，它带来了更好的声音和视觉质量，可用频道数量的增加，并使电视的制作方法、节目形式和观众与其他形式的数字媒体日益“融合”。从与特定节目相关的网站的发展，到交互式、移动的和在线电视的出现，电视可以被认为是一种“多平台”体验。电视不再只是“角落里的盒子”，而是在一系列屏幕，网站和技术平台上体验和制作。这种频道和平台的扩张带来了对观众的竞争加剧，他们看到他们对如何、何时、何地以及观看什么样的电视的选择急剧扩大。因此，传统广播公司正在经历观众观看电视的数量和时间的持续下降。这使得人们对公共广播作为英国电视的融资和监管模式的作用产生了质疑，媒体监管机构Ofcom最近表示，公共广播的未来正处于十字路口。公共服务广播公司正在通过新的委托，技术和制作策略来应对这些挑战。我们的研究重点是英国广播公司和第四频道采用多平台制作和委托策略，旨在利用内容并吸引一系列数字媒体平台的观众。这种策略不仅产生了新的电视形式，而且要求新的生产实践。然而，这些变化和压力不仅是广播公司所经历的，独立电视制作部门也经历了这些变化和压力，其中越来越多地包括向它们提供节目和内容的数字媒体公司。该项目旨在了解独立制作公司和这些多平台实践在塑造数字时代公共广播未来方面的作用。我们这样做，首先研究的作用，专业的事实独立的生产公司在促进英国公共广播公司的转变特点。其次，我们将这一角色定位于该行业的生产文化如何应对和创造性地谈判向多平台电视的转变，作为数字时代更广泛的商业，监管，技术和文化挑战的一部分。我们研究专家的事实编程作为一种体裁，传统上与PSB的概念，但最近也被列为Ofcom的第一阶段，其目前的PSB审查的参与者最高度重视的。要做到这一点，而不是简单地检查制作的专业节目的数量或观众的反应，我们试图解开行业自己的理解，这种类型的作用，有助于英国的公共广播事业的景观的鲜明特点。通过对独立专业事实制作部门的工作人员以及广播行业的专员和主要参与者进行采访和参与观察，我们的研究将确定数字化带来的挑战和机遇。然后，我们测试这些“自我理论化”通过检查的编程实践和内容的独立部门，监管文件和话语内，并通过行业期刊，新闻稿和其他贸易文物的电视行业。通过向行业、监管机构、受众和高等教育机构传播这一研究成果，该项目将为理解公共广播事业的未来作用和形态做出重要贡献。

项目成果

Regaining the initiative for public service media: RIPE@2011

重新获得公共服务媒体的主动权：RIPE@2011

• 发表时间: 2011
• 作者: Bennett, J

Multiplatforming public service broadcasting: The cultural and economic role of UK digital and television independents

多平台公共服务广播：英国数字和电视独立人士的文化和经济角色

• 发表时间: 2012
• 作者: Bennett, J

Media Independence : Working with Freedom or Working for Free?

媒体独立：自由工作还是免费工作？

• DOI: 10.4324/9781315776392
• 发表时间: 2014
• 期刊: International Communication Gazette
• 影响因子: 1.9
• 作者: J. Bennett;Niki Strange
• 通讯作者: Niki Strange

Production Studies, The Sequel

生产研究，续集

• 发表时间: 2015
• 作者: Johnson, Catherine;Grainge, Paul
• 通讯作者: Grainge, Paul

Making Media Work: Cultures of management in the entertainment industries

让媒体发挥作用：娱乐行业的管理文化

• 发表时间: 2015
• 作者: Bennett, J & N. Strange