The original technological argument for public service broadcasting was based on what has been called spectrum scarcity. Digital public media, by contrast, can be made universally available – which is a crucial civic principle of public media – and can be engaged with on a user’s own terms. These sorts of positive arguments for public digital media, though, will not come from the BBC or those close to it. Champions of public service broadcasting have celebrated the principle of political independence, but even a cursory reading of the BBC’s history shows this is nothing but wishful thinking. • Tom Mills is lecturer in sociology at Aston University and author of The BBC: Myth of a Public Service

Source: The Guardian January 28, 2020 18:00 UTC