Theme: Society & Culture | Content Type: Journal article

A ‘Public Service Internet’—Reclaiming the Public Service Mission

Helen Jay

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JJ Ying

| 1 min read

This article looks forward, locating debates on public service broadcasting firmly within contemporary and future debates about technology regulation. Public service broadcasting has been a dominant theme in UK media policy since the creation of the BBC in 1922, aimed at delivering positive democratic and cultural outcomes. However, despite this rich heritage, and amidst widespread concerns about the social and democratic implications of ‘digital dominance’, the public service mission has failed fully to transcend its broadcasting origins and provide a model for a ‘public service internet’. The article reviews the relationship between the for-profit business models of the dominant technology platforms and potential civic and individual harms, past and failed attempts to reimagine ‘public service’ institutions in a digital age and identifies opportunities for scholars, activists and policy makers to reimagine public service alternatives for a platform society.

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    Helen Jay

    Helen Jay is an AHRC-funded doctoral candidate in the Media and Communications Department at the University of Westminster. Alongside her PhD, she acts as an external expert, lecturer and adviser on media and communications policy.

    Articles by Helen Jay
Volume 95, Issue 4

Latest Journal Issue

Volume 95, Issue 4

This issue features a collection 'Responding to Rachel Reeves' Mais Lecture', in which authors including Dan Corry, Aveek Bhattacharya and Kira Gartzou-Katsouyanni give their analyses of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement of economic policy given before Labour came to power. In addition there is a collection featuring Geoffrey M. Hodgson, Abby Innes and Gavin Kelly responding to Michael Jacobs' assessment of today's global 'polycrisis'. Other articles include Philippe Marlière's assessment of why French social democracy is in turmoil; and Helen Margetts, Cosmina Dorobantu, and Jonathan Bright's piece on building progressive public services with artificial intelligence. A selection of book reviews feature Dick Pountain's review of Left Is Not Woke by Susan Neiman, and Helen McCarthy's review of The Solidarity Economy: Nonprofits and the Making of Neoliberalism after Empire by Tehila Sasson.

Find out more about the latest issue of the journal