Media Between Culture and Commerce: An Introduction

Els De Bens

An ambitious and ambiguous title

This book addresses the consequences of the profound changes that have affected the media over the last years. Its contributors reflect on the concern and the debate about the role of the media in our rapidly evolving society. They identify and analyse the conflicts and the tensions between cultural policies and market forces at work in the present-day media landscape.

The title 'The Media between Culture and Commerce' may seem rather vague and ambiguous. It is more of a symbolic title that refers to the tensions between the public role of the media and the advancing commercialisation, between the public sphere and the market model, or, in Denis McQuail's succinct phrase, between 'commercialism and non-commercialism' (D. McQuail, 1998, pp. 108–110).

It has not been our intention to explore in depth the concept of culture. As a matter of fact, culture itself is scarcely discussed explicitly in the present book. 'Culture' serves rather as a portmanteau term for anything that connotes the non-commercialism and the idealistic ambitions of the 'public' model. Commercialism refers to the pursuit of profit as a primary goal, while non-commercialism in the media is associated with pluralism, diversity, and all kinds of public interest obligations that are often at odds with the profit motives that are inherent in the market-oriented model.

Privatisation and commercialisation have actually also stimulated creativity and innovation. In the seventies radio was the first medium to be privatised in Europe. For quite some time pirate radio stations anchored outside territorial waters had been challenging the established public broadcasting monopoly. An agreement in the Council of Europe (22 January 1965) allowed for action against these commercial and illegal 'pirates', but not before the latter had acquired a large and enthusiastic following. These stations introduced new music genres and innovative radio styles (including disc jockeys) that were subsequently copied by the public radio broadcasters.

After a second attempt to make illegal the use of the air waves by citizen band (CB) radio amateurs, and then an explosive growth of various types of illegal private radio stations – ranging from small, emancipatory ventures to purely commercial enterprises – the authorities finally decided to legalise private radio broadcasting in the seventies. Again the competitive challenge from the private radio stations incited public broadcasters to make their radio channels more dynamic and, above all, to differentiate them. Together with the new private radio stations, the re-profiled public stations gave a strong boost to the music industry.

The privatisation of television in Europe took place in the mid-eighties and subjected public television broadcasting to shock therapy. Across the board, the public TV stations were denounced for having become outdated, patronising and paternalistic as a consequence of their far-reaching bureaucratisation and politicisation. In several European countries public television broadcasters lost viewers to the newly arrived commercial rivals and their popular, youth-directed, trendy programming. The competition forced the public broadcasters to innovate and to strive for more autonomy, more dynamism, less politicisation, new programmes, and different formats. Thus the various national audio-visual industries were forcefully stimulated when private production companies were allowed to supply the public stations with programmes.

The success enjoyed by the new commercial players in the audio-visual market also affected the printed media. The new audio-visual competitors often appealed to the same advertisers for their funding, and newspapers and magazines were now obliged to reckon with their readers' changing expectations. In the nineties all newspapers underwent facelifts that incorporated more pictures, more colour, eye-catching titles, a fresh layout and a shift in content. They put more emphasis on human interest and on a more narrative style of writing. Newspapers grew 'fatter' and addressed the need for service journalism, including various special interest columns on subjects such as gastronomy, gardening, fitness and health, travel, etc.

It may be safely said that, in the initial stage, the liberalisation and commercialisation of the media market prompted healthy and constructive competition, which enhanced diversity.

By the end of the century, however, it became increasingly clear that the advertising market was not a sufficiently flexible and adequate funding source for the new media players and that the fight for advertising revenues was becoming extremely fierce. To defend their position the large media concerns entered into alliances with various types of media enterprises in order to extend their activities from printed and audio-visual media into the dotcom and the telecom/cable/satellite sectors. Conflict of interest leads to distorted power relations; cutthroat competition is harmful to diversity. In order to maximise profits, the media enterprises have been going to increasingly greater lengths in their quest for as many media consumers, and hence advertising revenues, as possible.

The title of this chapter refers to the media situation in the past five years, in which the tension between commercialism and non-commercialism has sharply increased. It is fairly obvious that between these two extremes, which the title symbolically reflects, there are many shades and different positions. Still, the triumphant rise of commerce and its dominant search for profits has proved to be inexorable.

The fact that during the latest RIPE conference in Copenhagen two colleagues happened to present papers with similar titles can hardly be accidental: A. Murray: Tension Headaches. The Experience of the culture/commerce tension: A study of the social context of scheduling, and J. Steemers: The BBC Balancing Culture and Commerce on the Global Stage. This is clear indication...