14 - Conclusions

Summary

We began from the position that broadcasting is important. Its importance is, from the perspective of different people, based in different factors. From one point of view, it is understood as being a result of its influence; alternatively, that importance arises from its economic value. Within the first point of view there are many positions and beliefs. Variously, broadcasting is said to be able to contribute to a nation's cultural sense of itself, to entertain, to educate, to inform and to provide social glue, but also to distort, to dumb down, to misrepresent and to contribute to social undoing. The second viewpoint is more straightforward. There are those who regard broadcasting purely as an industry, and there are also those who regard it as an evolving service at the heart of the new knowledge economy. Both would suggest that broadcasting be treated as an industrial sector, rather than as a public service. The two main viewpoints have consequences for the perception of the appropriate roles of the private sector and the public, respectively, and also for the role, scope and type of regulation. Typically, those who take the first viewpoint would endorse public intervention, whether in the form of an (independent) state broadcaster or close regulation in the public interest; the second viewpoint may be characterised as requiring little or no intervention, as the market is assumed to provide a range of services. Indeed, some would suggest regulation does damage, especially in hindering the development of technology and new services.