Impact of prestige programs on production practices: the case of crossmedia and audience participation in public service organizations

Abstract

The 21st century and the rise of new media have accentuated socio-political as well as organizational/practical challenges to public service broadcasters. New political vision is needed to address fragmenting and pluralizing societies; however, the challenge in turn lies in program production. This article examines and relates developments in both areas via a seldom-applied approach to transformations in traditional media organizations, namely close-range production study of large, prestige programs. An underlying assumption is that prestige projects can highlight key institutional ambitions, dilemmas and obstacles of change, and it is brought to bear on a national participatory event in the Norwegian public service broadcaster NRK. The article studies how institutional practices can be twisted into a new course due to internal and external pressures condensed in large projects, and thus assesses the pace at which public service broadcasters are exploring their remit, a pace to which academics and policy makers alike need to be closely attuned.

Public Service Broadcasting's Participation in the Reconfiguration of Online News Content1

“…The feedback provided over the Internet allows social groups to interact with each other. However, these processes need to be negotiated with the former values of public services, which are in the midst of a wholesale redefinition today (Kjus, ).…”

“…Online communication can improve the public debate if it manages to ensure more balanced citizen participation. In this way, the service principles for the media would be expanded (Enli, ; Harrison & Wessels, ; Kjus, ; Ytreberg, ). The relevant point put forth by Moe () revolves around the capacity that the online public media should have to provide well‐designed spaces that foster balanced participation by all interested citizens.…”

“…This study focuses on news contents not only as one of the areas that has aroused the most interest in academia in recent years, but also because of its ability to adapt to ongoing technological changes and challenges related to the new ways that people access and interact with information. As Kjus () notes, today media websites serve two purposes: both as a means of finding information and as arenas of debate and opinion. The results in this area of study have shown that interactivity is a core characteristic of the new media (McMillan, ) and have transformed journalism and its productive practices.…”

El romance en el «femslash». Un análisis narrativo del «fan fiction» «Una vez más, una oportunidad más»

“…En un entorno multiplataforma, la diversidad de contenidos no solo supone para los proveedores de servicios audiovisuales nuevos retos para emitir o producir relatos, sino también nuevas formas de relacionarse con los espectadores de forma mucho más personal e interactiva (Harrison y Wessels, 2005;Deuze, 2006;Bardoel, 2007;Enli, 2008;Kjus, 2009;Ytreberg, 2009y Debrett, 2010. Este escenario comunicativo rompe muchas veces con las lógicas narrativas convencionales, diseñadas para un entorno analógico, y se desplaza hacia ecosistemas transmedia incontrolados, desarticulados o fragmentados por las relaciones participativas de los espectadores y especialmente por los fans de los productos mediáticos como grupo diverso capaz de proponer una subcultura reconocible (Jenkins, 1992).…”

Fabricating Cultural Events: The Rise of International Programme Formats in Norwegian Television Production

“…In my approach to Idols (first produced in 2001) and Great X (first produced in 2002), which are successful formats that are still being reproduced, I combined observations of production and interviews of professionals with analyses of output. The findings of these specific case studies are published elsewhere (Kjus, 2009b;2009c). Here I aim for a broader picture of the programme format and its state at the end of the 2000s: the decade when the phenomenon fully made its arrival.…”