Trust and Polarization Workshop
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Public service media live at the centre of a crossroads that threatens their centrality in European societies, which ultimately would question their own legitimacy as public enterprises. Three different factors have been identified as the driving forces of this process: changes in consumption behaviour, increasing competition, and polarized societies.
This process impacts PSM at multiple levels. One of them is trust, a traditional asset for PSM that is increasingly under pressure as a result of the above mentioned forces. Declining reach and lack of brand recognition decrease the perceived value of PSM, from which some groups with a limited visibility on PSM may feel totally alienated. As such, it is extremely difficult for PSM to be perceived as a trusted institution among some stakeholders.
This process is already having an impact on the general perception of PSM as a glue for society but may have even more severe consequences in the long term. That's why it is necessary start addressing it now.
This Public Service Media Contribution to Society workshop will bring together researchers and strategists from EBU Members to dig deeper into the reasons and manifestations of this process but especially to discuss what actions at a national and European level could be taken to address the situation in the short and medium term.
