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public affairs radio programming
Public affairs programming in radio is information programming focused on politics and public policy, which works for the public good by meeting the needs and interests of communities. As well, public affairs programming can be understood as work that seeks to inform people and to act as the fourth estate, rather than journalism that is primarily concerned with entertainment. Radio public affairs programming includes radio news, current affairs programming, talkback, and even podcasting and is often well regulated by government.
While radio public affairs programming has traditionally been popular with older audiences, podcasting has increased its popularity among younger listeners. Although public affairs programming is a mainstay of public broadcasters, it is generally a requirement for commercial stations and community stations to also offer such work, albeit generally to a lesser extent than the public broadcasters. This entry provides an overview of public affairs radio programming and then explores ways in which it is a significant contributor to mass media and society.
Overview
Most advanced liberal democracies have established public broadcasters to provide this content and public affairs programming is often an explicit requirement of radio broadcasters in most countries. Public affairs programming is also called current affairs programming, particularly in countries outside the United States. Public affairs programming is often central to the work produced by public-sector broadcasters (e.g., the British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC]), and community stations, but also on some commercial networks.
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Almost every country in the world has a public broadcaster which produces public affairs programming for radio. Radio public affairs broadcasting is seen as a forerunner to television public affairs programming. Although the BBC is often cited as the standard for such radio work, Scandinavian countries (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland) with their smaller populations are increasingly used as examples of excellence in public affairs programming, as their broadcasters are among the best funded in the world. The largest country in Europe, Germany, also has a high level of public funding. Generally, public broadcasters are funded by governments in most countries except the United States, where most funding comes from nongovernment sources.
Different countries have different attitudes and regulatory environments around public affairs and news broadcasting. The words news, public affairs, and current affairs have a variety of meanings emerging from regulations and industry experts in each country. Various industry codes of practice make specific stipulations about programs which contain news and public or current affairs. There are few ways of determining the quality of public affairs programming. Some count ratings or awards as determinants of quality, while count changes to policy and laws or special commissions of inquiry. Public affairs or current affairs programming are specific broadcast terms, with print media preferring features and analysis to describe similar works.
Regulation
In the United Kingdom, the communications regulator Ofcom regulates the radio sector, operating under a number of Acts of Parliament. It audits the volume of current affairs programming on terrestrial broadcasters, the range of formats and subject matter, the scheduling of current affairs programs, and the audience share. Traditional radio listening is called terrestrial because the broadcast is sent from radio broadcast towers instead of over the Internet or satellite.
In Australia, the Australian Communications and Media Authority is the regulator for all broadcasters. Radio stations themselves are responsible for ensuring radio programs reflect community standards. To do this, they use a system of industry-developed codes of practice. Providing local content as part of license conditions means that regional commercial radio stations are required to broadcast material of local significance on business days.
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In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent government agency overseen by the U.S. Congress and regulates interstate and international communications by radio. However, individual radio station licensees in the United States are responsible for determining the programming for local issues, news, and public affairs. In 2011, a report found communities were being unevenly served with critical information about local issues despite the boost to information and communications brought by the broadband age.
Audience
Despite the expansion of globalized media services and social media, public affairs broadcasting on radio remains a significant provider of information for the public that is independent of the political power structures and the economic interests within modern economies.
Older audiences continue to rely on radio for broadcasts. However, the number of people listening to online radio via mobile devices continues to rise. Radio broadcasters keen to keep market share are making sustained efforts to reach and serve younger audiences. To that end, public affairs broadcasters are experimenting with new genres (e.g., narrative podcast journalism) and services (e.g., on demand audio), looking at relevance and impact of work and examining who is accessing it, and where those people are physically located.
Changes in broadcast technology and demands by consumers for different content have changed public affairs programming. It is no longer simply the provision of information over broadcast airwaves. Increasingly public affairs programming is talk radio, documentaries, and narrative podcast journalism delivered online with the ability of listeners to use mobile options and to time shift their programs (i.e., to listen not directly at the time it is broadcast, but at a time to suit themselves).
Radio News
Radio news bulletins are usually a minimum requirement of public affairs programming. News bulletins began on radio stations in the 1920s with reports comprised of newspaper articles read by presenters. Radio stations slowly developed their own news style, with journalists producing bulletins designed for the spoken word, including current affairs programs and talk programs to deal with local issues or issues of national concern. In the 1930s one of the four major radio networks in the United States at that time, NBC-Blue, was first to introduce news as a regular feature in radio programming when it launched a 15-minute, 5-day-a-week newscast.
Modern news bulletins can vary in length and structure depending on the format of the broadcast station. They can feature items about local, national, and international events, sports, the stock market, and weather. Expert analysis or commentary from specialist reporters can also be included. Analysis is expected to provide context and information for the listeners through detailed examination of the facts and provision of context and background which is needed to ensure understanding. Contemporary radio news reporting is designed to relay facts quickly to the audience. The reports are built upon a traditional form of journalism in which reporters verify and cross check information before it is broadcast. Online radio news reports can now incorporate videos, photos, and commentary to enhance coverage, particularly of happening events such as natural disasters. These can come from journalists or directly from listeners.
Contemporary news bulletins often go to air on the hour, or half-hour. They feature three styles of production: the word or copy story, which can be just one or two lines about a particular story; a script that includes a sound bite or grab of audio from a newsmaker; or a voice report, which is a script prepared by a reporter which can also include an insert of audio from a newsmaker. Commercial news bulletins are generally shorter than news bulletins on public or community stations and can also feature advertisements and jingles.
In some commercial newsrooms, advertisers can use their influence to try to dictate news content or attempt to blur the lines between journalism and advertisements, although there are strict rules about this in some countries. In Australia, for example, broadcasters are now required to verbally acknowledge advertisers.
Public Affairs
Public affairs pieces are best characterized as providing information that are a public good such as political reporting and court coverage. But excellent public affairs also suggests an investigative role for journalists who uncover information that the public has a right to know. This means information about governments, companies, and other powerful interests that make decisions that affect the public. Economists recognize that public goods are often undersupplied in places where commercial operators are unable to profit from them.
Public or current affairs programming on radio can deal with local, state, regional, national, or international issues (including sports). The presentation of current affairs programming can include short-extended news reports which feature analysis and commentary from reporters and audio inserts from experts. However, public affairs programming also encompasses news talk radio, documentaries, panels, roundtables, public hearings, parliamentary broadcasts, public events, and podcasts. Public affairs pieces often feature specialist reporters who are asked to include their analysis of a story as well as context and background.
Podcasting
Podcasts began making an impact on public affairs broadcasting after 2004, when broadcasters began to understand the desire of audiences to use online and mobile technology to time shift their listening. The first public affairs podcasts were audio cuts of packaged programs already broadcast. However, public affairs podcasts are increasingly made specifically for mobile or online services. Public affairs podcasts which are prompted by or tied to major broadcasters or newspapers have historically rated better with audiences than podcasts produced by independent organizations.
A popular new form of public affairs programming is narrative podcast journalism, an audio documentary that follows a story arc. Work is often nonlinear and can feature interviews, sound bites, scripted segments, sound effects, and music. The form was popularized by the podcast Serial (2014–). The success of this series, and many others, has greatly boosted podcast listenership.
Podcasts are increasingly used by community radio and not-for-profit organizations, which believe they can provide a voice for those who do not fit within the social or demographic confines of commercial or public-sector broadcasting. However, some view these podcasts as performing the role of interpreters of social issues.
News/Talk Radio in the United States
News/talk is the most popular category in broadcast radio, and it has grown in both audience and number of stations in the United States where it is largely conservative talk radio. Most talk shows use news headlines mixed with selected details of news stories to drive discussion. These talk shows create a public sphere, giving the average citizen an opportunity to have a voice in the issues of the day. Talk shows (where people call in and literally talk on a show) are cheaper to produce than other public affairs program formats. The interaction with the audience through talkback callers and SMS and social media messages help hold audience attention longer than news programs that do not feature listener interaction.
Tensions in Public Affairs Programming
Funding of public-sector broadcasters which provide the majority of public affairs radio programming in many countries is the subject of much discussion. There are often spirited debates over what constitutes appropriate funding to public-sector broadcasters and whether they do their jobs appropriately. There is significant variation in funding models for public broadcasters in Western liberal democracies, and revenue can include a mix of public funding (e.g., license fees or government grants) and commercial sources (e.g., advertisements or program sponsorships). Public funding of public-sector broadcasters is generally higher in Northern European countries and lower outside Europe.
Improvements in broadcast network technology, changes of media ownership, impact of competition, uptake of mobile broadcasting, and Internet services have created tensions in the production of public affairs programming. Broadcasters are increasingly looking to make economies of scale with cross-platform publishing and distribution strategies of public affairs programming. Commercial broadcasters, in the United States and Australia, for example, can now use technology to allow radio networks to produce and transmit local news stories for stations some distance away or to syndicate national programs to multiple stations. The definition of local can cause tension when communities feel that their needs are not being met.
Rival media owners can be critical of public affairs broadcasters, when work created by public-sector broadcasters is seen to cut across their commercial news interest. Several members of the Murdoch family, for example, have repeatedly given speeches criticizing the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for their innovative moves in public affairs broadcasting. In 2009, for example, the chair of News Corporation in Europe, James Murdoch, told the Edinburgh Television Festival that the “expansion of state-sponsored journalism” was a threat to the plurality and independence of news.
Additionally, some public-sector broadcasters are now signing partnerships with other media companies and cultural institutions to produce programming. This also causes tension with commercial news outlets.
Technology also allows consumers to be far more than passive consumers of information; they are increasingly active participants in the news-gathering process through talkback, text messaging, and social media. However, while technology can allow people to produce their own public affairs reports and more easily interact with story producers, a concurrent decline in reporting upon local government and institutions has often left people in positions of power setting the news agenda.
In some markets (particularly in the United States), where there are tensions about the number of hours of local broadcasting provided, there can also be issues over the timing of those broadcasts. In the United Kingdom and Australia, public affairs broadcasting is traditionally aired at prime time on public broadcasters to draw the largest possible audience. However, in the United States, commercial networks, which are under no obligation to provide public affairs coverage, can decide not to schedule it or to schedule it when few people will be listening such as late at night or early morning.
Producing quality public affairs programming is expensive, and communities can feel ill-served when there is a lack of diversity in the market or that the content produced is not appropriate for them. More competition has generally been thought to increase quality and quantity of public affairs programming, but this has not been the case in the United States. Local communities often feel they do not receive enough local news and information, particularly when they mostly or only receive syndicated public affairs programming, particularly on national issues.
The Public and Listeners
The key to public affairs broadcasting is the word public. When radio as an informational medium began, the listening public was treated as a uniform group of citizens in a geographically defined area for whom the journalists could produce information about regional, state, and national affairs. Public affairs broadcasting was therefore vital for citizens to make informed decisions, particularly for the purposes of electing political representatives.
Public affairs broadcasters or journalists in the early 21st century are more often referred to as content creators or producers who create media for people who can often actively participate in the process or report rather than just consume it—anywhere and at any time. The resulting diversity of public affairs radio content online can provide more variety and greater abundance for the public; however, it can mean that some groups may not get the information that they need.
Public-Sector Radio
Public radio broadcasters are often considered the best providers of public affairs broadcasting in the world because they are designed to put the information needs of people, including the provision of news and public affairs, ahead of commercial interests. They are funded by broadcast license fees, public donations, government grants, or some combination of these. The BBC is often seen in the English-speaking world as the exemplar of radio public affairs, although there is a rich history throughout Europe of radio broadcasting and a growing appreciation of public radio broadcasting in the United States.
Public stations have taken on an increasing importance for the provision of news in the United States since the elimination of public affairs broadcast provisions on local commercial radio. The best known is NPR, a nonprofit media organization that has hundreds of member stations that pay dues to carry its programs. As traditional media have struggled, NPR’s audience has grown, and its web audience is now substantial.
Other major public broadcasters in the United States, American Public Media and Public Radio International, distribute programming to local stations as well as digital channels. Individual stations, such as New York’s WNYC and Chicago’s WBEZ, also produce nationally syndicated original journalism as well.
In countries where public-sector broadcasting has existed for many years, the current challenge is to transition radio to media content online and to mobile services. In countries that have not had a strong public-sector broadcaster, there is often the challenge of creating a service that is different from state (propaganda) media. South Africa went through this process in the transition to democracy, turning its state broadcaster into a public one.
Community Broadcasters
Community or not-for-profit radio is the third sector of radio alongside the public sector and commercial sectors. Community radio is generally expected to foster greater diversity of radio content by providing people with programming they cannot receive from the other networks. Community radio tends to be as diverse as the communities they serve with stations specifically licensed to serve classical music listeners, youth, Indigenous peoples, seniors, and the LGBTQ community. Community broadcasters focus on the delivery of social benefits to a particular area or community of interest and are operated on a not-for-profit basis. Community radio is seen as a particularly useful place to find public affairs information for people with diverse cultures and social experiences. This is especially important for immigrant groups and for those who welcome broadcasts in other languages.
The original version of this article was published by SAGE Publications in The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.