Media and the Public Interest: Genre & Format Diversity and Socially Useful Content Cross-national comparative analysis Zrinjka Peruško Centre for Media and Communication Research (CIM), Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb COST A 30 “East of West: Setting a New Central and Eastern European Media Research Agenda” Zagreb, 30 & 31/1/2009
Main research question(s) What is the role of media in contemporary society? Is the public interest being served by their performance? How is the competition level of the media system an issue in this? Media policy defines the public interest and performance standards
Questions on research design How do we operationally define the public interest in regard to media performance/content? (definitions will vary, where will we look for them?) How do we operationally define socially useful content? type of program? only genres or? The sample & and media - only TV, with multimedia, or? duration (1 week, 2 weeks, composite week?) Description of the competition level (How) Can we ensure comparability?
Expected results Types of media programs of the socially useful and socially “useless” kind (new and old genres and formats) and their shares in total offer How are they used by audiences How this fits with the public interest in media performance Comparisons between the countries and their different/similar conceptualizations of public interest in media performance and their fulfillment in media programs Main research question(s) Main research question(s)