The Problems with Reimagining Public Media in the Context of Global South
PDF

Keywords

public media
global south

How to Cite

Rahman, A. (2014). The Problems with Reimagining Public Media in the Context of Global South. Stream: Interdisciplinary Journal of Communication, 6(1), 56–65. https://doi.org/10.21810/strm.v6i1.88

Abstract

This paper puts forward a case from the global south into the discussion of public media. It pays particular attention to Bangladesh, an epicenter of a thriving media system in South Asia. From a political economic perspective in this paper I ask: can the state broadcaster BTV be a public media? Based on a combination of methods including in-depth interviews and document analysis, I locate four problematic areas including political instrumentalization, commercialization, struggle for autonomy, and contradictory policy responses – all which impede BTV’s ability to perform as a public media. I argue that this inability has to be understood not as a failure of the state but as a result of colonial legacy, post-colonial transformation, as well as a derivative of neoliberal market-orientation of communications in the global South.
https://doi.org/10.21810/strm.v6i1.88
PDF