This blog explores new research arguing that public service media should be recognised as essential national infrastructure, comparable to transport or healthcare. It highlights how this aligns with Foundational Economics, which values the systems that support everyday life and social cohesion. As the BBC Charter Renewal approaches, the blog suggests shifting policy discussions away from technocratic fixes and towards social purpose, resilience and long-term public value. It raises a central question for future media policy: what do we need public-purpose media for, and how should it serve society in an era shaped by digital disruption and global platforms?
The recent paper by Gillian Doyle, Kenny Barr, and Raymond Boyle, Public service media as critical media infrastructure for the digital era, makes a compelling argument that public service media should be understood as an essential component of national life, occupying the same category as transport systems, healthcare networks and energy provision. The authors show that public service media is no longer simply a cultural institution or a legacy broadcasting structure. Instead, it functions as a core part of the civic fabric, providing the informational and cultural connectivity required for democratic life to operate. In an era marked by digital disruption, global platforms and unstable information flows, this shift in understanding matters. It asks us to think about public media not as a discretionary service, but as something foundational.
This resonates closely with the principles of the Foundational Economy. Foundational activities are those which enable everyday life to function, often taken for granted until failure exposes their significance. They are not glamorous or speculative. They do not operate for short-term gain. They provide the slow, steady, dependable forms of economic and social value upon which everything else depends. Health systems, education, utilities, roads and social care all fall into this category. The argument here is that public media belongs alongside them. It is not a market product. It is a public necessity.
Thinking about public service media in these terms highlights the need for a shift in public policy. Too often, media debates become trapped in the language of competition, cost containment, efficiency drives or managerial restructuring. The paper shows that this mindset mirrors the failed assumptions of post-privatisation infrastructure sectors. Other industries have already learned that fragmented markets, narrowly economistic metrics and short-term optimisation weaken public value. Rail, aviation and healthcare organisations interviewed for the study emphasise the interdependencies that underpin their work, the need for stability, resilience and universality, and the obligation to maintain a coherent system rather than a patchwork of competing services. The same logic applies to media. Fragmentation may produce variety but seldom produces shared civic purpose.
If the BBC Charter Renewal process is to be meaningful, it must start from the principles set out in Foundational Economics rather than defaulting to technocratic management fixes. Public service media requires long-term stewardship, not perpetual restructuring. It requires leadership that understands social value and the everyday purposes of media, not managerial class self-protection or narrow institutional interest. Above all, it requires clarity about what public-purpose media is actually for. Without a clear articulation of purpose, any discussion about funding, governance or regulation risks becoming an exercise in administrative maintenance rather than democratic renewal.
The central question, therefore, is unavoidable. What do we need public service or public-purpose media for? If the answer is simply to provide content more cheaply, or to remain competitive with commercial platforms, then public policy will drift further into market mimicry. But if the answer is about sustaining a shared informational commons, securing cultural depth, supporting national resilience, maintaining trust, facilitating social cohesion and strengthening the conditions for democratic life, then a different pathway becomes possible. The authors of the paper make it clear that public service media is now bound up with national security and the stability of public discourse. Foundational economic thinking adds that such institutions should be designed and protected in the same way as other essential systems.
The Charter process offers the opportunity to articulate these commitments openly. Instead of starting with budgets, audience share or organisational charts, there is the chance to begin with social purpose, public value and civic necessity. That means establishing the principles first, and only then considering structures capable of delivering them. With the rapid growth of global platforms and the erosion of shared spaces of meaning, this may be one of the last moments to take the question seriously. What kind of society do we want, and what form of public service media is needed to sustain it?
Doyle, G., Barr, K., & Boyle, R. (2025). Public service media as critical media infrastructure for the digital era. Media, Culture & Society, 47(6), 1132-1149. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437251330119 (Original work published 2025)