Public Service Media Utilities: Rethinking Search Engines and Social Networking as Public Goods

Abstract

Far from being relegated to history's dustbin by technological developments, a public service rationale is as pertinent as ever in the digital era, the capabilities of which lend themselves to the development of public service media. This article explores calls to regulate digital media platforms like Facebook and Google as public utilities, but concludes that, with the exception of regulations to facilitate user mobility and platform/network neutrality, it makes more sense to focus on the development of a robust public service media sector for the digital era. Such a sector would broaden the scope of public service beyond content production and distribution to include social media, search and other information-sorting and communication utilities. The article considers the rationale and scope for such a program, arguing that an era of information glut poses challenges that are distinct from those associated with the broadcast era of relative content scarcity.