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Communication and Social Justice: Controversial contents and regulation practices in Hungary - A proposal for policy research and initiative

- A work plan with a time schedule -

by Ferenc Hammer

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The following outline contains a tentative work plan of the proposed research. Its major stages are the following:

Stage 1: Preparing a summary of research on the television representation of poverty and social inequality.
Stage 2: An assessment of western and certain post-communist broadcast regulation practices from the point of view of content regulation.
Stage 3: Preparing an initiative outline for feasible mechanisms of journalistic self regulation in the broadcast media.
Stage 4: Evaluation and preparations for action.

Month 1-2: PREPARATIONS AND STAGE ONE

Preliminary phase: Finalizing the work plan through consultation with IPF/CEU faculty
Stage 1: Preparing a summary of research on the television representation of poverty and social inequality

This phase of the work will be based on the research we have done in the past few years on the issue of representation and justice in mediated modern realities. The goal of this phase is to reformulate the conclusions (with the help of a minor research) of our previous work as content recommendations for the special needs of this research.

We would outline a problem statement regarding contemporary ways social inequalities and the poor are represented in television programs. This problem statement will constitute an 10-page research paper containing the following major points:

1. Why only television? The role of TV in the symbolic reproduction of power relations in modern societes. Cultural citizenship.
2. The role of the symbolic in the transformation of the post-communist social structure.
3. Normative frameworks regarding the representation of the disadvantaged (in the context of public service and commercial television.)
4. A brief analysis of poverty as a cultural phenomenon (with the help of the interpretation of the five stages of Stuart Hall’s circuit of culture (representation, production, consumption, identity, and regulation.)
5. Examples of Hungarian commercial and public service television “genres” in representing poverty in fiction and non-fiction programs. Reality TV as a controversial public sphere. A forgotten genre: The documentary film tradition.
6. A short production analysis: Media workers’ reflection on their television programs focusing on poverty – an insider’s view.
7. A conclusion: Content recommendations on how to portray social inequalities and poverty in television programs which representation:

prefers discourses of inclusion over exclusion;
constructs solidarity, compassion and tolerance;
expands the moral imagination of the audiences;
contributes to the emergence of a new social contract regarding justice and to the emergence of a culture of responsibility and empowerment.

This phase of the work would require mainly desk research and a few interviews.
Concrete outcome of Stage One: A ten-page study with an executive summary.

Month 3-6: STAGE TWO

Stage 2: Research on western and post-communist content regulation philosophies, policies, institutions and processes

Topics to be covered:

1. Introduction:Broadcast regulation in a historical perspective with special attention to content regulation

Part I: Western Experiences

2. Content regulation forms in broadcast: An assessment
The British experience: Codes of conduct, media councils, self regulation, statutory law, Broadcasting Act of 1990, Independent Television Commission, Broadcasting Standards Commission. The BBC. Claims for a stronger media law: Pros and cons. Complaints and their results.
Similar US (FCC) and European experiences (Council of Europe resolution, EU media directives)
3. Recent developments, future trends and debates
4. Content regulation in the West in the context of self-regulation.

Part II: Post-communist experiences

5. Introduction: Broadcast freedom and regulation in Central Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland)
6. Hungarian content regulation practices and institutions (Broadcasting Act, National Radio and Television Commission, its Complaints Committee), and their counterparts in Poland and the Czech Republic.
7. Media policy (especially content regulation) agenda in the three countries in the context EU accession requirements.
8. Traditions and contemporary practices of journalistic professional independence, responsibility and self-regulation in the region.

This phase of the work would require desk research, field work at media corporations, think tanks and professional organizations, and a research and consultation with representatives of the Independent Television Commission and the Broadcasting Standards Commission in London.
Concrete outcome of Stage Two: A twenty-page study with an executive summary.

Month 7-11: STAGE THREE

Stage 3: Preparing an initiative outline for feasible mechanisms of journalistic self regulation in the broadcast media

An important premise of the whole research project is that content controversies and their regulations cannot be handled by eloquent but dusty, top-of-the-shelf journalistic ethical codes, or by sophisticated media legislations. A long-term solution of content controversies can be achieved only through a self-regulatory process with the active particiaption of the journalists’ community, their organizations, the media regulation institutions and another key players in the field. Self-regulation can only be achieved through empowerment, however: Media workers and their organizations will behave in a more responsible way only if the consequences of their self-constraint will represent strength and authority (rather than losing and weakness.)

Based on the work done in the previous two stages of the research, we will start this phase of the work with two sets of materials:

Firstly, we will have a set of recommendations based on a cultural analysis of particular television texts.
Secondly, we will have an authoritative policy analysis describing contemporary media content regulation practices in Central Europe and in Western Europe.

These documents will constitute a basis for the third stage of the research which will contain the following two steps:

1. Consulting journalists, media corporations, media policy experts, and policy makers regarding findings of the first two stages of the research. These consulted professionals will share their stand on content issues and on business-production concerns in the context of commercial and public service television environments. This work will include organizing roundtables, and the organization of a network of organizations and individuals showing concern or interest in the research subject. This particular phase of the work will simply clarify with the participation of researchers, policy experts, documentary directors, media corporation representatives, journalists and their organizations the following questions:

What kind of television representation of poverty is desirable in a free country?
Which are the obstacles that make this experience hard to attain?
Who are responsible to overcome those obstacles above?
Who needs what to overcome those obstacles above?

2. Based on this previous step, concluding policy recommendations will be formulated in the following areas:

Where it is desirable and attainable, clear and simple content regulation standards should be operationalized in currently functioning regulatory bodies.
Those consensual content standards should infiltrate into television production units and editorial offices through awareness raising, professional training, and professional appreciation of outstanding results.
Reformulating journalistic ethical standards in terms of their content and their role in the production process.
Reorganizing media monitoring activities with the participation of current or future organizations.
Organizing in-service training for television professionals with the help of journalists’ organizations.
In order to achieve a more critical reception of television texts, an assessment of current elementary and secondary school visual education curricula would be desirable.
An assessment of application possibilities of the research findings to another Central and Eastern European media, audiences and policies.
Connecting these proposed initiatives to existing Soros Network activities in the region.

This phase of the work would require a smaller amount of desk research, and an extensive amount of cooperation and networking with media professionals, and their their organizations.
Concrete outcomes of Stage Three: (1) A twenty-page study with an executive summary. (2) A basic framework of a network of media professionals, their organizations, representatives of the academia and the interested public.

Month 12: STAGE FOUR

This phase of the work will contain the following steps:

Preparation of a concluding study on the research and initiative reflecting to their strengths and weaknesses.
An evaluation of the research with the participation of the IPF staff, professional peer review, and the consulted media organizations’ representatives.
An inquiry among donor organizations for funding certain proposals of the initiative part of the project.

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