Community Media and the Production of Public Value The necessity of making Civil Society part of Media production

Abstract: Integrating Civil Society in Media production seems central to a new Media policy paradigm, which emerges through the shift of state-regulation to democratic Media Governance. My analysis will start at defining the term „Public Value“ and the role of Civil Society in the process of producing it. Using Public Interest Theory, Complex Democratic Theory, the Principal Agent-model and the Voice-Exit model of Albert Hirschman I argue that integrating the public into Media Production is necessary to make it more democratic. The aim of this paper is to answer the question where, how and on which levels Civil Society should be integrated. I argue that the possibilities of Civil Society Integration into Content Production is limited when it comes to Public Service Broadcasting, but has many potential within the field of Community media. Drawing upon a model of Kees Brants and Yael de Haan, my thesis is that Civil Society has to be integrated rather at the level of regulation than of content production in PSB, but rather in the production level at Community Media.