Is Anyone Listening? Audience Engagement through Public Media Related to the Scottish Independence Referendum

Irati Agirreazkuenaga-Onaindia, Ainara Larrondo-Ureta and Simón Peña-Fernández
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Irati Agirreazkuenaga-Onaindia: Department of Journalism II, School of Social and Communication Sciences, University of the Basque, 48940 Lejona, Vizcaya, Spain
Ainara Larrondo-Ureta: Department of Journalism II, School of Social and Communication Sciences, University of the Basque, 48940 Lejona, Vizcaya, Spain
Simón Peña-Fernández: Department of Journalism II, School of Social and Communication Sciences, University of the Basque, 48940 Lejona, Vizcaya, Spain

Social Sciences, 2019, vol. 8, issue 9, 1-11

Abstract: This paper explores perspectives from which citizen participation in media debates on civic issues can be reconsidered by means of a review of the existing literature on this subject and a qualitative study of how one particular public service media programme facilitated audience engagement and involvement in public discussion leading up to a major political event. The first section provides a general discussion of what media organisations do to engage the public they serve on political and social issues, the challenge of stimulating audience involvement and the ways in which editors and producers attempt to give average citizens a voice on topics normally framed by elites. The second offers a case study based on semi-structured interviews and content analysis of public participation in Morning Call , a weekday British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Radio Scotland phone-in news and current affairs show (the only programme of its type broadcast in Scotland) during the run-up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Focus has been placed on determining what programmes of this nature can and cannot achieve in terms of civic engagement and which practices implemented by public broadcasting networks best stimulate audience engagement.

Keywords: participation; public media; BBC Scotland; phone-ins; Scottish independence referendum (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:8:y:2019:i:9:p:246-:d:260546

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