Public service media and national resilience in the age of information disorders: a two-dimensional conceptualization for policy-making

Abstract

In recent crises, domestic and international discussions on national security and resilience have been marked by significant concern about information disorders eroding societal trust. With the influence of social media, this phenomenon has spread to various aspects of life and broad audiences, whether it is about well-being and health safety or political propaganda from foreign powers. Policy-makers and other stakeholders have begun to seek means to strengthen national and regional resilience to such information disorders. Recent studies indicate that resilience against disinformation depends on various national societal, political, and media-system-related characteristics—and a robust public servive media (PSM) seems to be one of the concrete structural aspects defining highly resilient societies. This chapter discusses PSM as a part of national resilience-building with an understanding that resilience depends both on content providers (information resilience as a structural characteristic of society) and information users (epistemic resilience as an individual’s communicative, knowledge-related capacities and capabilities to participate in society). PSM have a special role as the former to strengthen the latter.