Post-Hutton: So What�s Ofcom Asking People About PSB?

Ofcom�s PSB review is important. The Hutton Report makes it more so.

Obviously the review will cast its net wider than the BBC but it will undoubtedly impact and reverberate most significantly within that organisation. Charter Renewal is around the corner.

A key component to the review will be the input of citizen-consumers across the country. Certainly much has happened this week that will get people thinking about public service broadcasting. And it is important that this �raw data� is gathered and harnessed as part of the current review.

How Ofcom goes about doing this is crucial. As it stands, the regulator claims to have already surveyed 6000 (not sure of the statistical relevance of this number) people as part of its strategy for finding out ‘What Is Public Service Broadcasting’? People are asked how they define and value (economically and socially) PSB - using examples where appropriate.

The regulator is currently assessing the initial feedback, data which is already potentially undermined after the events this week.

This shouldn�t pose too much of a problem because Ofcom always intended to refine its survey and redistribute it after the initial feedback, so as to develop the depth of questioning and assess the reliability of its data.

However, in the post-Hutton world, significant accountability problems may now begin to emerge for Ofcom, problems which stem from the decision to keep the survey format and questions secret.

In my view this approach has always been contentious - after all it�s a public consultation isn�t it? So why only allow selected people to feed into the core of the review?

Indeed, I have batted a few e-mails back and forth with Ofcom over this issue. And it appears the rationale for secrecy lies in the belief that publishing the questions potentially dilutes the reliability of the evidence.

The thinking goes like this - if you release the survey potentially vested media outlets will suggest the answers and thereby influence the choices made by the recipients. Not sure how much ‘media effects’ research was conducted before this decision but the media regulator seem to believe that keeping things under wraps keeps them �pure� � thereby avoiding a result determined outside the survey sample.

You could of course also assess this decision and say that the regulator is assuming citizen-consumers aren�t able to think for themselves � ironic in light of Ofcom�s purported emphasis on consumer choice and markets rather than regulatory intervention.

With 6000 of these documents floating around � (this assumes that they are not going door to door) � it probably wouldn�t be that difficult to track down the questions. But that�s not really the point � it�s really all about the level of transparency in a now highly politicised arena.

Ofcom will likely proceed with collecting views about PSB as it has being doing so � compiling the information, assessing it, and correlating it in secret. If observers only get a look in once the decision and direction has been decided the consultation is effectively redundant, at least as a genuinely transparent and accountable piece of research.

In the wake of the Hutton Report the approach, line of questioning, methodology and conclusions drawn from this exercise require significant external scrutiny at the earliest opportunity if the review � (whatever the conclusion) - is to hold up in the new climate of distrust that now appears to exist between the media, government and the public.