Elsa Costa e Silva, a researcher at CECS, has just been awarded the co-authorship of the article Public broadcasting service under austerity: Cross-comparison between Portugal and Spain, within the scope of the IACOBUS program of scientific publications.
This program rewards publications in quality magazines that involve at least two authors from Portugal and Galicia. Elsa Costa e Silva and María-Jesús Díaz-González are the authors of the article published in the International Communication Gazette, in April 2020.
In the paper, the researchers seek to identify and understand the changes produced in the Portuguese and Spanish public media under the austerity era (following the global financial crisis of 2007/2008), analysing the policy measures implemented, as well as the economic and rating performance of both public service broadcasters. The aim is to assess if external factors (such as external assistance) originated similar effects in both countries. Results show that, in spite of different funding and governance models adopted, both public services were heavily impacted in terms of revenues and ratings and that the austerity period provided the context to set up a neoliberal ideological point-of-view. Both public services lost legitimacy and their cultural and political role was undermined by a discussion that was grounded on economic factors alone.
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