Expanding Inclusion Through Co-Creating Public Broadcasting Digital Media Platforms with Community Groups

Many public broadcasters in the UK and around the world have formal commitments to serve the public. These responsibilities may be outlined in charters, such as those of the ABC and BBC, or enforced through external regulators like OFCOM in the UK. However, current media does not reach all audiences and the equitable provision of public media remains a challenge for the BBC as the world's largest broadcaster by number of employees. As the BBC produces a range of media to meet their charter mission to "inform, educate and entertain", reduced engagement could mean missing out on not only entertainment-focussed, but also educational content. It is therefore desirable to increase engagement for underserved people. Public service media can have the potential to enrich the lives of individuals if they can provide content that gives value, but only if public broadcasters are able to reach and engage them.

Within the Northeast of England, employment rates and economic productivity are below average for England, while free school meal rates for disadvantaged families are above average. However, individuals may find support through third sector organisations, such as place-based community groups. For community groups that may be struggling following the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, external support could be beneficial in strengthening their bonds and building resilience. In addition to potential benefits for audiences, connections with underserved people would aid the BBC's creative remit to "reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom's nations and regions and support the creative economy". A digital technology service could help the BBC to serve community groups and tailor content to their needs.

Given what was discussed above, this research will investigate the role a digital BBC service could play in supporting place-based community groups and will aim to answer the following question and sub-questions:

1. How can public services broadcasters such as the BBC serve place-based community group needs?
1.1. What type of relations do communities want with the BBC?
1.2. How can we ensure that the future of digital public media is inclusive?
1.3. How can digital technology support community engagement with public service media?

This research will take a human-centred design approach, as individuals in community groups who are disenfranchised may not be properly represented due to the nature of their disenfranchisement, so their experiences are a key part of the research. Since existing research has found digital media services with personalisation can be seen in positive light, but also as an annoyance and as a concern relating to autonomy, the inclusion of participants in decision-making is especially desirable.

The first study will begin with workshops with community groups in the Northeast to map the problem space and understand their experiences of marginalisation relating to public media. This study will also include interviews or workshops with individuals in the public media sector to explore their perspectives on engaging communities. Following this, a co-design process will begin to give community participants a voice in the development of service concepts. I will then use iterative prototyping based on the concepts, after which I will deploy a prototype with the participants as a technology probe. The purpose of this technology probe is not to produce a solution in itself, but to act as a research artefact to learn about the concept. Informed by the results of this research, further co-design will be used to iterate second and third deployments, which will each include a prototype I produce as a technology probe based on the co-designed concepts. The goal of these subsequent deployments is to explore and adapt the concept to the needs of other groups and might involve significant changes.