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The article considers political scientist Jay G. Blumler's assertion that public broadcasters should explicitly and elaborately define the forms of services they intend to offer. He calls for the development of a monitoring system with a view to correcting the potential erosion of the values upheld by political broadcasters. Other topics discussed include political influence, independence of public service media, and the rise of misinformation.

A weeklong diary study (N = 460) into the exposure to news of Belgian (Flemish) adult media users (aged 25–45) shows that their information consumption is currently relatively diverse. An explanation for the observed diversity is that news consumers in Dutch-speaking Belgium have a wide array of internally balanced news titles and channels at their disposal, which they also actively consult. In addition, the study demonstrates that news consumption patterns span across all media platforms. This study thus illustrates that there is a weak influence of ideological attitudes and psychosocial dispositions on news consumption, measured in time of consumption per media title or channel. These findings call for a revision of theories of selective exposure that disregard the influence that the diversity of information supply can have on the selection procedures of recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]