Broadcasting for real reflection of society

In the September 2020, a new broadcaster emerged within the Dutch Public Service Broadcasting system (PBS), called Omroep ZWART (OZ). In a year with major events like Covid-19 and the rise of BLM protests in the Netherlands, the goal of this new broadcaster was to challenge the existing dominant narratives that we fostered within Dutch society to improve diversity and inclusivity. The broadcaster was founded by Akwasi Ansah and Gianni Lieuw-A-Soe. Their mission is clearly presented in their introduction video: ‘to give new heroes the power to build a home for all and to give the word “zwart” (in English: black) a positive connotation. When OZ got officially accepted into the Dutch PBS in 2022, the broadcaster faced both support and criticism. Critics argued that it was unnecessary to start a separate new broadcaster that focused on diversity and inclusivity, or that the broadcaster did not create enough counter-voice to the dominant narratives. Despite these criticisms, OZ maintained to commit to their mission to create a home for the whole Dutch society where everyone feels represented. This study aims to answer the following research question: how does Omroep ZWART position itself within the Dutch public service broadcasting system? To help answer this question, two sub questions are posed: 1) what are the motivations of the founders of OZ to create a new broadcaster? and 2) how is this view interpreted, implemented, and justified in OZ’s main policy and published communication on their website? Using a case-study approach that includes an archival analysis and a qualitative content analysis (QCA), the research addresses the motivations behind the establishment of the broadcaster and how these are reflected in their policy documents and the published communication in the form of articles that are published on the website of OZ. For the first sub question, archival analysis was conducted to get a better understanding of the motivations of the founders to start OZ. For the second sub question, QCA was conducted to analyze how the motivations were interpreted, implemented, and justified in their communication efforts. The key findings of this research have shown that OZ positions itself as a transformative broadcaster within the Dutch PBS. They have established this position by strongly committing to represent voices in the media that have been neglected, deeply engage with their audience, align with social movements like BLM, and the goal to educate Dutch society on urgent societal topics.