Abstract This article revisits the concept of paternalism in Swedish public service broadcasting policy from 1935 to 1977, using six government commission reports as primary material. Rather than treating paternalism as a static and/or pejorative term, we explore how it was expressed in different forms—moral, cultural, welfare, and informational—over time. The analysis shows a shift from early emphasis on cultural uplift and moral guidance, to later concerns with welfare and democratic participation. Swedish broadcasting policy consistently reflected a consensus-oriented paternalism, in contrast to more directive paternalism of the early BBC. By tracing how paternalism was framed and justified in historical policy documents, we suggest that the concept still offers useful insights, particularly in understanding how public media can support informed citizenship in our contemporary fragmented media environment.
Båge et al. (Thu,) studied this question.