Public service broadcasting and minorities : investigating Radio 3 in Hong Kong

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the government appointed public service broadcaster (PSB) in Hong Kong. Following a review of Public Service Broadcasting in 2007 the Hong Kong Government issued a charter that required the broadcaster to serve minority audiences. The new charter replaced a previous agreement that also included provisions for serving minorities. The charter holds similar values to RTHK’s corporate mission statement. This thesis focuses on a group of non-Chinese Hong Kong residents who are linked by the use of English as a lingua franca. English is one of three official languages in Hong Kong. The researcher investigates whether RTHK’s sole all-English local radio channel, Radio 3, includes or excludes Hong Kong’s South Asian community in its programming. A multi-method approach including questionnaires, focus groups, interviews and a content analysis is used. The findings show that Radio 3 needs to realign itself with the English speaking community of Hong Kong in order to fulfill its role as a PSB.