NEEDS AND WANTS - THE CASE OF BROADCASTING POLICY

In this article I identify two broad perspectives on broadcasting poli cy, each deploying very different assumptions regarding the role of po licy in facilitating human well-being. I argue that an increasingly in fluential wants-based position draws upon an impoverished social ontol ogy which is unable to sustain the distinction between wants and under lying needs. I also argue that the previously dominant beyond-wants pe rspective failed to elaborate its own contrasting presuppositions suff iciently. Drawing upon a perspective developed within economics under the heading of critical realism, I emphasize that needs can be formula ted as goals only under definite historical conditions. As such, they may be poorly and even misleadingly formulated. Specifically, real nee ds can be manifest in a variety of historically contingent wants, whic h may then be met by any of a multitude of potential satisfiers. The p oint insisted upon here is that the two, real needs and expressed want s, should not be conflated. By maintaining this distinction it is poss ible to evaluate broadcasting systems not simply in terms of their abi lity to match outputs to wants but in terms of criteria beyond wants.