An Institutional History of Public Broadcasting

Avery, Robert K.; Pepper, Robert

doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.1980.tb01999.x

Cited by 19 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Within the commercial broadcasting field, public television has been a weak competitor since the formation of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 1967 (Avery & Pepper, 1980;Rowland, 1976;Rowland, 1986;Rowland, 1993). PBS is a system of loose alliances among numerous local stations receiving PBS programming and funding from various federal and state agencies (Lashley, 1992).…”

Section: The Commercial Television Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public television as public sphere: The case of the Wisconsin collaborative project

Friedland

1995

Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Public television in the U.S. is examined as a public sphere institution through the case of the Wisconsin Collaborative Project (WCP), a programming cooperative contributing to the national PBS schedule. The prevailing model of the organizational field of public television is revised to analyze the expansion of horizontal exchange, diversity, and decentralization represented by the WCP, and thus the capacity of public television to fulfill its public sphere mission.The contentious debate on the structure of the public sphere in the capitalist democracies has begun to move into the field of mass communication, yet there are few empirical investigations of public sphere media institutions and their functions. By exploring the organizational constraints on the public television network and mid-sized stations through a case study of the Wisconsin Collaborative Project, this paper will show how decentralization in organizational structure has contributed to greater diversity in the public television system.The Wisconsin Collaborative Project (WCP) of Wisconsin Public Television was formally founded in 1992 to produce magazine-style news and public affairs programs for national distribution. The WCP weaves together contributions from small and medium-sized public television stations, and offers these programs to all stations via the PBS satellite system. Drawing from interviews and participant observation at Wisconsin Public Television from 1991 to the present, I show how the WCP emerged as a horizontal structure of exchange within the public television system, and argue that this structure augments democratic participation within that system.'This combination of organizational decentralization and diversification of both program content and contributors opens the public television system to greater participation, and in doing so fulfills several important preconditions for an expansion of public television into a more authentic public sphere institution. A central premise of this paper is that despite its limits, the U.S. public television system "weak public service provider embedded in a dominant commercial system" still provides a significant institutional network from which efforts at forging a broader public discourse might emerge. I do not claim that public television per se constitutes a public sphere, much less the Wisconsin Collaborative Project in isolation. Rather, I attempt to show how public space can and Lewis A. Friedland (Ph.D., Brandeis University, 1985) is Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include the empirical structure of the contemporary public sphere, electronic communication networks, and social networks and community structure. This manuscript was accepted for publication in December 1994.

show abstract

Section: The Commercial Television Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public television as public sphere: The case of the Wisconsin collaborative project

Friedland

1995

Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Rather, research has focused on the role of public radio, the challenges facing the medium, and funding (Avery & Pepper, 1980;Gray, 1986;Leidman & Lamberski, 1985;Miller, 1968;Mullally, 1980). Other research has examined programming and audience-measuring methods (Agostino, 1975;Bluebond, 1982;Stavitsky, 1994;Williams, 1977;Williams & Krugman, 1981;Williams & LeRoy, 1976;Woel, 1985).…”

Section: Background Literature and Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 96%

Listener‐member perceptions of marketing strategies employed by public radio stations

Piper‐Aiken

1997

Journal of Radio Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study measured the attitudes of public radio listener-contributors regarding listener-focused marketing strategies used by public radio stations. Four hundred forty-two questionnaires from Northern Colorado and Central Michigan were returned. Overall, respondents expressed a positive attitude toward on-air fund-raising. Although they held a slightly negative opinion of on-air pledge appeals, these negative responses were offset by positive responses about the perceived need for such fund-raising. Respondents appreciated receiving direct mail from their radio station, but were strongly opposed to telephone contacts. They also agreed that underwriting announcements sound more like commercials than in the past.

show abstract

“…This was one of the arguments for creating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as a "nonprofit corporation" that would "not be an agency or establishment of the United States Government" (47 U.S.C. 396) (Avery and Pepper 1980). Other factors began to erode the unitary-executive model, such as greater dependence on third parties, usually private contractors, to do the government's work (Kettl 1993).…”

Section: The Public Law Tradition and Political Accountabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Emerging Federal Quasi Government: Issues of Management and Accountability

Moe¹

2001

Public Administration Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There has been a growing trend in the federal government toward reliance on organizations that commingle legal attributes of the government and private sectors. These hybrid organizations now constitute a quasi government that occasions both interest and concern by political leaders, practitioners, and scholars alike because these organizations touch the very heart of democratic governance: To whom are these hybrids accountable? How well is the public interest being protected against the interests of private parties?

show abstract

An Institutional History of Public Broadcasting

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Public television as public sphere: The case of the Wisconsin collaborative project

Public television as public sphere: The case of the Wisconsin collaborative project

Listener‐member perceptions of marketing strategies employed by public radio stations

The Emerging Federal Quasi Government: Issues of Management and Accountability

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About