Public Media and Political Independence
America is unique in its nearly complete reliance on commercial media to present comprehensive information about government and politics, to hold political and business elites to account through critical commentary and investigative reporting, and to provide a forum for a broad range of voices and viewpoints.
At around $420 million in federal funds per year, the United States has one of the lowest-funded public media systems in the developed world. The federal government allocates a paltry $1.39 per person each year to maintain the system, compared to more than 70 times that amount in Finland and nearly 80 times that amount in Denmark.
What can we learn from other nations' investment in public and noncommercial media? How do they fund and protect the autonomy of journalism and public media? What kind of journalism do these nations produce?
"Public Media and Political Independence: Lessons for the Future of Journalism from Around the World" by Rodney Benson and Matthew Powers is a first of its kind inventory of 14 democratic nations and the concrete policies they use to support journalism and protect journalists from political and commercial influence.
We encourage you to join the discussion. Click here to read the executive summary and add your thoughts.
Click here to download the entire report or read individual country profiles online:
We released this research at an event hosted by New York University. You can watch video of international public media scholars discussing the researching here. In advance of releasing this report we circulated it to a number of international public media scholars and journalists. Below you will find a growing list of responses to this report.
- "Switching development tracks?"
Silvio Waisbord, George Washington University - "The Need for an International Conversation about the Future of Journalism."
James Curran, Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre, University of London - "Defining the Problem to Strengthen the Solution."
John Lloyd, The Financial Times and the Reuters Institute at Oxford - "Informed critical citizens: this is why Scandinavians support public media."
Karina Horsti, University of Helsinki - "Independent public media – and what they mean for democracy"
Hartmut Wessler, University of Mannheim
Tell PBS and NPR to reject political ads!
A U.S. appeals court recently struck down a ban on political ads on public broadcasting. Tell PBS and NPR to reject political ads!
