Resources
On the Chopping Block: State Budget Battles and the Future of Public Media
Since 2008, budget battles at the state level have eroded funding for public broadcasters around the country. Free Press and SaveTheNews.org have completed the first inventory of state funding cuts and examined the impact these cuts have had on local stations.
Public Media and Political Independence: Lessons for the Future of Journalism from Around the World
This report surveys the public media policies and structures of 14 democratic nation-states around the world, and how they fund and protect the autonomy of journalism and public media. The results are encouraging. Public media in every nation examined provide more and higher quality public affairs programming and a greater diversity of genres and unique perspectives than their commercial counterparts. Publicly subsidized newspapers are just as or more critical of government than their advertising-subsidized competitors.
Public Media's Moment
This report outlines the true potential of a new public media system in America. Public Media's Moment examines the role of public media in our society in the midst of tremendous political and technological opportunities. With an eye toward narrowing the range of policy options on the table, the report outlines a visionary-yet-viable agenda to bolster and expand public media that is diverse, participatory and meets the information needs of today's communities.
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New Public Media: A Plan for Action
This new report presents a series of creative policies and proposes reforms to support quality news reporting in local communities and to build a world-class noncommercial media system in America. New Public Media: A Plan for Action urges the creation of a trust fund seeded with a substantial endowment to supplement annual congressional appropriations and ultimately to enable the system to be completely self-sufficient. The report details a number of ways to support such a trust, including spectrum fees, a spectrum auction, a small tax on advertising, changes to the way advertising is treated in the tax code, or a small assessment on consumer electronic devices. In addition to proposing funding reforms, the report further explores a number of other ways to strengthen public media’s role in our society, including new leadership and structure for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, an expanded definition of who qualifies for funding, and new standards for community engagement and station performance.
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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!
