Public Access Television

Public Access Television
Author: Laura Linder
Publisher: Praeger
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1999-07-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0275964884

As Laura Linder asserts, increased concentration of media ownership has resulted in the homogenization of public discourse. Packaged, commercialized messages have replaced the personalized and localized opinions necessary for the uninhibited marketplace of ideas envisioned in the First Amendment. Narrowcast outlets such as talk radio give vent to individual voices, but only to a limited, predefined audience. The media have led a social shift toward splintering and compartmentalization, away from pluralism and consensus. Public access television provides an alternative to this trend, requiring active public participation in the process of developing community-based programming through the dominant medium of television. Today, more than 2,000 public access television centers exist in the United States, producing more than 10,000 hours of original, local programming every week. But public access television remains underutilized, even as deregulation and growing interest in other telecommunications delivery systems pose a potential threat to the long-term viability of public access television. In this comprehensive review of the background and development of public access television, Linder offers all the information needed to understand the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings as well as the nuts and bolts of public access television in the United States. Must reading for students and scholars involved with mass media in the United States and professionals in the television field.

A Future for Public Service Television

A Future for Public Service Television
Author: Des Freedman
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2018-05-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1906897719

A guide to the nature, purpose, and place of public service television within a multi-platform, multichannel ecology. Television is on the verge of both decline and rebirth. Vast technological change has brought about financial uncertainty as well as new creative possibilities for producers, distributors, and viewers. This volume from Goldsmiths Press examines not only the unexpected resilience of TV as cultural pastime and aesthetic practice but also the prospects for public service television in a digital, multichannel ecology. The proliferation of platforms from Amazon and Netflix to YouTube and the vlogosphere means intense competition for audiences traditionally dominated by legacy broadcasters. Public service broadcasters—whether the BBC, the German ARD, or the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation—are particularly vulnerable to this volatility. Born in the more stable political and cultural conditions of the twentieth century, they face a range of pressures on their revenue, their remits, and indeed their very futures. This book reflects on the issues raised in Lord Puttnam's 2016 Public Service TV Inquiry Report, with contributions from leading broadcasters, academics, and regulators. With resonance for students, professionals, and consumers with a stake in British media, it serves both as historical record and as a look at the future of television in an on-demand age. Contributors include Tess Alps, Patrick Barwise, James Bennett, Georgie Born, Natasha Cox, Gunn Enli, Des Freedman, Vana Goblot, David Hendy, Jennifer Holt, Amanda D. Lotz, Sarita Malik, Matthew Powers, Lord Puttnam, Trine Syvertsen, Jon Thoday, Mark Thompson

Public Radio and Television in America

Public Radio and Television in America
Author: Ralph Engelman
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 355
Release: 1996-04-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0803954077

Overview of public radio and television in the United States

Television Form and Public Address

Television Form and Public Address
Author: John Corner
Publisher: Hodder Education
Total Pages: 200
Release: 1995-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780340567531

Television Form and Public Address asks fundamental questions about the nature of what appears on the screen and how it variously engages, informs and entertains viewers. After setting out some of the distinctive features of the medium, illustrated by examples, the question of the likely and possible political consequences of these features is directly addressed. Chapters on the specific but changing forms of news, documentary and advertising provide a detailed analysis of some of television's most controversial ways of addressing the viewer variously as citizen and consumer.

The Decline of Public Access and Neo-Liberal Media Regimes

The Decline of Public Access and Neo-Liberal Media Regimes
Author: Brian Caterino
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2020-04-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030394034

This book examines the reasons behind the declining fortunes of public access channels. Public access, which provided perhaps the boldest experiment in popular media democracy, is in steep decline. While some have argued it is technologically outmoded, Caterino argues that the real reason lies with the rise of a neo-liberal media regime. This regime creates a climate in which we can understand these changes. This book considers the role of neo-liberalism in transforming notions of public obligations and regulation of media that have impacted non-profit media, specifically public access. Neo-liberalism has tried to eliminate public forums and public discourse and weakens institutions of civil society. Though social media is often championed as an arena of communicative freedom, Caterino argues that neo-liberalism has created a colonized social media environment that severely limits popular democracy.

Television Studies: The Key Concepts

Television Studies: The Key Concepts
Author: Ben Calvert
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2005-07-28
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 113469248X

The definitive reference guide to an area of rapidly expanding academic interest this comprehensive and up-to-date guide looks at: theoretical perspectives; narrative, representation, bias; television genres; content analysis, audience research and relevant social, economic and political phenomena.

Public Television

Public Television
Author: B. J. Bullert
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 1997
Genre: Documentary films
ISBN: 9780813524702

Public television's original mandate required it to address issues of controversy and facilitate the inclusion of voices and perspectives from outside the established consensus. Through detailed chronology, the author of this text traces how far this obligation has been met.

Television and the Public Sphere

Television and the Public Sphere
Author: Peter Dahlgren
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1995-10-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780803989238

In this broad-ranging text, Peter Dahlgren clarifies the underlying theoretical concepts of civil society and the public sphere, and relates these to a critical analysis of the practice of television as journalism, as information and as entertainment. He demonstrates the limits and the possibilities of the television medium and the formats of popular journalism. These issues are linked to the potential of the audience to interpret or resist messages, and to construct its own meanings. What does a realistic understanding of the functioning and the capabilities of television imply for citizenship and democracy in a mediated age?

Public Interests

Public Interests
Author: Allison Perlman
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2016-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0813572320

Winner of the 2017 Outstanding Book Award from the Popular Communication Division of the International Communication Association (ICA) Nearly as soon as television began to enter American homes in the late 1940s, social activists recognized that it was a powerful tool for shaping the nation’s views. By targeting broadcast regulations and laws, both liberal and conservative activist groups have sought to influence what America sees on the small screen. Public Interests describes the impressive battles that these media activists fought and charts how they tried to change the face of American television. Allison Perlman looks behind the scenes to track the strategies employed by several key groups of media reformers, from civil rights organizations like the NAACP to conservative groups like the Parents Television Council. While some of these campaigns were designed to improve the representation of certain marginalized groups in television programming, as Perlman reveals, they all strove for more systemic reforms, from early efforts to create educational channels to more recent attempts to preserve a space for Spanish-language broadcasting. Public Interests fills in a key piece of the history of American social reform movements, revealing pressure groups’ deep investments in influencing both television programming and broadcasting policy. Vividly illustrating the resilience, flexibility, and diversity of media activist campaigns from the 1950s onward, the book offers valuable lessons that can be applied to current battles over the airwaves.