Lately, I have seen an increase in the popularity of sharing personal stories on the radio. Public radio programs like This American Life (distributed by Public Radio International and aired on many National Public Radio stations nationwide), have demonstrated to a general audience the one-to-one potential of radio.
Stand aside, cable news networks. For seven years and running, PBS has clocked in at number one in public trust – and this year is no exception. Considering that the purpose of public media is to meet the needs of the public and not the shareholders, this poll is a good sign that PBS is on the right track.
Across the country, community media projects have been sprouting out of a dying traditional media system that has often failed to deliver what the public really wants: local news and information. Now, more than ever before, citizens are taking the media back, using this time of media chaos to forge ahead with news projects that serve their interests—regardless of whether they graduated from J-school or not.
Bob McChesney and John Nichols have called for the government to help promote more quality, “accountability” journalism. So have former Washington Post editor Leonard Downie, Jr., and journalism historian Michael Schudson, in their recent Columbia Journalism School-sponsored report.
We’ve got big ideas for what public media should look like in 2010 and beyond. And one of the greatest challenges ahead is to transform the existing model that revolves almost exclusively around public broadcasting stations into something broader and more inclusive that connects the many individuals and institutions across the country that are creating media in the public interest.
Community media – those locally owned radio stations, public access television channels, neighborhood nonprofit Web sites – are an essential resource. To better understand their strengths and needs in our ever changing media environment, Free Press is conducting an informal survey of community media makers. Given the troubling lack of localism and diversity in the mainstream media, community media makers become all the more important.
Last year practically burst at the seams with reports, conferences and other high-profile gatherings on the future of journalism. So what comes next? As one blog post summarized in December, “If 2009 was a year of study and debate about the future of journalism, 2010 must be a year of action.”
Those looking for a roadmap this year should turn to the latest analysis from Bob McChesney and John Nichols, whose new book, The Death and Life of American Journalism, kicks off the new decade with some sage advice: You want to save journalism? Take a history lesson, stop fear-mongering about government involvement in journalism, and get organized.
The first time I ever set foot inside a “public access” TV station was in 1997. I wanted to make a short documentary and found someone at Austin’s community television studio to help me.
It was such a novel concept to be able to borrow cameras, audio gear and editing equipment to tell a story.
After ten years, tens of thousands of petition signatures, and hundreds of phone calls -- the Local Community Radio Act was passed by the entire House of Representatives last night.
I’m still recovering from the spontaneous dance party that broke out a little after 7pm when we watched it go down on C-SPAN.
The second act of the Federal Trade Commission’s production of the latest off-Broadway hit, “Much Ado about the Future of Journalism,” came with a nice plot twist. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) kicked it off yesterday with a commendable soliloquy that pushed the market forces argument out of the spotlight by introducing suggestions for policy changes to promote a “vigorous” free press.
On Monday, a crowd of 150 leaders in journalism, philanthropy and business gathered in St. Paul, Minn., to address the crisis of declining local and regional journalism. The Future of News summit, hosted by American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio, tackled complex questions facing the worlds of commercial and public media alike.