New Public Media

It’s critical now, more than ever, for public access TV and public broadcasters to explore partnerships. Public access, or PEG, TV lacks the audience and public support enjoyed by public broadcasters. Public broadcasters need local support from residents and organizations that benefit from PEG access TV services. Most importantly, both PEG access TV and public broadcasters need to reconcile the fact that viewers and producers are moving online.

In order to bridge this public media divide, the reasons the divide exists in the first place need to be addressed. Here’s my hunch:

• Public broadcasters don’t take PEG access TV seriously
• PEG access TV advocates believe public broadcasting does not truly represent the public

Bridging the public media divide

The Center for Social Media’s report, “Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Public” explains that building Public Media 2.0 requires:

A trusted national network to coordinate communication and media practices; funding for content creation, curation, and archiving; partnerships among outlets, makers, and allies; and the standards and measurements that providers of public media uphold, whether they are or are not direct participants in the national platform.

Together, public broadcasters (Pubcasters) and community media makers (PEG access TV, community radio, youth media, etc.) can help create a public media system that’s greater than the sum of its parts. For example, community media makers could provide pubcasters with media production equipment and training facilities to help create dynamic and engaged public media creators. As the “Public Media 2.0” report explains:

Community media makers—such as low-power FM and cable access stations, independent TV and radio stations, and youth media outlets—are often already primed to train and support those interested in making their own media.

Community Media and Technology Centers are trusted institutions in many local communities. They are uniquely positioned to serve youth, seniors, poor people, immigrant communities, communities of color, and other historically disenfranchised groups with access to media and digital literacy training. They should receive public support to do so—ideas that build upon the Federal Communications Commission’s proposal to create a Digital Literacy Corps, the National Black Programming Consortium’s Public Media Corps, and the Transmission Project’s Digital Arts Service Corps.

PEG access TV centers already serve the information and communication needs of communities through these services. But in recent years, the shift from local to statewide franchising laws has left many PEG centers without adequate funding and support. That’s why both community and public media supporters need to tell Congress to Preserve Community Access. And with the crisis facing journalism, both community and public media supporters need to support new policies for public media that will better fund the creation of local journalism from a diverse range of sources and address the information needs of communities.

Public Media 2.0: The future of local news?

Public media partnerships between Public broadcasters and PEG access TV makers might also help to reinvigorate the sad state of the news media today and pave the way for conversation, curation, creation and collaboration to happen across public media organizations. Many PEG access TV centers are already exploring similar models by launching their own citizen journalism projects.

Many community media centers can provide residents with low-cost/high-quality journalism training, either through in-house experience or professionals within the community. Pubcasters can help expand news content distribution and archiving beyond Cable Access Television. As Jessica Clark mentions in her recent article for MediaShift, the CPB-funded National Center for Media Engagement (NCME) has developed a framework for strengthening impact through effective community engagement. The NCME guide is a perfect tool for public and community media makers interested in building successful partnerships across local organizations.

This proposal is extremely timely given the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s recent announcement to launch their new local journalism initiative. Pat Aufderheide at the Center for Social Media explains the project:

The job is to build networks of participation and collaboration in making local news and making it meaningful . . . They will have to be built across lines of class, ethnicity, and culture. Once connected, they will also be networks full of people who don’t have any real practice in responsive, respectful, informed engagement on gnarly topics. Public broadcasting is in new territory here. But it’s great territory to be in.

Much of this is new territory for Public broadcasters, but not for community media makers. PEG access TV centers have worked with communities to provide ways for citizens to engage in civic life & strengthen their communities through media for over 30 years.

As the FCC begins to investigate the Future of Media, it is important for public media makers, including folks from PEG access TV and Public Broadcasting, to explore opportunities for partnerships.

Let the collaboration begin.

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Colin Rhinesmith is Community Media & Technology Manager for Cambridge Community Television and Adjunct Lecturer for the Media & Culture Program at Bentley University.