Current (https://current.org/series/future-of-public-media/)
Fifty years after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act into law, the American media landscape has transformed in ways that visionaries, pioneers and advocates for nationally funded “public telecommunications services” scarcely imagined. Yet their ideals for a system that takes “creative risks and that addresses the needs of unserved and underserved audiences” endure. In a special series reflecting on this milestone anniversary, essayists with insight into today’s public broadcasting system share ideas for carrying the legacy into the future.
“All of us cultivating the podcasting space can certainly do our part” to keep the Public Broadcasting Act’s goals “active and audible,” writes Radiotopia’s executive producer.
“Our very DNA — its code written in the words of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 — confirmed we were different.”
“The work of introducing new ideas often feels like a test that will be judged by a trusted few.”
The decentralized, financially dependent structure of public broadcasting is “a feature, not a bug.”
A former chief executive of the BBC argues that public-service broadcasting will only become more important as media continue to expand on digital platforms.
“The challenge for this period is fusing the strengths and public support of traditional public media with the energy and competencies of new entrants and civic institutions outside of media.”
As public media heads into its next 50 years, shifting strategies to focus on content “will require a hard turn and painful decisions that affect finances, people and structures.”
“Public media is especially crucial now, both to seek objective truth and to envision a sustainable model for the future of local journalism.”