People
Alan Montecillo: ‘I want people to know that we give a damn about them’
The idea of publicly funded newsrooms rooted in local communities had never occurred to Montecillo until he volunteered at a public media station.
Current (https://current.org/series/i-am-public-media/)
This year, as Current marks the 50th anniversary of the Public Broadcasting Act, we are illuminating the experiences that inspired people to choose to work in public media. Every week, we’re sharing their stories using the hashtag #IAmPublicMedia. Current is also collecting longer contributions, like these stories. If you’d like us to feature your story, submit it here.
The idea of publicly funded newsrooms rooted in local communities had never occurred to Montecillo until he volunteered at a public media station.
A career change taught this social media manager that “art can help us make sense of the world and even lead better lives.”
Over his 18 years in public radio, Rob Sachs has aimed to keep listeners both informed and engaged.
We snapped photos at public media events throughout 2017 to answer that question.
“I hope to diversify the voices that we hear on the air. I don’t just mean somebody telling my cultura stories, but also my other brothers and sisters from other cultures.”
“One of the functions of culture is to help us assign meaning and thereby establish values. If we wish to rebalance our social process, we must act within the cultural arena.”
Public media means “bringing the community closer together through all of the amazing stories that we have on a daily basis.”
As the son of a commercial broadcaster, Michael Marcotte gained insight into the trappings and excesses of the ad-driven industry. Public broadcasting’s authenticity was refreshingly subversive, he writes.
“I love the fact that as a journalist, I can get outside of my comfort zone and meet people who don’t look like me or sound like me.”
“When I think about public media, I think about what Frantz Fanon said: ‘What matters is not to know the world but to change it.'”