Skip to content
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Staff
  • Pay an Invoice
  • Write for Current
  • Editorial Policy
  • Contact
  • logo
  • logo
  • Programs/Content
  • People
  • Development
  • System/Policy
  • Tech
  • Jobs
  • Sponsored Posts
  • Pubmedia Business Directory
  • Job Description Depot
  • More
    • About
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Donate
    • Staff
    • Pay an Invoice
    • Write for Current
    • Editorial Policy
    • Contact

Current - For people in public media

Current (https://current.org/series/rewind)

  • Programs/Content
  • People
  • Development
  • System/Policy
  • Tech
  • Jobs
  • Sponsored Posts
  • Pubmedia Business Directory
  • Job Description Depot
  • Don't Miss
  • Pipeline 2023
  • Leadership in Pubmedia
  • Audience of Tomorrow
  • DEI
  • Public Media Salaries
  • Focus on Membership
  • Local that Works
  • Webinars
  • Crosswords

Rewind: The Roots of Public Media

ShareTweet EmailPrint

This series features scholars of media history looking back at both familiar and lesser-known chapters in public broadcasting’s evolution. “Rewind” is presented in partnership with the Radio Preservation Task Force, an initiative of the Library of Congress.

History of public media

New Deal docudramas provide ‘missing link’ in history of educational radio

By David Goodman, Professor of History (University of Melbourne) and Joy Elizabeth Hayes, Associate Professor of Communication Studies (University of Iowa, Iowa City) | April 6, 2022

In the 1930s, dramatized documentaries produced by the U.S. Office of Education went beyond factual content to foster a desire for civic engagement among listeners.

History of public media

How digging through archives brought the story of NPR’s ‘Founding Mothers’ to life

By Lisa Napoli, Author, "Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR" | January 21, 2022

“Writing a biography of a person or place, much less four people and a place as storied as NPR, is not for the faint of heart.”

Rewind: The Roots of Public Media

How public broadcasting overcame early setbacks to become a national institution

By Josh Shepperd, Assistant Professor (University of Colorado Boulder) | June 11, 2021

Public media’s mission was clear early on, but an emphasis on high-quality programming was needed to earn widespread support.

History of public media

After 50 years, NPR upholds public broadcasting’s founding values

By Bill Siemering, Senior Fellow (Wyncote Foundation) and Josh Shepperd, Assistant Professor (University of Colorado Boulder) | February 26, 2020

NPR was incorporated Feb. 26, 1970, marking a new stage in the growth of a public media system rooted in education.

Rewind: The Roots of Public Media

How the Works Progress Administration played a critical role in WNYC’s history

By Andy Lanset, Director (New York Public Radio Archives) | October 31, 2019

The New York station may not have survived the Great Depression without help from the federal government.

History of public media

With help from Peter Rabbit and fairy princesses, a pioneering educator showed how radio could teach

By Mary Myers | September 30, 2019

During his 35 years at Indiana State Teachers College — now Indiana State University — Clarence “Doc” Morgan also trained scores of future broadcasters.

Rewind: The Roots of Public Media

After 50 years on TV, has Sesame Street been gentrified?

By Tad Suiter, Adjunct Assistant Professor (CUNY) | August 27, 2019

To one viewer and parent, competitive pressures and fading institutional knowledge have compromised the show’s “gritty urban utopianism.”

Rewind: The Roots of Public Media

Looking back on the lesser-known histories of ‘Chicano Public Radio’

By Dolores Inés Casillas, Associate Professor (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Monica De La Torre, Assistant Professor (Arizona State University) | July 11, 2019

A group of bilingual radio stations founded in the late 1970s “helped distinguish Spanish-language and bilingual broadcasting as a form of advocacy.”

Rewind: The Roots of Public Media

How France’s national broadcaster bolstered U.S. public radio in its formative years

By Derek W. Vaillant, Professor of Communication and History (University of Michigan) | June 5, 2019

From the 1940s to the 1970s, dozens of U.S. public radio stations featured French cultural programming that “let us know that the French people like us and vice versa.”

Rewind: The Roots of Public Media

In 1970, riots and tear gas couldn’t sideline Ohio’s WOSU — but its licensee’s president did

By Tom Rieland, GM (WOSU Public Media) | May 14, 2019

“The tone of operations was business as usual in virtually every sense despite the strong waves of tear gas through the building.”

Load more posts

Know it all.
Get Current's
newsletter.

Featured Jobs

  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Staff
  • Pay an Invoice
  • Write for Current
  • Editorial Policy
  • Contact

Categories

Archives

Search Current

Current is an editorially independent, nonprofit service of the American University School of Communication. We're funded by your subscriptions, your donations, advertising, and a generous grant from the Wyncote Foundation.

<span>Current is a member of</span>

Copyright 2023. Current. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy policy
  • Terms and conditions
  • RSS feeds

Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News.

Back to top ↑