Declaring public TV’s mission: ‘unifying force in American culture’
Leaders of pubTV's affinity groups have drafted and endorsed a new vision and mission statement for public television. Sixty station chiefs petitioned the PBS Board to adopt it as guidance for the network's strategic planning.
The vision statement updates the traditional mission of public TV by describing its importance in an increasingly fragmented, hypercommercialized environment. It also calls on the field to extend its core values of education, noncommercialism, localism and universal access to new digital platforms.
During the PBS Membership Meeting, Feb. 23 [2004] in Arlington, Va., station execs will vote on a resolution describing the statement as a "shared vision" for public TV.
Last December reps of public TV's five affinity groups — the National Educational Telecommunications Association, Major Market Group, Organization of State Broadcasting Executives, Small Station Association and Program Resource Group — began drafting the statement as the first step in systemwide planning talks convened by CPB (Current, Nov. 17, 2003).
"Our system is so diverse that it's very hard to hammer out strategic planning that will fit everybody," said Deborah Onslow, NETA chairman and president of WMHT in Albany, N.Y. "CPB decided the way to start out would be a ground-up effort" led by the affinity groups that represent various public TV interests, she added.
Affinity group leaders aimed to find common values shared by public TV's notoriously fractious licensee groups. "That the major market and small station groups would sign onto the same document is pretty amazing," commented CPB President Robert Coonrod.
"It was very hard to get something on which we could all agree,"
said Onslow. "This gives me hope for a systemwide planning process that
will also win approval."
Proposed public TV mission statement
Why public television?
Public television is the only universally accessible national resource that uses the power and accessibility of television to educate, enlighten and inform. Because of its public service mission, public television is more essential than ever in the cluttered media landscape.
In a world of commercial media conglomerates, public television is the only locally owned television provider in most communities. Its array of education and outreach services, combined with local ownership, means that public television stations are actively engaged in their communities, creating content and providing services that respond to local needs.
Because the goal of commercial television is to maximize profits by attracting as many viewers as possible to expose them to advertising, its programming philosophy is driven by ratings as a key measure of its success. Public television, on the other hand, strives for impact and measures its success by the extent of its ability to educate and inform, to enlighten and entertain. In short, public television strives to:
Mission statement for digital PTV
Digital technology offers new opportunities to support a public service mission
that serves the American people. Public television will use digital technology
over multiple platforms to:
Vision
Digital public television will be an essential part of our national and community life. Rooted in and deeply engaged with local communities, it will achieve the financial stability required to provide services to all Americans. Its programming and other digital services will be a unifying force in American culture, a lens through which we can view and understand our diverse nation and the world.
Web page posted Feb. 10, 2004
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