This book shows how disinformation spread by partisan organizations and media platforms undermines institutional legitimacy on which authoritative information depends.

The third in a series of reports since 1973, this overview of the growth of public broadcasting includes finance, public radio and television programming, national interconnection and instructional services, audience, and employment. It details the current status and major trends in the respective areas of public broadcasting in order to provide a better understanding of the industry by the general public; the public broadcasting community; Congress; federal, state and local governments; and other interested organizations and individuals. Contents cover the following areas: the development of public broadcasting, income and expenditures, programming content, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR), the public broadcasting audience, educational (instructional) services, and employment. Appendices, figures, tables, and maps which offer detailed data on the history and growth of public television and radio are included. (Author/MER)

Ralph Engelman′s history of the growth of public radio and television in America is timely, compelling, and instructive. Very useful for citizens who take seriously the need for public use of the public airwaves, which we need to remember, the people own but do not control. --Ralph Nader, Director, The Center for the Study of Responsive Law "There is no cynicism or stridency in Ralph Engelman′s definitive history of public broadcasting′s failure to fulfill its promise, only documentation of the immense problems endemic to government and corporate sponsored mass media. For models of hope, this volume acknowledges the civic discourse that has thrived in the margins of public broadcasting--in the independent community and in the homespun programming of the public access movement." --Dee Dee Halleck, Cofounder, Paper Tiger Television & Deep Dish TV "Public Radio and Television in America by Ralph Engelman effectively navigates the complex, controversial, and often maddening history of public broadcasting as a political and cultural force. Always more important than its audience size in America, public broadcasting′s promise and problems, as well as its heroes and villains, are treated effectively and well in this solid and critical analysis. The book is compact, yet sufficiently substantive and blessedly well written and well documented." --Everette E. Dennis, Executive Director, Freedom Forum Media Studies Center, editor, Media Studies Journal "Ralph Engelman′s Public Radio and Television in America is a chilling description of how noncommercial broadcasting is the tragic victim of conservative corporate politics that have spent most of this century trying to cripple and kill it." --Ben H. Bagdikian, former Dean, Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California,

This study examines the situation of public broadcasting worldwide, in a number of different contexts, from a variety of thematic perspectives. The result is a global report on the question of public service broadcasting

The significant changes that have swept the television industry over the last two decades, most notably a shift to deregulation in broadcast media, prompt a discussion on how to ensure that meaningful content is available to the viewer. Television and Public Policy analyzes the current state of television systems in a selected group of countries by exploring the political, economic, and technological factors that have shaped the sector in such a short span of time. Consequently, by positioning the television sector within issues of media policy and the regulatory framework, the book questions what these trends mean for television, and the historical, political, and cultural role in our societies. Television and Public Policy distinguishes itself in several ways: *It is a global project in its comparative scope and subject area. Contributors represent countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. *It is contemporary and filled with information largely absent in current literature. *It offers original analysis of the contemporary television sector. This book speaks to a broad range of academics, postgraduate, and undergraduate students, and can serve as a key resource for courses ranging from media studies, to development studies, international relations, and law.

This volume of collected essays provides a wide-ranging survey of the state of radio and television, especially the idea of public service broadcasting, and of news, current affairs and documentary programming in America, Australia, the UK and the rest of western Europe. Among the key issues it addresses are the 'dumbing down' of TV news, the infotainment factor in current affairs shows and the disappearance of the documentary. Using contemporary cases and examples - from the row over the scheduling of News at Ten in the UK to the creation of ABC News Online in Australia -- the essays link the performance of radio and television at the turn of the millennium with the processes of deregulation, liberalisation and digitalisation which have been evident since the 1980s. Working from a much needed and original comparative approach which encompasses complex and well-established public broadcasting in the USA as well as emerging and vulnerable participatory radio stations in El Salvador, the book sets a variety of experiences of factual radio and television programming within wider political and cultural contexts. It offers analyses of not only the 'problems' associated with news, current affairs and documentary broadcasting in an era of a declining public service ethos and the apparent triumph of the market, however. The essays also explore the potential of alternative radio and television, new forms of communication, such as the internet, and changing practices among journalists and programme makers, as well as the resilience of public broadcasting and the powers of the public to ensure that the media remain relevant and accountable. A companion text to the bestselling Sex, Lies and Democracy: The Press and the Public, this volume presents a multi-faceted approach to the tumultuous present and the uncertain future of news, current affairs and documentary in radio and television.