The Government Should Support Public Television (PBS)
The slogan goes, “If PBS doesn’t do it, who will?” This catch-phrase, which PBS uses in spots to advertise its programming between shows, states the most basic reason that the Public Broadcasting Service is necessary: Many of the shows on PBS would not be successful via commercial broadcast television, and therefore, a viewer-supported, partially-subsidized network of stations is necessary to provide programming that otherwise would not make the airwaves.
In this paper, I will explain why public support is important, but not essential for the Public Broadcasting Service to fulfill its mission to provide alternative programming to the American public. I will show how public broadcasting would exist without the support of the federal government, and then explain why the positive externalities created by public broadcasting lead to market failure and suggest that government support of PBS is in the best interest of society.
In their 1995 attack of public broadcasting, newly-empowered conservative members of Congress argued that were the Public Broadcasting Service to fold due to lack of public subsidies, the private sector would provide same type of programming that PBS has provided. Their reasoning was that a demand for PBS-fare would still exist, so the private sector would supply programming that would meet the unfulfilled demand of former PBS viewers. Other members of the conservative contingent argued that government support amounted to less than 20 percent of the network’s operating budget, so the network could make up the difference or cut back its service in order to survive.
Part of their argument was that many of the programs on PBS are similar to progra...
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...ration for Public Broadcasting are therefore necessary to ensure that PBS programming remains at its current level.
If PBS doesn’t do it, who will? Cable, yes, to a limited extent, but PBS will always reach a larger audience than an infinite number of cable networks with PBS-type programming. Without government support of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and ultimately the Public Broadcasting Service itself, PBS would survive. Society, however, would suffer as the loss of one-fifth of the Service’s operating budget leads to cutbacks in programming and ultimately decreased positive external effects from the network. That’s why government intervention--an annual subsidy for PBS from the federal government--is so important: not because the network would disappear, but because it would fail to provide the socially optimal variety and quantity of programming.
Television has always been an industry whose profit has always been gained through ads. But in chapter 2 of Jason Mittell’s book, Television and American Culture, Mittell argues that the rise of the profit-driven advertising television model can be traced back through American television history, and that the rise of the profit-driven advertising model of television actually helped to mold American culture both from a historical standpoint and from a social standpoint.
Michael Parenti (2002) declares media in the United States is no longer “free, independent, neutral and objective.” (p. 60). Throughout his statement, Parenti expresses that media is controlled by large corporations, leaving smaller conglomerates unable to compete. The Telecommunications Act, passed in 1996, restricted “a single company to own television stations serving more than one-third of the U.S. public,” but is now overruled by greater corporations. (p. 61). In his opinion, Parenti reveals that media owners do not allow the publishing of stories that are not beneficial and advantageous. Parenti supports his argument very thoroughly by stating how the plutocracy takes control over media in multiple ways: television, magazines, news/radio broadcasting, and other sources.
Words and images were silent weapons used by all governments involved during World War II. Wars are generally fought between soldiers, but the different ideologies often meet on the battlefield as well. The support of the people is crucial during these times since it general knowledge that strength relies on numbers. Propaganda targets people’s emotions and feelings and changes people’s perception about a particular idea, people or situation. Propaganda goes hand in hand with the art of persuasion and convincing; these tools can control and manipulate the collective minds of massive amount of its audience. During World War II, for instance, the elements of war were taken from the location of the military fights and brought to the households of millions of families. Advertising has the power to sell ideas, to give or take away hope, and to boosts people´s morale; the ideas that were presented to the public through propaganda are immortal, they linger in the nation’s memory. Images often displayed in posters and pamphlets during war time, were an essential factor to gain peoples support and trust, images attract people’s attention with more efficiency than word. It is an effective mean to attract attention; it I said that images speak louder than words and this case is not the exception. Media, during World War II, was the catalyst which increased the magnitude of the issue that was being confronted. This event left a mark in our history since its objective was to generate hatred between ethnics. It is in our nature, the human nature, to take our own culture as a point of reference to judge others, this is a phenomenon called ethnocentrism and it is fuelled bye prejudice and stereotyping. Throughout history whenever technologically...
While the issue of women’s suffrage has roots based in every country in the world, most think that the initial inroads were painfully carved through the efforts of early women pioneers in America. This perception is easily formed due to the early publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Right’s of Women in 1792. However, the movement gained national attention in New Zealand in 1893 and in Australia in 1902, eclipsing the suffrage movement in Britain, Canada and America by at least 25 years. The struggle for women’s rights has been ponderous and slow moving throughout the years and not without internal divisions.
The radical and pro-militancy rhetoric employed by both women in the reported speeches situates them at the inception of the most radical phase of the suffragette campaign. As this public meeting was held, a Franchise Bill was being presented before the House of Commons, concerning the possibility of women’s suffrage. For this reason, Mrs. Dove-Wilcox
The lack of success of the movements for women’s suffrage in achieving their aims by 1918 cannot be held accountable to solely one reason due to the abundance of causes for this. Voting, however, was not the only area where women were subjected to inequitable treatment: in1850 women were regarded as second class citizens. It was common belief that their brain was smaller than their male peers and they were therefore provided with very little or no form of education which, consequentially, meant that jobs for women were unskilled and low paid. Many professions would not employ a female as it was considered that a woman’s place was in the home. Politics was an additional area where women were uninvolved. Political parties (except Labour) argued mainly against women’s suffrage. Certain individuals claimed that involving women in the world of politics would be wrong due to biological reasons. Movement groups who included women’s suffrage as part of their aims included National Union of Woman’s Suffrage Society (NUWSS) and the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Each of these movements employed very different tactics from each other in the hope that their message would be conveyed effectively and action would be taken by the public and the government. Tactics utilised by these movements – the WSPU in particular – have been cited as a reason for the lack of success in winning the vote for women due to the government and public attitudes caused by their methods. Other factors, however, influenced the lack of success too, for example the arrival of World War I and other subjects that were occupying the government’s attention at that time like the miners and dockers strike and the naval race with Germany as World War I lo...
Tuchman, Gaye. The TV Establishment: Programming for Power and Profit. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., l971.
Keynes, Sir Geoffrey. Introduction to William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. Ed. Geoffrey Keynes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967.
Taras examines the commitments and values of CBC with the Canadian government and the citizens. He looked at a particular case of when CBC clashed with the government, and how CBC struggled to keep their TV programs running (Taras, pp.4-5). Next he talked about how the media industry is being taken controlled by powerful corporation and claims that PSB have the responsibility to protect the minorities (Taras, p.6). Subsequently, Taras discussed the ups and downs CBC had gone through until this day. Lastly, Taras explores the complex and intimate relationship between public broadcasters and the government; how they take advantage of each other to accomplish their goals. Ultimately, Taras believes that PSB will continue to have an impact in society despite living in a generation of digital media.
The first excuse is economics. The business of TV is ruled by a simple declaration: Get the audience the advertisers want. The consequence is that major networks forgo the mass ...
Television has long been a part of American culture. From its conception until today there have been people who believe that television is a waste of time and energy and there have been those in the opposite camp who believe that television should be a part of every American life. There is also a middle ground of people who watch television to keep informed on what’s happening in the world as well as entertained by the latest sitcom, or more popularly today, reality show.
In this essay I will explore the effectiveness of propaganda, used to maintain control over Nazi Germany. I will also analyse the arguments for the different cases associated with the statement before concluding with my own personal opinion.
After visiting and examining the PBS Web site, I was able to conclude that it is an extremely successful entertainment and educational site. The Web site has won many substantial awards, including the prestigious "Webbie Award" in 1998 and 1999. According to a recent survey, fifty-six percent of users at the PBS Web site are male and sixty percent are between the ages of eighteen and forty-four. Forty-four percent of the Web site users have children and fifty-seven percent make online purchases. (Gallup/Plaw Release: Survey of 40,000 Internet Users. Fall 1998.)
... small media reforms (like public journalism) will be enough to reduce the commercial and corporate imperatives driving our existing media systems (Hackett and Zhao, 1998, p. 235). Instead, a fundamental reform of the entire system is needed, together with a wider institutional reform of the very structures the media systems work within, our democracies. This will be a difficult task, due to powerful vested interests benefiting from the status quo, including media, political and economic elites. Reforms will need to be driven by campaigns mobilising public support across the political spectrum, to enable the citizens of the world to have a media system that works to strengthen democratic principles as opposed to undermining them. This task is challenging, but it will become easier once people begin to understand the media’s role in policymaking within our democracies.
In recent years, the importance of news broadcasts has increased. More people need to access the news to stay in touch with the rest of the world’s affairs. More TV channels have developed to give viewers more news. Both commercial and government networks are used to present the news to the general public. However, because of the different fundings and target audiences, different networks will focus on different aspects of the news, to make as many people of their target audience watch their particular broadcast. Therefore the separate channels can bring in a far larger audience, and take away another channels audience, therefore reducing competition.