In this 2008 paper, commissioned as part of the Berkman Center’s Media Re:Public project, CSM’s Pat Aufderheide and Jessica Clark describe the complex system of U.S. public broadcasting, the many exciting experiments that are underway and the barriers to creating a truly public media.
Public Media Coverage on MediaShift:
From 2009-2011, CSM partnered with the PBS MediaShift site to cover rising trends and policy battles related to public media 2.0. Stories included:
- Katie Donnelly, April 21, 2011: 5 Great Media Literacy Programs and How to Assess Their Impact
- Jessica Clark, March 21, 2011: Defunding Public Media Would Stifle Digital Innovation
- Jessica Clark, March 16, 2011: Oversharing, Overstimulated and Setting Boundaries at SXSW
- Jessica Clark, March 14, 2011: IMA + SXSW = Major Discussion on Future of Public Media
- Katie Donnelly, March 4, 2011: World TV Revamps Site to Entice a Younger Audience
- Jessica Clark, November 22, 2010: How Should Public Media Respond to Efforts to Defund It?
- Jessica Clark, December 20, 2010: Brazilian Public Media Faces Tough Digital Transition
- Katie Donnelly and Jessica Clark, November 19, 2010: Public Media Experiments Show Promise, Need to Involve Public
- Jessica Clark (series editor), November 18, 2010: Special Series: Public Media 2.0
- Jessica Clark, November 18, 2010: 5 Emerging Trends That Give Hope for Public Media 2.0
- Katie Donnelly, October 1, 2010: KETC Works with Community on ‘Homeland’ Immigration Project
- Jessica Clark, September 23, 2010: A Guide to Rising Public Media Networks in the U.S.
- Katie Donnelly, August 25, 2010: While Others Shrink, KQED Expands Cross-Platform News
- Jessica Clark, July 29, 2010: Pop and Politics Blog Becomes Converged Radio Project
- Jessica Clark, May 11, 2010: 5 Needs and 5 Tools for Measuring Media Impact
- Katie Donnelly, May 5, 2010: CCTV Shows How Public Access TV Can Transition to Digital
- Jessica Clark, April 30, 2010: Live-Blogging the FCC Workshop: New Platforms, Strategies for Public Media
- Jessica Clark, April 30, 2010: Live-Blogging FCC Workshop: Public Media in the Digital Era
- Jessica Clark, March 29, 2010: Better Coordination Needed to Map Local Media Ecologies
- Katie Donnelly, March 11, 2010: Witness Creates Sophisticated Evaluation Tools for Video Impact
- Jessica Clark and Katie Donnelly, February 16, 2010: Is There a Master Metric for Evaluating Public Media?
- Katie Donnelly, January 21, 2010: Why Youth Media Projects Should Link Up with Public Media
- Jessica Clark, January 7, 2010: Public Broadcasters Hustle to Fill Infrastructure Gap
- Katie Donnelly, December 14, 2009: KETC’s Mortgage Crisis Project Brings Public into Public Media
- Jessica Clark, December 3, 2009: Best of Twitter: FTC Workshop Discusses Future of Journalism
- Jessica Clark, December 1, 2009: FTC Should Consider Policy Reform to Support Public Media 2.0
- Katie Donnelly, November 3, 2009: 10 Projects that Help Citizens Become Government Watchdogs
- Jessica Clark, October 20, 2009: PubCamp Examines New Models, Philosophy for Public Media
- Jessica Clark, October 6, 2009: Eight Public Media 2.0 Projects That Are Doing it Right
In the fall of 2010 CSM researchers profiled a set of rising news experiments on the Public Media 2.0 Showcase, including:
Local News Lacking Among Public Broadcasting Stations
In February 2010, University of Pennsylvania doctoral student Christopher Ali—a CSM Research Fellow—conducted a descriptive content analysis of the news and information programming of all PBS stations with available websites, which confirmed the lack of local daily public TV news. Going state-by-state, Ali looked at every listed station’s website for mention of news and public affairs programs, finding that out of 170 stations examined, fewer than 20 air local news programs more than 3 times per week, and 70 produce no local news at all.
Visit this public media map, hosted by the National Center for Media Engagement, to click through Ali’s station-by-station results geographically.
Comparing New News Models: How Engagagment Strategies and Impact Intersect
How are news-focused public media projects tracking their impact? That’s the question that CSM Research Fellow Erin Roberts set out to explore in a set of interviews with leaders from innovative journalism projects. Profiles of some of the most relevant projects include:
Scan and Analysis of Best Practices in Digital Journalism In and Outside U.S. Public Broadcasting
In this August 2009 report, researchers at American University’s Center for Social Media identify a set of best practices in digital new media journalism intended to guide planning and initiatives in this area specifically for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and more broadly for the Public Service Media community in the US. We offer an overview of the current journalism and public broadcasting environments, derived from a scan of recent reports and interviews with relevant experts, along with a set of identified best practices, bolstered with analysis of specific examples that could be replicated by public media producers.