Critics contend American public television has failed to realize the potential envisioned by the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television. Using Ernest Bormann's theory of fantasy theme analysis as a framework to examine public TV reveals that American public television has been unable to develop a coherent rhetorical vision or a clear…

Two pioneering public radio stations--WOSU-AM, licensed to the Ohio State University in Columbus, and WHA-AM, licensed to the University of Wisconsin in Madison--conducted audience research as early as the 1920s. The challenge for early education broadcasters became to adapt the existing audience research paradigm to their purposes, or to develop…

Discusses the increase in audience research for public broadcast radio programming and how it influences decisions about programming and fundraising. The evolution of public radio's use of audience research is related to its changing conception of localism. (53 references) (Author/AEF)