In the current communications regulatory and policymaking environment there are several factors of crucial importance to public broadcasting, including (1) the system's increased visibility; (2) the impact of inflation on governmental budget decisions; (3) policymaker assumptions about new technologies, economic forces, and deregulation; and (4)…

Offers an analysis of the interaction between research and programing in public radio and television licensees, examining the impact of ascertainment and research procedures on public station program planning and evaluation. It is suggested that even without regulations, most stations would continue with some form of ascertainment and research.…

Discusses the federal government's role in supporting and, therefore, influencing the policy-making processes of the public broadcasting industry. (JMF)

Broadcasting has become a powerful symbol of a collision of ideas over how Western society should be organized. The roots of that clash lay in two powerful forces that seem to have nurtured a certain intellectual bleakness about public culture. The first such force was a belief in the imminent emergence of a multi-channel society in which cable…

Suggests that public broadcasters themselves helped create the current worldwide challenge to public service broadcasting. Argues that questions about how well extreme marketplace models work, the need to reassert some of the cultural purposes associated with public broadcasting, and the slower-than-expected pace of new media development may…