According to Wiki, public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing.[1]
Public broadcasting may be nationally or locally operated, depending on the country and the station. In some countries, public broadcasting is run by a single organization. Other countries have multiple public broadcasting organizations operating regionally or in different languages.
Historically, in many countries (with the notable exception of the US), public broadcasting was once the only form or the dominant form of broadcasting. Commercial broadcasting now also exists in most of these countries; the number of countries with only public broadcasting declined substantially during the latter part of the 20th century.
Just wondering about all of you in different nations: Do you tune into Public Radio or Public Television?
neither; I listen to podcasts that debunk media coverage, or summarize. Then you get all and more. Also I listen to foreign media (Belgium, France, Germany), which not seldom cover news different.
I don’t see much difference between commercial media and public media.
Public media is propaganda. And commercial media is still depending on governmental decisions about broadcast licences. So as soon you start talking about pedobears in pluche you’ll loose your frequency in no-time.
Even for written-only online media it turns out close to impossible to remain independent.
Oh, I have to add: I don’t have a TV for more then 10 years now, and actually it is remarkable how much I know of what’s going on on TV.
Debunk? So you’ve automatically assumed that our news outlets broadcast conspiracy theories 24/7…
You’re SO RIGHT! Like, that story I heard about research on human sexuality, it was propaganda for me to have sex! And the story I heard about a contemporary Yiddish composer… propaganda for me to buy tickets to his show. Then the show about ways to bring clean water to developing nations, you got it, propaganda for me to donate to charity.
I’m still wondering, though, how the variety show with comedy, music and stories of Americana fits in to all this… I think it might be propaganda for me to keep living in the US.
Yeah, I agree it’s a bad idea for airwaves to be regulated. We really should let everyone broadcast on every channel at the same time. Let’s consider it electromagnetic Darwinism… he with the greatest transmitter wins!
I knew it… DARPA invented the Internet… so it shall forever be tainted to be a medium of military propaganda!
Here’s a joke for you. You’re at a party with 100 people. One of them does not watch TV. How do you spot him?
I like some public radio shows but I listen to them on podcast in the car. I truly don’t understand where people find the time to watch TV or why they would want to.
I am able to listen to the radio all day at work. In the mornings, I usually listen to NPR. Midday is Dave Ramsey, and afternoon is usually conservative talk shows. I also review CNN.com often, and occasionally check out alternative/conspiracy-theorist media outlets.
I do not tune in to public TV, as I do not have a TV, but do enjoy watching others’ occasionally.
I like some PBS programming, like Nova. As for radio, it’s conservatives, for the most part, who rule. Rush, Sean, Savage, Prager, Medved, Tim Conway jr., John & Ken, Larry Elder, Tammy Bruce, Roger Hedgecock and way too many more to list. They totally dominate am radio. And Fox news slaughters all other cable news on a regular basis.
OOps I forgot I sometimes tune on “Arte” (franco-german public TV).
I seldom watch TV but I have no patience for commercials : happily if I happen to watch a film or an interesting program it is never interrupted by commercials on France2, France 3 or Arte (believe it or not! :))
Hi Billy,
FWIW I try to avoid listening to live radio. Too scary
If I am sat at my desk crafting I usually listen to an itunes radio station, usually from America, and usually golden oldies, and usually with a cup of tea
Depends on what their message is like. In the 80’ies there was one sea-pirate left on the Nordsea in Europe, Radio Monique, who got financial support from a church in a Beverly Hills alike village. So guess if there was any difference with most other pirates (who’s talk discloses where the money is floating from).
Or say Indymedia; how independant and well-balanced is their news?
A weird hacker mate of me, who more recently on court order had to discontinue hosting supply to the pirate bay, once had a marvelous idea: put digital AM transmitters on Sealand… that would have been the ultimate broadcast setup, with -since AM seems to bounce- from that location probably a far better reach than anything else - but digital!
But generalizing I think pirate radio is the least evil biased media.
