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US Public Sector Broadcasting

This page looks at public sector broadcasting in the US.

A History of Public Broadcasting (Washington: Current 2000) by John Witherspoon & Roselle Kovitz is a new overview from within the public broadcasting industry. The Vanishing Vision: The Inside Story of Public Television (Berkeley: Uni of California Press 1995) is a thoughtful study by James Day, former president of National Educational Television.

In contrast, Conflicting Communication Interests in America: The Case of National Public Radio (New York: Praeger 1999) by Tom McCourt, Made Possible By ... The Death of Public Broadcasting in the United States (London: Verso 1997) by James Ledbetter and Public Television for Sale: Media, the Market & the Public Sphere (Boulder: Westview 1994) by William Hoynes offer critiques from the right and left.

There's a more biting examination in Ralph Engelman's Public Radio & Television in America: A Political History (Thousand Oaks: Sage 1996) and Telecommunications, Mass Media & Democracy: The Battle for the Control of US Broadcasting, 1928-35 by Robert McChesney (New York: Oxford Uni Press 1993).

Michael Tracey's Decline and Fall of Public Service Broadcasting (New York: Oxford Uni Press 1998) considers public sector broadcasting in the UK, Japan, Germany and other countries.

Other state networks

There are separate profiles on