At a time when government funding for public broadcasting is hotly debated, Rethinking Public Media: More Local, More Inclusive, More Interactive, a new policy paper by Barbara Cochran, offers five broad strategies and 21 specific recommendations to reform public media. The strategies include strengthening local news operations, sharing digital platforms among public entities, recruiting more diverse workforces, and reforming public media structures. (Download PDF or Read Online)
I was honored to be invited to critique Barbara’s paper when it came out in draft stage. And I was fortunate and privileged to be invited to the roundtable discussion in Washington upon its final release.
The paper says, in a convincing voice and at a time critical to journalism’s future, what I’ve been advocating for many years — that we in public radio (and TV) have got to invest significantly in local news reporters and editors, in technology and training, and stick to our values while changing our structures.
My own comments to the group emphasized my optimism based on my experience: that there is tremendous commitment to powerful journalism at the local level — and that we are innovators when it comes to public service opportunities. However, given the political storms overhead and the fiscal crisis in federal and state governments, we have got to stick together and work as a cohesive system to enact the change we need.
I’ll have much more to say about this effort as I fold Barbara’s paper into my own work at the Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford. For today, I’m just so glad some of the most esteemed leaders in policy and media have come together to call for significant growth and improvement in local public media news.
Participants in the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Public Media December 8, 2010 Washington, D.C. Lee BollingerPresident, Columbia University John S. Bracken Director of Digital Media, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Patrick Butler President-Elect, Association of Public Television Stations Jessica Clark
Research Director, Center for Social Media at American University Barbara Cochran Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Journalism, University of Missouri School of Journalism Charlie Firestone Executive Director, Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program Ellen Goodman
Professor, Rutgers University School of Law Patricia Harrison
President and Chief Executive Officer, Corporation for Public Broadcasting Jacquie Jones
Executive Director, National Black Programming Coalition Michael D. Jones Chief Operating Officer, Public Broadcasting Service Bill Kling
President and Chief Executive Officer, American Public MediaBlair Levin
Communications & Society Fellow, The Aspen Institute Michael Marcotte
MVM Consulting & Knight Journalism Fellow, Stanford University
Andrew McLaughlin
Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Executive Office of the President Norman Ornstein
Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute Vivian Schiller
President and Chief Executive Officer, NPR Tom Thomas
Co-Chief Executive Officer, Station Resource Group Laura Walker President and Chief Executive Officer, New York Public Radio Bruce Wolpe
Strategic Communications, Office of Representative Henry Waxman Corie Wright Policy Counsel, Free Press