Thursday, November 12, 2009 16:24 - 0 Comments

Public Media, Another Alternative?

Is government funding another alternative for the future of journalism? Editor of Extra! Jim Naureckas seems to think that a public option might be the key in his article– “Public Media and the Decommodification of News.”  Naureckas calls this “The obvious solution to the problem of commodity journalism: The state is one of the few [...]

Is government funding another alternative for the future of journalism? Editor of Extra! Jim Naureckas seems to think that a public option might be the key in his article– “Public Media and the Decommodification of News.”  Naureckas calls this “The obvious solution to the problem of commodity journalism: The state is one of the few institutions whose resources can compare to those of the corporate sector, and at least in theory is supposed to represent the interests of the populace as a whole.”

Naureckas asserts that government funding for companies like PBS and NPR are diminutive when compared to that of foreign countries such as Denmark and Britian. (As shown in the graph by Free Press, “Public Media’s Moment”). He also states that it’s virtually impossible to air a show on non-commercial television, unless there is a well-to-do company taking care of costly underwriting bills.

Further consolidating his argument, Naureckas refers to a study by the European Journal of Communication that reports Denmark and Finland– countries that had the least commercialized television structures, and lots of hard news, “Were also the countries with the highest level of knowledge about political affairs, both domestic and international.”

Now, Naureckas certainly makes some valid points, given the fact that despite much of the vigorous debate that has been taking place, no one really knows what the future of journalism will look like. What we do know is that the for-profit model isn’t doing as great as it once did. As difficult as it may be to consider Naureckas’ advocacy of a public media option, at this critical juncture in journalism, it’s even harder to disparage any alternatives. I say give it a go.