RESEARCH PAPER

Research paper

Research paper

Q1) One of the most striking developments of the past decade has been the decline of public service broadcasting systems everywhere in the world. By public service broadcasting, I mean a system that is nonprofit and noncommercial, supported by public funds, ultimately accountable in some legally defined way to the citizenry, aimed at providing a service to the entire population, and one which does not apply commercial principles as the primary means to determine its programming.

The decline of public service broadcasting can only be understood in this broader political and economic context. Neoliberalism is not merely a set of economic principles; rather, it is implicitly a theory of democracy. And the democratic system that works best with a market-driven economy is one where there exists widespread public cynicism and depoliticization, and where the mainstream political parties barely debate the fundamental issues. Or, as the Financial Times has put it, the best political system is one in which the capitalist control of society is "depoliticised." (Blakely, 2006)

Of course, the most developed model of neoliberal "democracy" is the United States, with its minuscule voter turnouts and its legendary levels of political ignorance and apathy. This is a society where the lion's share of basic political decisions are made by the few for the few -- with massive public relations efforts generated to massage, and assuage, the public on those rare occasions when the rabble takes an active interest in public policy issues.

Q2) Localism in Broadcasting

Localism has been a cornerstone of broadcast regulation for decades. Broadcasters must use the medium to serve the public interest, and the Commission has consistently interpreted this to require licensees to air programming that is responsive to the interests and needs of their communities of license. Even as the Commission deregulated many behavioral rules for broadcasters in the 1980s, it did not deviate from the notion that they must serve their local communities. Rather, the Commission simply found that market forces, in an increasingly competitive environment, would encourage broadcasters to accomplish this goal, and that certain rules were no longer necessary(Avery, 2009).

The concept of localism derives from Title III of the Communications Act, and is reflected in and supported by a number of current Commission policies and rules.

Thus when the Commission awards a license to provide service using an allocation, the license is local, relating "to the principal community or other political subdivision which it primarily serves."5 Once awarded a license, a broadcast station must then maintain its main studio in or near its community of license.

Q3) Serving local communities - “localism” - is a fundamental goal of American broadcast policy. Localism means providing residents of local communities with diverse cultural programming, opportunities for self-expression, and access to the solid, in-depth public affairs programming about local and national affairs that is essential to democracy(Blakely, 2006). Congress has repeatedly asserted the importance of localism in promoting the goals of the First Amendment for the electronic media, and the courts have steadfastly upheld efforts to ...