Local Programming
Discussion
"Public television programming can deepen a sense of community in local life. It should bring into the home meetings, now generally untelevised, where major public decisions are hammered out, and occasions where people of the community express their hopes, their protests, their enthusiasms, their will. It should provide a voice for groups in the community that may otherwise be unheard."
- The Carnegie Commission, in establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
1. The glaring omission in OPB's programming services is support of local culture: the people of Oregon are invisible, the life of Oregon is absent.
96.4% of regular prime-time programming is imported, national product - mainly viewer-passive news and entertainment. This amounts to a cultural blackout of the very people public television is supposed to be serving. To know ourselves it is necessary to see ourselves.
2. Television is the single most powerful purveyor of social identity in America.
It is our community picture wall - If youíre not on it, you don't belong. OPB is the only medium that reaches, and can connect, all of our communities. Our needs from it go beyond political reporting, supplementing education and public discussion. We need its power to promote cooperation and cohere communities, to share dreams, heal differences, empower minorities, balance social and economic inequalities, mediate disputes, sow trust, build respect and model responsibility. These are cohesive qualities that make a society functional. Commercial media tend to diminish these, picturing us as individuals driven by self-interest & competition. The special purpose of public broadcasting is to mediate our collective event.
3. Local programming is programming about, by and for local communities.
It deals with real life concerns such as how we earn a living, express character, spirit and individuality, raise families, relate to our neighbors, value others, share the environment, create art and public works. It tells stories about who we are, where we come from, where we want to go. It unites us in shared celebrations, connects diverse communities, juxtaposes values and points of view, shares civic concerns and encourages local initiative. It is pro-social, reporting our successes and the good news. Its primary human value is based in relevance, authenticity and good story telling, rather than glossy finish, emotional excitement or magnitude of information.
1. OPB should budget and raise funds especially for local programming.
The creative and economic means to support enhanced local programming are available with a little inventiveness; the motivation and courage to do it are what ís needed. OPB's current production model is focused on large feature production, which is expensive and inefficient for small markets. A process approach to video journalism would be much more productive and cost effective. There is a large pool of video-literate producers, artists and journalists that could be tapped around our regions to provide local content. Federal and private grants should be available to fund development of innovative community programming. And increased local underwriting could be expected if the local value were present.
2. A special Community Services staff position should be established at OPB; truely representative community oversight should be assured.
A community programming facilitator/ombud should oversee community interest production, program acquisition and broadcasts, spearhead fund raising, defend priorities, advocate new services, assess needs, field complaints, listen to advice, assure programming balance. An independent board of diverse, regionally-based community representatives should directly assess this performance (such is not the current charge of. the existing CAB!)
3. A weekly goal for local programming should be set, leading to a regular strand for local television.
Eventually, 25% of prime time should be local, community-valued programming - that's one hour per night. Initially, a goal of one hour per week seems reasonable - a slot where a wide variety of local programming could be broadcast. This should expand as funding and methodology come into place, either on the common analog channel or on its own digital channel when available.
4. OPB members should be able to elect a representative portion of the governing board.
Nominally, something like one third of the board should be elected by the membership, one third self-elected (as presently) and one third appointed by the Governor (as presently.) Those currently supplying 53% of the OPB budget should have some tangible representation in how it operates.