As reported in Current, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting recently conducted a new legal analysis of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, and concluded that the statute allows CPB to fund media projects beyond TV and radio. As people throughout the public broadcasting system adapt to the realities of digital technology and the internet, we are in the midst of a large-scale redefinition: from "public broadcasting" to "public media." This new interpretation by CPB seems to represent an acknowledgement of the realities of the digital media age, and the need for continued innovation.
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 is of course the legal framework for the Federal Government in establishing and providing continuing financial support for public broadcasting. The statute could only reflect an understanding of the media technologies at the time of its passage. But interestingly, the spirit of the statute is reflected more broadly in President Lyndon Johnson's "Remarks Upon Signing the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967." LBJ speaks of the importance of television to the public interests of the American people, then waxes rather philosophical about changes in technology to come.
Some excerpts:
So today we rededicate a part of the airwaves--which belong to all the people--and we dedicate them for the enlightenment of all the people.
I believe the time has come to stake another claim in the name of all the people, stake a claim based upon the combined resources of communications. I believe the time has come to enlist the computer and the satellite, as well as television and radio, and to enlist them in the cause of education.
If we are up to the obligations of the next century and if we are to be proud of the next century as we are of the past two centuries, we have got to quit talking so much about what has happened in the past two centuries and start talking about what is going to happen in the next century beginning in 1976.
So I think we must consider new ways to build a great network for knowledge-not just a broadcast system, but one that employs every means of sending and of storing information that the individual can use….
Eventually, I think this electronic knowledge bank could be as valuable as the Federal Reserve Bank. And such a system could involve other nations, too--it could involve them in a partnership to share knowledge and to thus enrich all mankind.
In 1967 the first computer networks were just beginning to emerge from research at institutions like Stanford Research Center, Xerox PARC, and several other public universities who not coincidentally were also deeply involved in educational broadcasting. We were just beginning to imagine the possibilities for using computers and networks for purposes of education and public service. Whether or not LBJ’s remarks were based on an awareness of the specifics of this work, they foreshadow the media world we live in today.
The definition and scope of public media needs to reflect the technologies and cultural practices of the times, and this analysis by CPB is an important step in formally addressing that reality. Or as LBJ put it, “Yesterday's strangest dreams are today's headlines and change is getting swifter every moment.”