Wvia Report - Final Cut

Table of Contents WVIA...................................................................................3 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for Scranton/WilkesBarre.....................................................................................3 Introduction.......................................................................3 The Issues at Hand............................................................4 Objectives..........................................................................5 Limitations........................................................................6 Results Are In…................................................................7 Contributions and Fund-Raising.....................................7 Ethics in Television Broadcasting..................................9 The Benefits..................................................................12 Conclusion....................................................................14 Bibliography......................................................................15

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WVIA WVIA Mission People change and lives improve when powerful ideas challenge them. WVIA Public Media is a regional catalyst, convener and educator, using media, partnerships, ideas and programs to advance the best attributes of an enlightened society. Corporation of Public Broadcasting Mission Statement

The mission of the PBS Foundation is to enlist philanthropic support of public broadcasting through establishing special initiatives funds and a permanent endowment to ensure PBS’s continued excellence, and to promote and to enhance outstanding public broadcasting programs and services. Working collaboratively and cooperatively with member stations, the Foundation will secure the extraordinary funding necessary to maintain and enhance its commitment to serving the American public.

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Introduction I have been a Public Broadcasting Systems (PBS) viewer for well over 35 years since I was a boy up until and including now. I was able to view many programs that were never offered on regular TV programming from the national and independent network affiliates, but was able to get on PBS. A great number of these programs were educational, entertaining, and ethically moral for all family members to watch without worry or censorship! The fact remains the same that the PBS is not funded by commercials and private subscriptions as those of cable and satellite dish networks, but rather by the donations of private citizens, foundations, the PBS and businesses, corporations, and industries that realize the importance of good, wholesome, and uncensored TV that the entire family can watch. These ethically motivated TV viewing programs are made specifically to target 3

different age groups and to educate, and prepare children for the future ahead. These programs are made through the funding of their own stations to create and produce these educational programs for children and young adults to develop better outlooks into adulthood. The Issues at Hand The problems at hand are the complexities of having fund-raisers and telethons to generate the new revenues to fund the station and sustain it throughout the year’s broadcasting initiatives, as well as, to help keep current with the ethical choices that are not offered by Cable or Satellite communications companies. This research will address main objectives of the fundraising of this organization: 1) how does WVIA raise contributions from the state, Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the PBS; 2) the tasks of organizing fundraising events and telethons; and 3) the organizations and members that make it all possible. The problems of ethics in Television broadcasting is another problem that will be explored by this research based on the fact that today’s society does condone many of the behaviors that were once theoretically forbidden by any standards at any hour of the day not just sensitivity to particular viewing audiences. These same ethics that are being discussed are the ethics that develop the children thoughts and behaviors into the adults they will grow up to become. This research will also explore the past research of ethics in broadcasting to emphasize 1) the lack of audience feelings on ethical content of TV; 2) TV’s growing influence with the enhancement of communication networks; and 3) moral and ethical issues as seen by the church. A child learns what it lives…… The final issue that I will digress upon is the benefits and/or effects that PBS has on not only the children, but the community as well. As I had originally mentioned the 4

impact that PBS had on me as a boy, right into manhood, was the choice of the BBC comedies that were shown all the time, but were not available on the Network, Cable or Satellite Systems. This research will show: 1) the benefits that are obtained from custom programming that is geared for educational purposes; 2) the ethical choices that come naturally from prosocial TV programming; 3) what are the impacts of the creation of the provisions of service to minorities and diverse audiences; and 4) are the expenditures of the PBS justified? Objectives One of the purposes of this research is to follow up on the fundraising capabilities of the CPB and PBS as a choice because the programming that is offered by them is educational and morally correct, compared to the programming of the Network and Cable/Satellite companies. Funding and fundraising are crucial and required activities that give the CPB/PBS the ability to offer the programming that is educational and instrumental to proper child-to-adult development. Another purpose is to make a determination that the ethics of the programming content that was addressed in the 4-year research paper done (Rarick, D.L. and Lind, R.A. April, 1993), was ever upgraded with a new study that was focused on the ethical problems in TV programming. The influence that TV has on all of the people in society, and more especially, the children who are basically babysat by the use of the TV is an important matter that should be researched. The TV has become a major influence in the lives of today’s society, whereby the children of my generation were lucky to even have a single TV in their house, and now they have multiples in every room of the house. This subject matter is an issue that needs to be scrutinized very carefully because of the direct

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impact that is has on the society as a whole and the fact that no sampling is done is absurd, due to the vast majority of the population that is directly affected. The final purpose of this research is that there are benefits of the PBS that cannot be obtained through any other TV programming due to the fact they are the only ones to offer this service or product. The morality of the programming is the draw that brings in the funding and members that are needed to render support to the PBS arena. The programming that is offered is more diverse and educational, gearing it to the children and their futures. Using the measurements tools as in the GFK Roper Report, this report captures the results of a national opinion survey that included 1,000 participants across the country and measured how American adults ages 25 to 75 rated PBS in comparison with other public institutions, including television broadcast and cable networks. Limitations There are several limitations to this report due to undefined variables and the lack of substantial research done in the field of research of the audience response to the ethics of programming content. There is a very limited amount of literature or relevant theory to the research of the ethical content of the programming, and the ethics that are measured are only in regards to the conduct of individuals as opposed to the programming content. The content and the ethics employed are the most influential part of the learning curve that is accomplished by audiences viewing these programs. As a my research for any other empirical studies that may have been completed on this subject area since these authors had conducted this study, a study where the variables were identified and empirical and statistical data was gathered and used. There

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are still none available, and that in itself is a limitation to this research based on the fact that the original study took 4 years to complete and time and cost is an issue in this paper. Other limitations that are found are that that study I used regarding the ethical issues had no way to measure the “HOW” the viewers had reasoned or thought about the ethical issues in TV. This limitation is very crucial to the research project because the ethical content of programming is never real achieved and the measurement of the attitudes would change from individual to individual. This study has no boundaries when there will be a wide-range variation or deviation from the population mean based on the fact that everyone’s morals are different. Results Are In…. Contributions and Fund-Raising Funding for the PBS programming comes from a multiple of sources such as member station’s dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), government agencies, foundations, corporations, and private citizens. Producers may also seeking additional funding through evaluation methods under the Content Priorities made available through the PBS, and also can receive disbursements from the Program Challenge Fund. In the Report to the Community (Carter, C. May 2006 - May 2007), not only did Ms. Carter attend many networking events developing new and promising leads and relationships, but she was successful in securing funding and grants to implement the five-year plan (2007-2012) initiated in late 2005. The Program Challenge Fund (PCF) is managed by the CPB and PBS and make additional funds available based on the specific programming goals and objectives. The PCF’s defined purpose is to bring additional impact to the National Program Service, 7

intended to be the highlight of the season and have the potential to generate publicity. CPB and PBS will also dedicate PCF dollars to the high-definition and standarddefinition widescreen programs but MUST deliver ALL DIGITAL content. The CPB has an endowment fund that makes yearly funds available for PBS stations to use as working capital and an additional matching fund from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Capozzi, F.J. (September 23, 2008)). These funds are the basis for the yearly funding that is needed for the station to run and produce the programs that the members are seeking from them. The PBS has has a many other functions that take place throughout the year to aid to their fundraising efforts that include many different techniques to raise operating capital. Some of the ways WVIA raises additional funds is through campaigns, volunteer activities, endowments, major gift-giving, memberships, memorial and planned giving, vehicle donations, Kids’ Clubhouse, WVIA Auctions, and corporate sponsorships. WVIA suponsors are recognized by four catagories: Diamond Level for sponsorship of over $10,000.00, Gold Level for $5,000.00 - $10,000.00, Sponsor Level for up to $5,000.00, and Community Partners for their barter of services. The CPB has cerated a program designed to follow through on the estate planning for its members that want their goals met as a condition of the estate that they leave. There are members that want to leave a legacy to enable the future generations to continue to be enriched and educated by public television. CPB also created Special Initiatives to encompass the projects and programs that do not fall neatly into one category or the other. One of their past initiatives was the Digital Future Initiative that sort the country’s foremost forward thinkers to help with bringing the PBS into the digital

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era. Some of the current initiatives are “The Early Childhood Education Initiative” and “PBS Engage” are being implemented for PBS. There are other funding that is directly available to the PBS affiliates through the CPB and the Program Venture Funds, which are genre-specific pools of money used for programming and content across all technologies – on-air, online, digital, streaming, mobile, downloadable, on-demand, and whatever the next technologies will be. The four catagories of these funds are News and Public Affairs, Science and Nature, Art, Culture, and History, and Children’s Programming,and Lifelong Education. Ethics in Television Broadcasting As I had digressed in the limitations of this study, this subject matter has yet to be defined as a variable and empirical research performed, because the studies that were done do not deal with ethical content of TV programming and that the ethical problems were only touched on by the controls to safeguarding the children was the key focus. The government regulations were put in place to pass the responsibility to the parent or guardian to use their discretion and/or control over the viewing audience. The fact that the programming itself is not moral or ethical is the changes that have taken place over the past 30 years. In the study of public attitudes (Rarick, D.L. and Lind, R.A. April, 1993), they had tested issues using a Likert scale to determine the issues of the audience attitudes of 8 areas that where determined by telephone surveys. The lack of a theory of audience response had directed the study to use the concepts that were available to them and they had to revise and refine the conceptual and operational definitions. They also had to use an in-depth interview methodology, and the quota sample was not large enough and did not accurately represent the population. 9

Another issue that has a great deal of importance, but was not a part of the study (Rarick, D.L. and Lind, R.A. April, 1993), is the enhanced communication networks that are now available and the influence that TV has on the population (Brown, W.F. and Singhal, A. Summer 1990). In this study Brown and Singhal had used the definition given by Rushton on prosocial television content as being the televised performance that depicts cognitive, affective or behavioral activities acceptable to most audiences. Producers and officials were being encouraged to reduce the amount of antisocial effects and increase the prosocial content. With the increase of the use of satellites and digital technology, the educational television is been steadily being replaced by entertainment television. The differences in these programming methodologies were commonly referred to as commercial (entertainment) and educational (public) television. Common ethical and moral values create a prosocial dilemma as a result of the differences of the value systems that we, as individuals, choose to adopt and live. This differentiation of values varies so widely that it makes the idea of “one man’s meat is another man’s poison” seem like a common sense way to view and evaluate the ethical content in TV. Finally, we have to look at the moral issues as presented by the church and the way that the ethical problems of moral content drive the minds and imaginations of the youth, drawing them to the way o the flesh as opposed to the way of the spirit. The Christians had created the Christian Networks to offer diversity in the programming that they were able to offer their ministries (Purpura, J.F. Archpriest). By the survey that was conducted in 1992 by Archpriest Purpura of the teens in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese was able to compile each data to change the focus of the ministry and to better deal with the teens’ daily lives. The Archpriest had 10

noticed that television had drastically changed because of the content of adult viewing material that was now available at all hours of the day, which would never have been shown at all ten years earlier. As a result of these research studies the church was able to identify and reassess the teen life and combined this new knowledge with an expanded measure to understand whether the church is dealing old issues, new issues, or a combination of both. The Southern Baptist Convention still calls for a reformation to the ethical content in TV programming and the revamp of the old morals and ethics that once were a major part of broadcasting (Land, Richard Jul 18, 2007). The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) ability to effectively regulate indecency has been the focus behind this article and the appeal to change the decency f the content of TV programming. The Benefits As I had detailed earlier in this study, the Early Childhood Education Initiative is and early learning program design to enhance the media and the research-driven practices to groom the children for success in school. This program is designed to reduce the student drop-out rate, truancy and other issues, and raise the achievement level starting in Kindergarten. The power or television and the internet will be used to engage and to teach the children especially with the wide-range of media applications. Another measurable variable that I have actually personally observed work is the Baby Einstein DVD series that was produced by Disney that employed the power of television and the media application whereby my twin grandsons had developed rapidly and now in school excel at the assignments that they have to complete. This initiative is based on the same principle with other differentiations to its flavor ad is focusing on the

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core curriculum of literacy, math, reading, science, and music, with the addition social, emotional, and physical development. Another benefit of the CPB/PBS is that it will be an advantage to give the population a “Public Square” where people could have conversation from a like-mindset to allow them to connect and share their important perspectives or experiences. The PBS audience is no longer passive and being the media makers that they are based on the growth of the blogosphere, PBS must serve the public with an invitation to converse and into content curation and production process. PBS will use the lessons from some of the successful sites like MySpace and LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr as well as user participation and user ratings to determine the proper integration to guide the development and integration to be distributed nationally to member station sites and producer properties. The CPB and the PBS had reported the increase of Hispanic and African Americans to the audience based on their programs for minorities and diverse audiences (CPB/PBS December 2004). This CPB/PBS programming had not only pertained to television, but to the radio as well. Some of the other benefits were the formulation of the SAP network and captioning for the hearing impaired, the Descriptive Video Service for the blind and visually impaired, and the development of the emergency warning system for sensory challenged people. Then there is the question of the expenditures of the CPB/PBS and the funding they receive to carry out the mission statements of each affiliate and the national corporation. There are several measurable variables involved in this task and how effective they are to accomplish these tasks.

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This year is the fourth consecutive year that the PBS was ranked the most trustworthy institution in the country as the highest level of value of tax dollars, and tying the U.S. military defense. Measuring the variable of trust among organizations, PBS led that area with 49%, compared to commercial TV (ABC, NBS, CBS) 17%, and cable TV 11%. The next variable of value was a tie for the top position with the military defense at 20%. The measurement of money well spent returned a poll of 80% agreeing that the monies were well spent. The variable measurement of who funded PBS was 31% funding from individuals, with only 10% from the federal government, and 4% from the state government. Based on this evaluation of the government participation, the measurement of those surveyed, 49% of them thought that it “was too little” of a percentage. On the issues of PBS and TV Networks measuring the trust of the news and public affairs programs 41% claimed a “great deal” of trust in PBS. In the measurement of importance of having public TV, commercial TV, and cable TV, leading PBS was 59%, commercial 41%, and cable was 38%. The measurement of satisfaction was PBS 39%, Cable was 25%, and commercial was 20% as and answer to very satisfied on a four-point scale. Measurement of PBS programs doing very well on covering the important issues of both children and adults ranged from 37% – 60 %. Conclusion Based on all the information in this research and addressing the limitations addressed up above, the CPB/PBS offers the most diverse, educational, ethically and morally driven programs that are suitable for all members of the family. The commercial and cable networks should re-evaluate this research and implement the facts disclosed in the study to bring the viewers back to a time when watching TV did not mean that a

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parent or guardian had to exercise “Parental control” and “lock out” other members of the household from sexually explicit programming. I further recommend that the federal government wake up and smell the coffee because of the influence that TV has on everyone today, not just the children, and how the uncensored viewing habits now accepted as the “NORM” need to be put back in check as it was in the early days of broadcasting. There is no longer any respect for anyone with the offensive nature of the permissibility ad the unethical content of the TV programming.

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Bibliography Carter, C. (May 2006 - May 2007). PBS Foundation Executive Director's Report to the Community. Public Broadcasting Service. •

Purpura, J.F. (Archpriest). Moral and Ethical Issues: Confronting Orthodox Youth across America. http://www.antiochian.org

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Land, Richard, (Jul 18, 2007).Fight for Television Decency Lives On Southern Baptist Convention

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Brown, W.F. and Singhal, A. (Summer 1990). Communications Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 3, Pages 268-280.

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Capozzi, F.J. (September 23, 2008). A Personal Interview With Tom Curra, VP and Director of Television, WVIA.

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