Michael Huntsberger

The New “Podagogy”: Incorporating Podcasting into Journalism Education

This report documents the results of a pilot study of the use of podcasting technology in a lower division course at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Based on a survey of 209 undergraduate students, the study reports high levels of usage and satisfaction with content and delivery, and suggests the technology added value to class content for students.

Attempting an Affirmative Approach to American Broadcasting: Ideology, Politics, and the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program

The Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) was the largest source of capital funding for U.S. public broadcasters for nearly fifty years. Between 1963 and 2010, the PTFP distributed more than

Politics and Poster Children: A Historical Assessment of Radio Outcomes in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967

800 million to support the construction of public broadcasting facilities. Though the PTFP itself was generally noncontroversial, the fortunes of the program were complicated by the partisan politics of public broadcasting and federal fiscal policy. This study provides evidence of the ambiguous and contingent nature of the American approach to public broadcasting, and demonstrates some of the problems associated with affirmative efforts by government to advance public communication.

With the Support of Listeners Like You: Lessons from U.S. Public Radio

Just over half of the noncommercial radio stations in the United States contributed in some way to the lobbying campaign that led to the inclusion of radio in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. Most of these stations were associated with educational institutions, and were uniformly represented to federal authorities as “educational radio,” though the universe of noncommercial stations in the late 1960s was more nuanced and diverse. When federal financial assistance was finally achieved, the programs proved to be too exclusive or too expensive for some of the parties who had helped to move the Act from conception to reality. In the decades following enactment, activists for community, low power, and part time stations endeavored to correct the problems that grew out of the original legislation. For audiences, the primary consequence has been a public radio system that is less inclusive and diverse than it could have been.