Carnegie Commission on Educational Television

Last updated October 01, 2019

The Carnegie Commission on Educational Television was established in 1965 by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in the United States. This commission was created to research the role noncommercial educational television played on society in America. The 15 member commission attempted to carry out this goal by; distinguishing between commercial television, entertainment for large mass audiences: instructional television, in-class educational material, and public television. Public television was considered anything else that largely helped public affairs and was not supported by advertising.^[1]

The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establish institutions that include the United States National Research Council, what was then the Russian Research Center at Harvard University, the Carnegie libraries and the Children's Television Workshop. It also for many years generously funded Carnegie's other philanthropic organizations, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT), and the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS).

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City. Most of the country is located contiguously in North America between Canada and Mexico.

Educational television or learning television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that is often associated with cable television in the United States as Public, educational, and government access (PEG) channel providers.

Early history

The commission first gained momentum at the First National Conference on Long-Range Financing of Educational Television Stations in December 1964. Although not created until 1965, the commission was first incepted at this conference.^[2]

An academic conference or scientific conference is an event for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.

Public Television: A Program for Action

On January 26, 1967, the commission published its most famous and influential report on broadcast history, Public Television: A Program for Action. The reports main rhetoric was persuading America’s institutions (and proposing new institutions) to enhance educational television. Among the final recommendations in the report were; that a Corporation for Public Television be created to receive and disburse funds from the government and other sources, that it support at least two national and many local production agencies, that it seek ways to encourage interconnection of stations, and that sufficient funds, not subject to the annual appropriation process, be provided through a 2-5% tax on television receivers. The recommendations of the report were stated with 12 actions to be carried out by Congress and the Commission itself, although some of these actions were vague as to whom the primary target was.^[3]

In law and government, appropriation is the act of setting apart something for its application to a particular usage, to the exclusion of all other uses.

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, and consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Congress has 535 voting members: 435 representatives and 100 senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members representing Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia in addition to its 435 voting members. Although they cannot vote in the full house, these members can address the house, sit and vote in congressional committees, and introduce legislation.

Sections

The following actions were used by the Commission to persuade U.S. political institutions to enhance educational television, authorize the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and provide said organization with funds, and sponsor further research and studies to improve and advocate educational television. These actions also included steps that the proposed Corporation for Public Broadcasting should carry out to reach their goals.^[4]

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American non-profit corporation created in 1967 by an act of the United States Congress and funded by the federal government to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services. It does so by distributing more than 70 percent of its funding to more than 1,400 locally owned public radio and television stations.

“We recommend concerted efforts at the federal, state, and local levels to improve the facilities and to provide for the adequate support of the individual educational television stations and to increase their number.”
“We recommend that Congress act promptly to authorize and to establish a federally chartered, nonprofit, nongovernmental corporation, to be known as the "Corporation for Public Television." The Corporation should be empowered to receive and disburse governmental and private funds in order to extend and improve Public Television programming. The Commission considers the creation of the Corporation fundamental to its proposal and would be most reluctant to recommend the other parts of its plan unless the corporate entity is brought into being.”
“We recommend that the Corporation support at least two national production centers, and that it be free to contract with independent producers to prepare Public Television programs for educational television stations.”
“We recommend that the Corporation support, by appropriate grants and contracts, the production of Public Television programs by local stations for more-than-local use.”
“We recommend that the Corporation on appropriate occasions help support local programming by local stations.”
“We recommend that the Corporation provide the educational television system as expeditiously as possible with facilities for live interconnection by conventional means, and that it be enabled to benefit from advances in technology as domestic communications satellites are brought into being. The Commission further recommends that Congress act to permit the granting of preferential rates for educational television for the use of interconnection facilities, or to permit their free use, to the extent that this may not be possible under existing law.”
“We recommend that the Corporation encourage and support research and development leading to the improvement of programming and program production.”
“We recommend that the Corporation support technical experimentation designed to improve the present television technology.”
“We recommend that the Corporation undertake to provide means by which technical, artistic, and specialized personnel may be recruited and trained.”
“We recommend that Congress provide the federal funds required by the Corporation through a manufacturer's excise tax on television sets (beginning at 2 percent and rising to a ceiling of 5 percent). The revenues should be made available to the Corporation through a trust fund.”
“We recommend new legislation to enable the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to provide adequate facilities for stations now in existence, to assist in increasing the number of stations to achieve nationwide coverage, to help support the basic operations of all stations, and to enlarge the support of instructional television programming.”
“We recommend that federal, state, local, and private educational agencies sponsor extensive and innovative studies intended to develop better insights into the use of television in formal and informal education."^[5]

Reception

Public Television: A Program for Action sold 50,000 copies in just a few days and received wide attention. The report also led to rapid and drastic actions. President Johnson mentioned public television in his 1967 State of the Union address, and shortly afterwards proposed legislation that was similar to the proposals in the report. In November 1967, the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 became law and created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).^[6]

Lyndon Baines Johnson, often referred to as LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. Formerly the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A Democrat from Texas, Johnson also served as a United States Representative and as the Majority Leader in the United States Senate. Johnson is one of only four people who have served in all four federal elected positions.

The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 set up public broadcasting in the United States, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and, eventually, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and National Public Radio (NPR).

Related Research Articles

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government created by statute to regulate interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. The FCC maintains jurisdiction over the areas of broadband access, fair competition, radio frequency use, media responsibility, public safety, and homeland security.

Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. In much of the world, funding comes from the government, especially via annual fees charged on receivers. In the United States, public broadcasters may receive some funding from both federal and state sources, but generally most financial support comes from underwriting by foundations and businesses ranging from small shops to corporations, along with audience contributions via pledge drives. The great majority are operated as private not-for-profit corporations.

National Educational Television (NET) was a United States educational broadcast television network that operated from May 16, 1954 to October 4, 1970. It was owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It was succeeded by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which has memberships with many television stations that were formerly part of NET.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce that serves as the President's principal adviser on telecommunications policies pertaining to the United States' economic and technological advancement and to regulation of the telecommunications industry.

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References

↑ "Public Broadcasting PolicyBase". Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Summary, 1967. Current Publishing Committee and National Public Broadcasting Archives. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
↑ "Carnegie Commission on Educational Television". National Public Broadcasting Archives. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
↑ "Public Broadcasting PolicyBase". Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Summary, 1967. Current Publishing Committee and National Public Broadcasting Archives. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
↑ "Public Broadcasting PolicyBase". Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Summary, 1967. Current Publishing Committee and National Public Broadcasting Archives. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
↑ "Public Broadcasting PolicyBase". Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Summary, 1967. Current Publishing Committee and National Public Broadcasting Archives. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
↑ Sterling, Kittross, Christopher, John (1990). Stay Tuned: A Concise History of American Broadcasting. Wadsworth Publishing Company. p. 389. ISBN 0-534-11905-0.

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[1] "Public Broadcasting PolicyBase". Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Summary, 1967. Current Publishing Committee and National Public Broadcasting Archives. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2011.

[2] "Carnegie Commission on Educational Television". National Public Broadcasting Archives. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2013.

[3] "Public Broadcasting PolicyBase". Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Summary, 1967. Current Publishing Committee and National Public Broadcasting Archives. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2011.

[4] "Public Broadcasting PolicyBase". Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Summary, 1967. Current Publishing Committee and National Public Broadcasting Archives. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2011.

[5] "Public Broadcasting PolicyBase". Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Summary, 1967. Current Publishing Committee and National Public Broadcasting Archives. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2011.

[6] Sterling, Kittross, Christopher, John (1990). Stay Tuned: A Concise History of American Broadcasting. Wadsworth Publishing Company. p. 389. ISBN 0-534-11905-0.