Last week, Steve Miller, Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers, spoke to us in class about Public Broadcasting (PBS).
The lecture was amazing, and my words will probably not do justice to his. However, I have to at least share with you what he told is very important.
Most people reading this article probably benefited from or know someone who got something out of watching Sesame Street on television.
This show actually enhanced education in the United States by teaching kids basic things like counting and the ABCs, while also providing entertainment (I am sure parents thanked Elmo for this part).
Why am I talking about Elmo?
Because PBS, where "Sesame Street" and other great educational shows aired, is publicly funded and some of that comes from the government. This network is based on equal-access. No matter what your paycheck looks like or whether or not you have access to cable, PBS is within the reach of every household in America.
PBS did not just show "Sesame Street." Of course, they also had programs of opera and other great things that can make a person well-rounded regardless of social status or economic class.
OK great! Elmo is a red puppet that appeared on TV, so what?
All funding for Public Media was left out of President Trump’s initial 2018-2019 Federal Budget proposal.
Having no more Elmo on PBS means that it will only stream on HBO, a private network. Therefore, you have to have cable to watch it.
NPR, a public radio station and online news source, has also experienced budget cuts like PBS, the TV network.
Cutting their budget leaves NPR and PBS with fewer resources. This, in turn, diminishes their ability to deliver news and programs of quality and substance.
Both Miller and former president Obama hinted at the problem.
As Obama said in a recent interview with David Letterman, “One of our biggest challenges that we have to our Democracy is the degree to which we don’t share a common baseline of facts.”
He continued saying, “We are operating in completely different information universes. If you watch Fox News you are living in a different planet than you are if you — you know— listen to NPR.”
SO THERE IT IS.
People are tuning in to news channels that only reinforce their views. There is a name for it. In media and social studies, it is called confirmation bias.
If we are not exposed to neutral mediums, then we’ll be narrow-minded, always holding the same view without cross-examining its validity or accuracy.
That means if we do not listen to sources that tell the facts without bias, our minds are shut. And we, as a democracy, cannot function right.
Democracy, in theory, consists of the active, rational exchange of ideas. It is not the sum of different people's bubbles. We are way too polarized to get anything done. Too biased to understand the reality outside of those bubbles.
NPR (National Public Radio) is non-partisan. It tells the facts as they come. What it does is it informs the public without unnecessary context or framing.
We need to start getting our news from there. Not just Facebook, Fox or CNN. NPR peeps.
As Miller said, “eliminating federal funding for public media is an attack on the marketplace of ideas.” This is a reference from Stuart Mill, the great philosopher.
The point is that it needs more money, not less.
“A Democracy is Only as Free as Its Ability to Communicate Ideas,” Miller said.
His point is that the spread of communication should not be left to only private companies that do not necessarily adhere to any sets of ethics or fairness.
Likewise, the quality of information we obtain in a democracy should not depend on our own ability to pay for it to find it somewhere else.
It is clearly up to us to demand the protection of the democratic dissemination of information. If not, democracy is at risk.
