The Public Television Project

This project focused on the meaning of “public interest” communication in a 500-channel marketplace, with particular emphasis on television’s failure to fulfill its potential as an educational medium. Although broadcasters are licensed by the government to serve the public interest, market forces led broadcasters to cater to their advertisers, rather than the public. The project’s leaders issued their report as a challenge to the American people to demand better educational and informational programs for children, and more parental control of violence on television. They argue that invoking the First Amendment as a defense of unrestricted freedom to broadcast is improper. The resulting book, Abandoned in the Wasteland: Children, Television, and the First Amendment, won the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association in 1996.

Resulting Publication

• Abandoned in the Wasteland: Children, Television, and the First Amendment, by Newton N. Minow and Craig L. LaMay. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995. Available from publisher.