Why We Need Publicaly Funded Media
- Jun 28, 2014
- 2 min read
Getting back from a 3-week vacation in England, I realized the BBC is still a very recognizable and influential radio and television station over there. It provides very good programing for all sorts of interests. Whenever my English friends and family turned on the radio they would listen to BBC. It was automatic, like brushing one's teeth before bedtime.
The BBC is far bigger and prominent than the NPR or the Canadian equivalent, the CBC, and as a result provides the British people with prospective about life, history and culture North Americans are unaccoustomed to.
I know many are against having a publically funded radio station (especially in the U.S. and Canada) but I have to disagree. I believe there is something to be said for having a radio station that doesn’t have to candor to the populists’ tastes. Yes, I’m looking at you Lady Gaga.
National radio can explore national topics such as identity, history, culture, and political matters. These things are important for a country—any country, even if the numbers don’t support the cold, hard dollars behind the advertisements. National radio creates intangible effects that cannot be measured. Ideas that disseminate in a population. They forge bonds across vast distances.
The States, of course, are naturally good at creating national identity, mostly because they have a vast population and because Hollywood does the job for them. But I would argue a strong NPR would build a stronger nation, create a unifying togetherness that they seem to be lacking. The United States are at a crucial junction. Detroit is falling to pieces, yet nobody seems to give a damn and Obama Care is dividing the nation.
Canada too would benefit from a stronger CBC. It perpetually suffers from middle child syndrome. It constantly looks up to the bigger brother, the United States, forging ahead with its strong mannerisms and forthright nature. Then it looks to it’s other brother, England, which is demanding and acts out just to gain attention from everybody else.
Yet Canada has a lot to be proud of and CBC has some of the best programs in the form of The Fifth Estate, Strombo, The Nature of Things and Q. Yet funding keeps getting cut, jobs are being lost and Canadians continue to lose something that is precious, even if they don’t realize. Shows like ZeD that focused on esoteric creative works from new artists and its viewers.
Although public radio and television costs more in the form of taxes and fees, the benefit of having an educated and cultured nation is beyond compare.
written by Joel Mark Harris
I am a freelance writer, journalist, and film producer, please check out my latest book Shame the Devil here
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