Public broadcasting

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 listener contributions via pledge drives. The great majority are operated as private not-for-profit corporations.

Public broadcasting may be nationally or locally operated, depending on the country and the station. In some countries, public broadcasting is run by a single organization. Other countries have multiple public broadcasting organizations operating regionally or in different languages. Historically, public broadcasting was once the dominant or only form of broadcasting in many countries (with the notable exception of the United States). Commercial broadcasting now also exists in most of these countries; the number of countries with only public broadcasting declined substantially during the latter part of the 20th century.

Connecticut Public Television

Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) is the PBS member network for the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is owned by Connecticut Public Broadcasting, who also owns the state's National Public Radio member, Connecticut Public Radio (WNPR). Together, the television and radio stations make up the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network. CPBN is the state's only locally owned media organization producing TV, radio, print and Internet content for distribution to Connecticut's wide-ranging and diverse communities. The broadcasting company is led by Jerry Franklin, President of CPTV. The organizational structure of CPTV also includes a Board of Trustees.

History

The network's first station, WEDH in Hartford, signed on in 1962, airing broadcasts in "black and white" at the Trinity College Library. It was the fourth educational television station in New England, following WGBH-TV in Boston, WENH-TV in Durham, New Hampshire (now part of New Hampshire Public Television), and WCBB in Augusta, Maine (now part of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network). Originally a member of National Educational Television, it joined PBS in 1969. Originally known as Connecticut Educational Television, it became Connecticut Public Television in 1984.

American Public Television

American Public Television (APT) is the largest syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States. APT continues to distribute a wide variety of public television programs nationally, as well as administering the Create and World channels on public TV.

History

Eastern Educational Television Network

APT began in 1961 as the Eastern Educational Television Network (EEN). At first EEN was a regional cooperative that began to exchange programs between a couple of its member stations. EEN incorporated in 1961. EEN was one of the first distributors of shows such as The French Chef (with Julia Child) in 1963,Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and Washington Week in Review on a national basis.

Another first from EEN was the distribution starting in 1970 of Newsfront, America's first live and non-commercial daily news program. EEN introduced Wall Street Week in November 1970 before PBS began distributing it nationwide in January 1972. EEN began the import to America of BBC and CBC productions in 1974 with Monty Python's Flying Circus being one of them. In 1978, the EEN started the Free Library

Bob Ross

Robert Norman "Bob" Ross (October 29, 1942 – July 4, 1995) was an American painter, art instructor, and television host. He was best known as the creator and host of The Joy of Painting, an instructional television program that aired from 1983 to 1994 on PBS in the United States, and also aired in Canada, Latin America and Europe.

Biography

Early life

Ross was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, and raised in Orlando, Florida. He had a half-brother, Jim, whom he mentioned in passing on his show. While working as a carpenter with his father, Ross lost part of his left index finger, but it did not affect the way he held his palette while painting.

Personal life

Ross had two sons, Bob and Steven, with his first wife, Lynda Brown. Steven occasionally appeared on The Joy of Painting and became a Ross-certified instructor. The last episode of Season 1 was a question-and-answer forum in which Steven read a series of general "how-to" questions sent in by viewers during the season, and Bob answered them one at a time, technique by technique, until he had completed an entire painting.

Public

In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the Öffentlichkeit or public sphere. The concept of a public has also been defined in political science, psychology, marketing, and advertising. In public relations and communication science, it is one of the more ambiguous concepts in the field. Although it has definitions in the theory of the field that have been formulated from the early 20th century onwards, it has suffered in more recent years from being blurred, as a result of conflation of the idea of a public with the notions of audience, market segment, community, constituency, and stakeholder.

The name "public" originates with the Latin publicus (also poplicus), from populus, and in general denotes some mass population ("the people") in association with some matter of common interest. So in political science and history, a public is a population of individuals in association with civic affairs, or affairs of office or state. In social psychology, marketing, and public relations, a public has a more situational definition.John Dewey defined (Dewey 1927) a public as a group of people who, in facing a similar problem, recognize it and organize themselves to address it. Dewey's definition of a public is thus situational: people organized about a situation. Built upon this situational definition of a public is the situational theory of publics by James E. Grunig (Grunig 1983), which talks of nonpublics (who have no problem), latent publics (who have a problem), aware publics (who recognize that they have a problem), and active publics (who do something about their problem).