Digital Future of Public Media

Because the airwaves are owned equally by all Americans, revenue from spectrum auctions and fees could be earmarked for reinvestment in new public assets for the digital era-including quality children's programming, educational innovation, digitizing our cultural inheritance, and expanded civic discourse. A spectrum trust could help to fulfill the public interest obligations of broadcasters and other commercial spectrum users. One such proposal, the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust (DOIT), follows in the footsteps of such historic reinvestments as the… more

It is well established that political information shares the characteristics of a public good (Downs 1957; Popkin 1991). People won’t acquire the socially optimal amount of political information because they can’t reap the full benefit of their investment. Recognizing that a well-informed populace is essential to a healthy democracy, the government grants major media substantial public subsidies and special legal protections (Cook 1998). In return, the media take on the costs of monitoring the government that individual members of the… more