@article{1438611,
      recid = {1438611},
      author = {Bennett, James T.,},
      title = {The history and politics of public radio : a comprehensive  analysis of taxpayer-financed US broadcasting /},
      pages = {1 online resource (vii, 133 pages)},
      abstract = {This book presents an absorbing study of how educational  radio, which originated to broadcast weather forecasts to  farmers, has become what the Pew Center calls the most  trusted source of news for American liberals and a regular  in the rogue's gallery of election-year conservative  targets. The Nielsen Company reported in late 2019 that 272  million Americans listen to "traditional radio" each week,  a number exceeding those who watch television, use a  smartphone, or access the Internet. Yet almost from the  start, radio has also been flayed as a noise box of  inanity, a transmitter of low-brow entertainment, an  instrument of cultural degradation promoting vapid popular  music, and a medium whose ultimate purpose is to convince  listeners to purchase the goods and services incessantly  hawked by the advertisers who underwrite the programs and  allegedly dictate content. At the same time, an alternative  conception of radio existed as a vehicle for education and  for cultural and intellectual (and even political)  enlightenment. Most proponents of this perspective  disdained advertising revenue and sought subsidies from  foundations, wealthy patrons, or varying levels of  government. The long, winding road of educational radio led  eventually to the creation of National Public Radio (NPR),  a fixture on the left of the dial that can be seen as  either the consummation or corruption of the educational  radio movement. Prized by many liberals, especially  affluent whites, and disparaged by many conservatives, NPR  has become a potent symbol of the political polarization  and cultural chasm that now characterizes the American  conversation},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1438611},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80019-2},
}