How Public Is Public Television?

Abstract

Public television in the United States is built upon a mission of universal accessto broadcasting services. From a policy standpoint, however, the useof public television may be as important as the access to public television, because use provides the most complete measure of “how public” public television actually is. Data from the General Social Survey give a mixed evaluation of public television use. While some sociodemographic characteristics of viewers and viewing areas have little significant effect over the likelihood of viewing public television, others—such as higher education levels—strongly push it up.