Public service announcements, or PSAs, have long
been a staple of the public service programming that radio and
television broad-casters provide their audiences, though the Federal
Communications Commission has never had any quantitative standard
for their use, nor even a meaningful qualitative one. The FCC
defines PSAs as community-interest advertisements “for which
no charge is made,” though clearly many public service campaigns
are paid. Broadcast scholars have paid almost no attention to
PSAs as part of the public-service mix, focusing instead on more
traditional programming forms.
In April 2000, however, the National Association of Broadcasters
reported that of the $8.1 billion in public service its members
gave to their communities, the largest amount — $5.6 billion
— came in the form of airtime “donated” to PSAs.
Critics questioned both the NAB’s research and the motivation
for the report, which followed sharp criticism from advertising
associations and then-FCC Chairman Reed Hundt that television
broadcasters had cut the time given to PSAs. It also followed
the 1998 report of the President’s Advisory Commission on
Public Interest Obligations of Digital Broadcasters, which urged
that the FCC give new emphasis to PSAs in evaluating broadcaster
community service, particularly as the nation’s television
broadcasters convert from analog to digital transmission. Currently,
the FCC has issued two Notices of Proposed Rule Making that involve
PSAs, but it is uncertain whether the proposed rules could weather
a legal challenge. Indeed, for all the emphasis now placed on
PSAs as a significant contribution to public service programming,
their regulatory history and their prospects in the digital future
illustrate well the fundamental and long-standing flaws in the
public service compact at the heart of broadcast regulation.
Craig L. LaMay, Medill
School of Journalism, Northwestern University
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