ABSTRACT
In the early twenty-first century, public television in the United States is in the midst of a dramatic transformation. This is the result, in part, of the continuing changes in the structure of the broadcast industry and of the development of new digital media technologies. At the same time, the changes in public television are shaped by a broader ideological environment that celebrates the free market and produces a concomitant suspicion of the public sector. In this climate, thirty-five years after the initial Public Broadcasting Act, public television is, once again, in search of a mission. And rather than turning to the tradition of public service broadcasting, public broadcasters are looking to the world of advertising and marketing as they define their new vision of public television.
