TASK 4

MEDIA PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS 

THIS SEMESTER-LONG ASSIGNMENT HAS 5 PARTS: You will be analyzing THE SAME BROADCAST STATION throughout all parts of this assignment

The purpose of this assignment is for you (a member of the public) to review a station's performance to determine whether it is living up to its licensing requirement TO SERVE THE PUBLIC's INTEREST, CONVENIENCE or NECESSITY (PICON). 

PICON was introduced as a licensing requirement from the beginning (Communications Act 1934). It was mentioned over 100 times so it wasn't just some off-the-cuff, empty promise made to the public. So let's do a little research to find out if your station is fulfilling its PICON promise.

STATION PROFILE

Choose a television station or a radio station (NOT BOTH) to be the subject of your station review. Here is a list of television stations by state.  (https://www.stationindex.com/tv/by-state)And here is a site to find a list of radio stations.  (https://radio-locator.com/)

 (https://radio-locator.com/)You can choose a station from anywhere in the USA. It must be a station with call letters like KSBW, WLVR, KUSP NOT a network like CNN or ESPN, or CBS, NBC, HBO, DISNEY, etc. 

PART 1: EMAIL THE STATION 

Ask a simple question or make a comment about the content (positive or negative). This is your opportunity to see whether your station responds to its audience and is SERVING THE PUBLIC's INTEREST by communicating with you.

In your email be sure to ask whether the station keeps its PUBLIC FILE online for public access (stations are allowed to post their public file online now). The FCC's rules require all broadcast stations and applicants for new stations to maintain a file available for public inspection. These rules are located in Sections 73.3526 (commercial broadcast services) and 73.3527 (noncommercial educational broadcast services) of the Commission's rules, 47 C.F.R. §§ 73.3526 and 73.3527. Many stations have digitized their public file and made it available online.

The FCC information regarding the Public Inspection File can be found at:

https://www.fcc.gov/enforcement/orders/1834

Cut-and-paste a copy of the email into this assignment.  Monitor how long it takes to receive a response (if you get one) and what kind of response you get. 

PART 2: RESEARCH YOUR STATION ONLINE 

Find out what you can about your chosen broadcast station/organization. Specifically, focus on getting answers to the following questions. If the information isn't there, just indicate that in your answer (but make a note to yourself that the station isn't serving the public very well if it isn't providing easy-to-access information):

Mission: What are the stated goals of the station? What do they stand for? What do they hope to achieve? Do they have a mission statement or slogan?

Economics: Who sponsors them? View (for television) or listen (for radio) to a few hours of programming on your chosen broadcast station. Identify at least 10 of the station's advertisers/sponsors (i.e., watch/listen to the commercials). Provide a list of these sponsors. Who is their target market or target audience? How do these advertisers attempt to persuade the people they are targeting?

Ownership: Who owns the station/organization? Trace the ownership food chain up to the corporation or conglomerate that owns the station.

Affiliations: Are they affiliated with other groups? If so, which ones? If you can judge a person by the company they keep, what do these affiliations tell you about the organization you have chosen to research?

Involvement: How can you participate in this station? List any actions this group suggests you might take to become more involved with media.

PART 3: MEDIA WATCHDOG PROFILE

This is the same assignment as Part 2 but you will do it on a non-profit, Media Watchdog Group. You will become familiar with a media "watchdog" organization of your choice (see list below or choose one yourself but let your instructor know). These organizations exist to improve media. So you can use the information you learn about their expectations to "judge or evaluate"; your station and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, come up with your own definition of THE PUBLICS' INTEREST by which you will judge your station's performance.

Provide the following information about your chosen watchdog organization that you will find on its web site. If the information isn't there, just indicate that in your answer. Specifically, you will provide the following information about your chosen media watchdog organization:

Mission: What are the stated goals of the organization? What do they stand for? What do they hope to achieve?

Economics: Who sponsors them? Who is their target market or target audience? 

Ownership: Who owns the organization? 

Affiliations: Are they affiliated with other groups? If so, which ones? If you can judge a person by the company they keep, what do these affiliations tell you about the organization you have chosen to research?

Involvement: How can you participate in this organization? List any actions this group suggests you might take to become more involved with media.

PICON Definition: What expectations does this group set for media? How does this group define PICON? Serving the Public Interest Convenience Or Necessity?

Most important: Your paper must end with what will be YOUR concrete definition of PICON (not the Media Watchdog's, but yours based upon what you've learned so far). You will use this definition as the deciding criterion to evaluate your station's performance. Here is a brief list of media-watch groups. You may find others, but please run your choice by your professor before you begin your research.