Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Structures of media ownership take the form of either public or private enterprises. “Public” refers to those media funded at least partially out of general public revenues, whereas in the general sense “private” means media whose financing is provided by individuals, families, or groups. Public media can be state-owned (as in the former Soviet Union; →  Russia: Media System ) or state-managed, controlled by the government in power (such as China's ruling Communist Party newspaper, Renmin Ribao ; →  China: Media System ), or can have a charter making them relatively independent of the state or governing power (such as Britain's →  BBC ; →  United Kingdom: Media System ). The type of structure, public or private, does not necessarily correspond either to the degree of professional freedom enjoyed by the media organ or to its quality. Some African broadcast media are modeled on the BBC but operate with far less openness and with frequent political interference (→  Africa: Media Systems ). Community media, such as community newspapers and radio stations, which typically rely on listener sponsorship and grants and receive little if any government financial support, are generally much smaller in scope and reach but often exercise considerably more freedom than their public-media counterparts and often transmit a broader range of political, social, and cultural programming (→  Community ... log in or subscribe to read full text