Political Mode Of Transmission Of The C-span

C-SPAN (Cable Satellite Public Affairs Networks) is also known as Congress TV, is a private, non-profit, public cable television network. It is famous of reporting United States' senate and house of representatives hearing without comment and edit in 24 hours. Before C-SPAN was found, it is necessary to go to Capitol Hill in Washington observing the hearings held by the Congress. And since 1979, the American can had been able to watch representatives's every move clearly by turning on the TV at home.On the one hand, C-SPAN points the camera at the congress, to promote the fairness and transparentness of congressional affairs and public participation in political affairs. In practice, it created a new form of implementing congressional democracy through television, and promote public understanding of congress and participation of political affairs. On the other hand, with the continuous development of C-SPAN, it's report involves congress affairs, all types of political activities, current affairs, history, reading and other educational and cultural programs. As C-SPAN founder Brian·Ram said, C-SPAN's mission is to transfer the culture of emphasizing entertainment into information and education in television industry. This paper analyzes the role of television in building congressional democracy from a political point of view. In this perspective, the author choses C-SPAN as a case, meanwhile places it in the large background of the United States constitutional system to study the possibility of its existence and its communication strategy and effectiveness. First of all, the Constitution guarantees the freedom of television, while to regulate television, congress adopts the principle of "public interest, convenience and demand", so that TV as a "public trustee" exists. These factors provides system protection for the development of public affairs television. Secondly, the cable television industry's development as well as provides hardware support for C-SPAN found. Sponsored by 18 cable operators, private C-SPAN does not broadcast advertisements, not rely on congress fund, only to rely on subscription to operate independently. Without restrictions on policy and advertisers, it create conditions to realize "television democracy" for C-SPAN.Therefore, the study on C-SPAN's developmentment mode enriches the research of our country on the U.S. television system in theory, explores the potential space of television in the political communication field.