Clarifying Public Institution:the Construction Of Public Television In China

The craving for Public Television has never subsided in China. When it comes to the cruxes in the past and the approaches in the future, BBC and PBS undoubtedly are the optimal models, which represent two typical types of public service broadcasting (PSB). For this research, political propaganda, economic performance and public service have built up the value index system; perception, institution and substance are brought in jointly to define the standard for public television.Though born as public institution, Chinese broadcasting system shares aspects in common with occidental perception of PSB, the differences are more significant. For one, the original concept of public institution includes both indexes in which political propaganda always outweighs public service. For another, during the industrialization of broadcasting in China, economic performance showed up as a new index to complicate the value system, which led to further neglecting to public service. Contrarily, BBC and PBS not only survived the impact of commercialization, but also have been holding on the primary position for public service.Still, Chinese broadcasting system has been putting efforts to reconstruct public service since the end of last century, as implied by the concept of public institution. To discuss in this respect, broadcasting groups, West Channel, Agriculture Channel, Public Channel and especially Chongqing TV which tried to peel off all commerce elements, have been introduced to this research for case analysis. To highlight, the reasons why they all ended up in failure would be the main concerns.Also, NHK of Japan and PTS of Taiwan, as the supplement to BBC and PBS, could definitely offer some enlightenment to the conclusions.Stated as suggestions on constructing public television in China, the conclusions are presumptive and open to discussion. For perception, public service should be clarified from political propaganda. For institution, systematic reform based on classification of three value indexes would be of great urgency. And for substance, program content and employee’s independent management should be paid high attention.