Want to find out what's happening in your town? Turn to public TV!

by Pat Aufderheide

Want to find out what’s happening in your town? Don’t wait for the news on your local network TV station. Public TV is still covering the beat, though. That’s the news from Professors Michael Yan and Philip Napoli at Fordham University, who reported the results of a study of local public affairs coverage in the latest issue of Journal of Communication. Researchers looked at 285 TV stations, and found that public TV aired several hours of local public affairs within a two-week period, compared with commercial TV’s 45 minutes.