Page 90 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

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the Post Office urging use of zip codes) or the National Association of
Broadcasters, as an aid to member stations. Currently, both taxpayer and
freely contributed dollars have provided a large number of such
announcements (PSAs) directed against drug abuse, which broadcasters
show without charge as their contribution to the Reagan
Administration’s ‘Just Say No [to Drugs]’ campaign. But this is a
government campaign that uses broadcasting among other means.
Broadcasting is on board, but not in the driver’s seat. If the PSAs are
orchestrated by station management into a larger plan that uses other
formats of on-air programming, plus off-air activities, then it is a
communications community campaign. Stations often do this: the latest
NAB survey indicates that when it comes, for instance, to AIDS issues,
local stations not only show PSAs (85 per cent), use local news stories
on the issue (57 per cent), feature it on their own public affairs
programs (27.7 per cent) and locally produce their own PSAs (17.7 per
cent), they also participate in community outreach activities off-air (22.
1 per cent). It should also be noted that 23.1 per cent of all such
programming focuses on strictly local matters that often include fund-
raising for charities. 21
Just as the NAB does, network and group owners often provide
packages of PSAs on a given theme, the current favorites being drug
22
abuse, drunken driving and AIDS. Some local stations might not have
the facilities to produce acceptably slick spots nor access to national
celebrities who often donate their time to nationally distributed PSAs. But
another important reason is to protect the local station from being
deluged with requests for free time by plugging the holes with
unimpeachably ‘safe’ spots for ‘safe’ causes. Saving the saved, of
course, is the essence of integrative propaganda.
Local stations also often contribute time for fund-raising
announcements from area charities. These activities are often
called campaigns, but they are not usually tied to any organized station
effort beyond themselves.
The focused orchestration of a variety of marketing tools toward a
particular goal, and one that could gain underwriting from commercial
sponsors, is one that naturally arises in a commercial system. But
nothing happens without leadership. One of the chief American
executives responsible for creating the commercial campaign is Mr
Lawrence Fraiberg, now President of MCA Broadcasting and formerly
head of television for Group W or Westinghouse Broadcasting
Company, which today is the only syndicator (packager for other