The role of foundations in public broadcasting part I: Development and trends

Increasing commercial industry concern about corporate underwriting of public television productions has focused attention again on the overall funding situation in public broadcasting. Here the author, a doctoral student at Temple University's School of Communications and Theater, provides a broad introduction to the background, problems, and prospects for foundation support of non‐commercial broadcasting in the U.S. In a forthcoming second part of this article, she will focus specifically on the commanding role of the Ford Foundation, biggest giver in the field.