2024 BEA Book Award: Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting
by Josh Shepperd, University of Colorado Boulder
For Immediate Release: March 19, 2024
Washington, D.C. – The 2024 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Book Award has been awarded to Josh Shepperd, University of Colorado Boulder for his book, Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting
“Pulling from detailed archival research, Shadow of the New Deal examines how the media reform movement built the infrastructure for U.S. public media during the 1930s. After the Communications Act of 1934 decimated access to broadcast licenses for noncommercial media, an advocacy movement emerged that applied trial and error, system building strategies to change American media policy to increase equal access to education through technology. Among reform strategies examined in this book, advocates developed a unique noncommercial mission statement, creative forms of production and distribution without advertising support, a collaborative lobby that spanned university, government, and commercial broadcasters, and convened research that inspired the discipline of communication studies. Reformers laid groundwork for U.S. public broadcasting by synthesizing a decentralized production culture, government clearing houses, audience researchers, and philanthropic groups into a coalitional structure. Besides chronicling the foundation of NPR and PBS, this historical case study points to a rare example of a media reform movement that succeeded in changing public policy.”
Josh Shepperd is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Josh designs applied policy and public humanities projects for the Library of Congress, and serves as director of the Radio Preservation Task Force and Sound Submissions Project. He is author of Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting (University of Illinois Press), and is the founding Associate Editor of Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture (University of California Press)
The BEA Book Award was established in 2020 to recognize an outstanding book written by a BEA member(s) in the field of broadcasting and mass communication. Each year the recipient will be recognized at BEA’s annual convention in Las Vegas.
About the BEA Convention – BEA’s annual convention is held in conjunction with NAB Show in Las Vegas every spring. Co-located next door at the Westgate Hotel and Casino, BEA’s annual convention attracts 1,200 educators and students with 250 sessions, events, research panels, technology workshops and an exhibit hall, making BEA the largest conference partner of NAB Show.
About the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) – BEA is the professional association for professors, industry professionals and graduate students interested in teaching and research related to electronic media and multimedia enterprises. There are currently more than 2,500 individual and institutional members worldwide. Visit www.beaweb.org for more information.
