Deadline: 2019 Public Service Data Due Jan. 10
posted on 1.06.2020- Show Us Your Best Good Works!
Texas TV and Radio stations have until this Friday, Jan. 10, to complete TAB’s annual survey of broadcasters’ community service contributions.
This ascertainment is crucial to TAB’s efforts to ensure policymakers understand the unique role broadcasters play in the media marketplace.
Meanwhile, newsrooms are encouraged to take advantage of the new state Open Government law TAB helped pass by re-submitting public information requests previously rejected under the Boeing or Greater Houston Partnership court rulings.
TAB’s annual public service research project started in 1998 and has so far documented nearly $6 billion in public service contributions to local communities throughout the state by Texas broadcasters.
On average, about 15 percent of stations participate in this survey.
TAB does not extrapolate figures for non-responding stations, so the dollar value reported is far below the actual value of stations’ good works.
This year’s survey includes a request for stations to highlight a singular project that represents their most impactful undertaking of 2019, be it an investigative report or series, charitable cause or community project conducted by a station or cluster.
Stations have the option of attaching a PDF encompassing the answer to their survey response.
Selected examples will be highlighted in the final report to policymakers, though all data requested will be presented in aggregate form only on behalf of all Texas stations.
Responses are being evaluated by Dr. August “Augie” Grant, a former TAB Board member and professor in the College of Communications at UT-Austin. He now serves as the J. Rion McKissick professor of journalism at the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
- New Open Government Law Takes Effect
As TAB first requested of newsrooms last month, broadcast journalists whose previous public information requests were rejected under the state Supreme Court’s Boeing and Greater Houston Partnership rulings are encouraged to refile them and report the outcome to TAB.
Passing the new Open Government law was one of TAB’s most significant achievements of the 2019 legislative session. Journalists’ insights into how it’s working will help us advise lawmakers on the progress of the new law’s implementation.
The Austin American-Stateman recently reported on which requests they’re refiling.
Questions? Contact TAB’s Oscar Rodriguez or call (512) 322-9944.
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