The Documentary Site

(formerly Reality Film)

Subject Guides: Public Television (U.S.)

Documentary provides the foundation for programming on U.S. public broadcasting, from series such as NOVA to Ken Burns' semi-regular productions. Much of the literature on the subject questions the success and future of the endeavor. Only a couple address the intersections of the form and the service.

Subject Overview

The following books provide an overview of U.S. public broadcasting and raise some questions from different critical vantage points, including political economy and cultural studies. They may address documentary programming throughout, but they do not focus exclusively on the form.

• Engelman, Ralph. Public Radio and Television in America: A Political History. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996
• Hoynes, William. Public Television for Sale: Media, the Market, and the Public Sphere. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1994.
• Ledbetter, James. Made Possible By: The Death of Public Broadcasting in the United States. New York: Verso, 1998.
• Oullette, Laurie. Viewers Like You? How Public TV Failed the People. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

Documentary

These are some texts that address documentary and U.S. public broadcasting specifically.

• Bullert, B.J. Public Television: Politics and the Battle over Documentary Film. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
• Dornfeld, Barry. Producing Public Television, Producing Public Culture. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1998.

My list for watching at least one documentary a week for an entire year