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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Communications PBS SINGS THE BLUES: A HIGH-PROFILE DOCUMENTARY SERIES, COMMERCIAL MEDIA PRACTICES, AND MODERN PUBLIC BROADCASTING A Dissertation in Mass Communications by Heather McIntosh © 2009 Heather McIntosh Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2009 The dissertation of Heather McIntosh was reviewed and approved* by the following: Matthew P. McAllister Professor of Communications Dissertation Co-Adviser Co-Chair of Committee Kevin J. Hagopian Senior Lecturer of Communications Dissertation Co-Adviser Co-Chair of Committee Jeanne Lynn Hall Associate Professor of Communications Deborah F. Atwater Associate Professor Emerita of Communication Arts and Sciences and African and African American Studies John S. Nichols Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research * Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. iii Abstract With its federal funding never guaranteed, U.S. public broadcasting has struggled from its formal inception in 1967 to achieve its mission and ideals. Originally conceived as operating independent from commercial interests and thereby serving greater audiences with more diverse programming, public broadcasting increasingly has partnered with companies in order to survive. Martin Scorsese's 2003 documentary series The Blues represents an extreme in those partnerships. This dissertation explores The Blues as a discursive and political-economic form in the context of the changing nature of public broadcasting. Specifically, it examines discourses and political economic practices associated with the series. The discursive categories analyzed are the auteur, genre/program scheduling, commercial sponsorship, and the blockbuster. Directors working in Hollywood and commercial television each created an episode for the series, and their positioning as auteurs raises questions about connections between public broadcasting and for-profit media. PBS's counterprogramming strategies demonstrate how this series works within and against the scheduling standards of the service and show how its generic structure and construction facilitates its distribution to and exhibition in other venues. Volkswagen's exclusive national sponsorship pushes the boundaries between not-for-profit and commercial interests, and becomes a model for future corporate sponsorships. The blockbuster model illustrates how PBS becomes a conduit for big media's workings, while the service manages to fulfill its expectations. Overall, the series shows an extent of public broadcasting's vulnerability, and without a source of permanent, independent funding, it becomes even more vulnerable to both governmental and commercial interests. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables................................................................................................................................v Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................vi Chapter One. Introduction, Series Overview, and Dissertation Overview..................................1 Chapter Two. A Brief Political Overview of U.S. Public Broadcasting: Historical Developments and Current Structure.........................................................................................22 Chapter Three. Auteurs and their Personal Visions of The Blues..............................................50 Chapter Four. Broadcasting The Blues: Mixing Genre, Scheduling, and PBS Identity.............86 Chapter Five. Volkswagen, Sponsorship and The Blues..........................................................129 Chapter Six. PBS, The Blues, and the Documentary Blockbuster Series................................155 Chapter Seven. Conclusions.....................................................................................................198 Bibliography.............................................................................................................................208 v List of Tables Table One: Series CDs, Their Types, and Their Labels...........................................................197 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to the following for their assistance, guidance, and support: Dr. Matthew P. McAllister, Dr. Kevin J. Hagopian, Dr. Jeanne Lynn Hall, Dr. Deborah F. Atwater, Dr. Gary Burns, Dr. Jeffrey P. Chown, Dr. Edward Whitelock, Dr. Leanne C. Powner, Dr. Keston Pierre, Dr. Kalen Churcher, Dr. Karen E. Whedbee, Jocelyn Gonzalez, Jeff Moga, Chris Gerke, Aaron Oleksa, Rob, and of course, Mom and Dad. 1 CHAPTER ONE: Introduction, Series Overview, and Dissertation Overview On a Sunday evening in late September 2003, you turn on your local PBS station and see a delivery man waiting by an elevator and singing, "That spoon, that spoon." Subsequent shots show other people humming or singing the same words. The style of the shots, the editing, and the tone seem odd for this station. At first, you stop and double check: Is this PBS? Then, a red Volkswagen Passat cruises around a city block, and the exchange from the two men inside suggest they seek a parking spot on the crowded street. The song the other people were singing or humming, Willie Dixon's "Spoonful," blasts from the car's stereo. Just before you change the channel because you are convinced you have the wrong one, the announcer says, "Volkswagen proudly sponsors the PBS film series that explores the power of the blues." The Volkswagen logo and its "Drivers wanted" slogan then get superimposed on a blank screen. Without the announcer mentioning PBS, this spot might otherwise be an advertisement on commercial television. Public television came to the United States long after the dominance of private, commercial interests. In 1967 The Carnegie Commission on Educational Television outlined an opportunity to create an alternative to the commercial system that would fill the gaps left by commercial interests. In its report, the Commission explained this need: "We recognize that commercial television is obliged for the most part to search for the uniformities within the general public, and to apply its skills to satisfy the uniformities it has found. Somehow we must seek out the diversities as well, and meet them, too, with the full body of skills necessary for their satisfaction" (Conant et. al. 13-14). In the commission's eyes, seeking these diversities required independence from the commercial constraints imposed by profit-driven broadcasting. These constraints reached for uniformity over diversity, for entertainment over knowledge, for lulling audiences over challenging them. The goal of 2 commercial broadcasting was to create a suitable environment for advertising, not necessarily for a democratic society. The commission believed that public broadcasting's financial independence from advertising and other commercial activities would allow socio-cultural diversities to emerge and thrive. The members suggested a tax on television sets to fund these initiatives, though they also considered "removing restrictions which prevent educational television from accepting advertising" and converting "educational television to some kind of pay television," among others (Conant et. al 71). Overall, the commission stressed a fund independent from government and commercial constraints. Many of the commission's suggestions became integrated into the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, but with a notable exception: the independent form of funding. Established by the act, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was forced to appeal to the federal government for funding on a regular basis. This decision had profound ramifications for the development and nature of public broadcasting. The second Carnegie Commission on public broadcasting studied the system about ten years into its operation and found "the effects of underfinancing have often been at the root of public broadcasting's other difficulties," not to mention stunting the service's attempts to reach its full potential (94). As a result public broadcasting sought revenues from other areas and even "adopted private television revenue models, such as sponsorship of programs, near-advertisements, and 'strategic partnerships' with private companies" (Noam and Waltermann 8-9). The Volkswagen spot, which resembles the more explicit commercial messages in the automotive manufacturer's "Drivers wanted" campaign, represents just a small component of a relationship between public broadcasting and a 2003 Martin Scorsese-led project titled The Blues. This dissertation will explore that relationship. From its inception, public broadcasting has drawn criticism for its productions and practices. Several of these criticisms cite the service's increasing commercialism as part of the reason for its decline and even downfall. In the 1994 book Public Television for Sale: Media, the Market, and the Public Sphere, William Hoynes argues that the market has hindered public television's attempts to meet 3 its operational goals (157). He explains how "insulation from market forces (and the ideology of market television) will be central to formulating strategies for constructing a more democratic public television" (Hoynes 157). In 2003 Hoynes reflects on his earlier book and its findings, and he observes how quickly public broadcasting has shifted to the market model since his book's publication ("PBS Brand" 42). Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting Executive Director Jerold M. Starr explains how