MIC Infographic: Raising the Bar for Journalism

A new infographic entitled “Raising the Bar for Journalism” and released by the Media, Inequality & Change Center (MIC) makes the argument that stronger funding of public media is necessary in the United States in order to support a healthy democracy.

Download the Infographic or view the infographic as text.

In the graphic, a chart displays public media spending as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 27 countries. The United States is near the very bottom, spending just $445 million of its $20 trillion GDP on public media. The graphic also notes that the world’s strongest democracies, such as Norway, Sweden, and Finland, also have the best-funded public media.

"The structural failure of for-profit journalism in the United States demands greater investment in public media in order to achieve a free and functional press."

The graphic is based on research by MIC postdoctoral fellow Timothy Neff, Ph.D., and MIC co-director Victor Picard, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

In a new op-ed for the Columbia Journalism Review, Neff and Pickard expand on the themes in the infographic, furthering their argument that the structural failure of for-profit journalism in the United States demands greater investment in public media in order to achieve a free and functional press.

MIC is a joint center between the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University.