Public media is under attack in Washington, but a new report by Rodney Benson and Matthew Powers of New York University examines how expanding, not cutting, federal funding can actually promote quality, independent journalism.

Public Media and Political Independence: Lessons for the Future of Journalism from Around the World was released Tuesday during a panel discussion that featured several prominent media scholars and journalists.

The study analyzes public media systems in 14 democratic countries, from Australia to Finland and France to Japan, examining how they fund public media and ensure its autonomy, protecting it from partisan political meddling. At the panel, Matt Powers, one of the co-authors of the report, pointed out that “In every single country studied, public media provide higher quality and more public affairs coverage, wider range of viewpoints and more critique of government than commercial counterparts.”

Co-author Rodney Benson explained their findings about the best public media in the world:

We found that the best public media – the most independent and critical of government – were also the best funded. Safeguarded from the kind of partisan interference that has become all too common in this country, public media in the U.K., Germany, and other leading democracies are a key reason why their citizens are much more knowledgeable about government and international affairs than are U.S. citizens. Our research shows that quality public media strengthen the quality of democracy. Amount of funding isn’t everything. But it does make a difference.

The report comes as threats to defund public media in the U.S. are growing. The House is expected to vote today on a budget bill that would eliminate all federal funding for public media, despite calls by millions of Americans to save Sesame Street.

At the event, Hartmut Wessler of the University of Mannheim discussed similarities between the semi-decentralized German public media system and the American public broadcasting network that is driven by local stations. However, in Germany they spend nearly $130 per capita on their publicly funded journalism efforts and the impact has been profound. Wessler also discussed new research showing a correlation between investments in public media and levels of education across society. He advocated for an understanding of public media as not only a place for critical journalism, but also a space for vital debate and dialogue.

While the BBC is often held up as a model of what public broadcasting could aspire to, British media policy scholar Emily Bell argued that it may be difficult to compare the two. In the U.K., the first broadcasters were the BBC, and the entire media system grew up around that. In America, most of the public airwaves were handed over to commercial broadcasters early on. However, Bell argued that the BBC could suggest some lessons for American public broadcasting about breaking down the barriers between types of content and how to be forward thinking in the digital space.

The issue of how our public media system is structured was of particular concern to Ellen Goodman of Rutgers University. Goodman suggested that public media needs to rethink who it is and how it operates to reclaim and redefine its mission. For Goodman, it is vital to be exploring international models as we think about how we need to reform our own system. Indeed, Goodman said the question of public media and political independence will be increasingly important in places like Egypt, where state media will need to be transitioned to public media.

There was a robust debate at the event about how best to save public media and how best to change it, and whether it was realistic to even aspire to the levels of funding other countries provide for their public media systems. However, the moderator, Vince Stehle, argued, “Maybe it is precisely in these times of crisis that we need to think big. Maybe right now is the time to dare to dream.” He then asked the audience how many of them would want to see an expanded public media system in America and hands shot up across the room.

“At a time when commercial media in the U.S. are shutting down foreign bureaus and laying off reporters in droves, public media are needed more than ever to fill the gap,” Benson said. “So zeroing out the CPB at this moment in history is incredibly short-sighted. We should be talking about expanding, not cutting public media.”

See Rodney Benson's presentation below: