PEG Access TV Embraces Online Journalism as Funding Uncertainty Grows

With the nation's non-profit public-access television services often unable to count on a reliable stream of government-enforced funding from the cable industry, many are beginning to embrace the Internet and even journalism training as ways to further their public-service mission.

The change is spurred by two counterbalancing trends. On the one hand, large cities such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas have pulled the plug on funding for public-access cable services. On the other hand, the plunging cost and easy use of web-based video technology is making it easier for the services that remain to embrace an entirely new method for delivering citizen-generated multimedia and information to mobile- and web-enabled citizens. In the process, the managers of an industry once know by the acronym "PEG access" - for Public, Educational and Government access cable television - are increasingly thinking of themselves as "Community Media Centers" that embrace multiple delivery methods.