ABSTRACT
The concepts of public media or public broadcasting usually refer to radio (→ III/40) and TV (→ III/43) services provided by a State (→ II/38) that sees it as its obligation to offer information for its citizens and spark conversations around national or global public issues. By these means, people are meant to become empowered when making important decisions that impact public life. Public media systems differ from country to country with respect to specific regulations, administration, programming, and each case is characterized by a particular relationship between media, audience, and the State. Therefore, each nation has a unique concept and model of public media service. With respect to the Americas, considerable differences can be seen between Canada, the USA and the majority of Latin American countries in these models for public media.
