The Mission

Earth Television Public Education Foundation’s "mission" is to empower social movements and civil society groups to effectively advocate their views and deliver the message of their gatherings directly to the public through sponsored TV programming. We consult with event producers on creating reusable TV shows, financing strategies, sponsor development, advertising and PR, audience enrollment, local and national distribution, and global broadcast outreach. We can provide practical solutions to reach broad audiences affordably.

These days, multiple camcorder operators routinely record major gatherings for free, usually producing highly watchable source material. This requires only synchronization and shortening for immediate use. The key needed addition is sponsored funding. By working with these volunteer videographers to help them immediately produce completed programs for broadcast, non-profits can dramatically increase their outreach and effectiveness. Civic happenings should routinely plan to conclude only when the sponsored highlights TV show reaches a mass audience.

A more ambitious level of this television strategy involves showing larger civic networks how to sustainably fund local broadcast of themed sets of completed documentaries on politically controversial topics the mainstream media will not cover. Widely promoted and selectively advertised, such topical TV series, telecast back to back during the early evening, could have a major municipal impact. Readily available regional air time is free on public access or surprisingly cheap for infomercial cable slots or on UHF TV channels. Sponsors may insert Public Service Announcements or good news segments illustrating their causes and projects, while listing website addresses and 800 #s inviting viewer responses.

As these sets of programs start to steadily deliver a sizable viewership, they provide a niche for inserting rebroadcasts of significant event highlights shows on related themes. Using commercial television channels for public education and civic mobilization can catalyze mainstream media coverage and successfully influence policy makers.

Earth Television Chairman David Lionel is a veteran video producer and editor who has helped pioneer the evolution of citizen TV since 1967. Besides offering broadcast consulting services, he also continues to finalize and package the first two of his sixteen World Citizen Transformational Videobooks, in preparation for their web marketing worldwide as DVDs.

One is Patch Adams’ Story, which features the famous clown doctor presenting his ideas and experiences working out a new model for community delivery of health care services. The other is called Action Agenda for the Earth. It proposes a planetary development program that national governments, the UN, and civil society could institute globally to meet the needs of all humans and preserve the biosphere.