Media Policy is Interesting (Really)!

It's a rare thing to have media policy issues in the mainstream. It's not because they're complicated, although they can be. And not because policy is boring; once you understand what's going on, you'll see how important it is to daily American life.

Media policy is one of the most essential issues out there because it determines what you see - or don't see - on your TV, internet, radio, etc.

Too much crap on the radio? That's because some members of the FCC decided it was okay for one company to own 1,200+ radio stations nationwide (and that company thought it would be a good idea to play the same 12 songs over and over again until the end of time).

There are occasionally some good guys (i.e. those who put people before profit) in government and the FCC, like Commissioner Michael Copps, who said the following words (which encapsulates why I ever wanted to go into media in the first place):

"Building a media environment that truly reflects and truly nourishes our diversity and democracy may be our nation’s greatest calling now because, without that, all the other huge issues we confront won’t receive the kind of true journalistic scrutiny they need if they are to find satisfactory resolution."

But back to media policy. It doesn't make it into the spotlight much because the handful of corporations that own the media are actually okay with the public being left in the dark on these issues. (Imagine that!) They'd rather sell you the latest reality show than actually have you understand the reality of how the country/world works. Funny, huh? (Maybe not ha ha funny...)

The biggest current media issue is net neutrality. Thanks to David from Re/Creating Tampa for posting this clip from The Daily Show. It's easily the most entertaining explanation of net neutrality out there.

All Media is Local

There's an FCC workshop on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 from 3:00-7:30 p.m. at the Marshall Student Center at the University of South Florida. Here's why this concerns you:

If you've heard the old joke about having hundreds of TV channels but nothing's ever on and you've witnessed it for yourself, or complained about how thin the newspaper has become, or are sick of the same ten songs being played over and over again on the radio, then you should care that the media landscape can still get worse.

Media businesses, like all businesses, have to sell their product. That makes sense. But why sell something that sucks? Wouldn't that lead people elsewhere for information and entertainment? The media, like any other business that grows "too big to fail," has gotten too big to produce anything worthwhile. It's the Walmartization of our entire country. Now the media wants to get even bigger.

In 1975, a law was put in effect that prohibited TV stations from buying newspapers in the same city. Tampa is one of just a few cities where a company, Media General, already owned both a TV station (WFLA) and a newspaper (The Tampa Tribune) pre-1975. So Media General was allowed to keep their company as it was, but no other company was allowed to do the same from then on.

Currently the FCC is in the process of deciding if they should deregulate (overturn) this "cross-ownership" law. And since Tampa is one of those few cities in the country that already has cross-ownership in action, the FCC is looking to us for our input. Do we like our Tribune-WFLA combo? Their shared reporters, shared stories? Are they giving us all the information we need or have they gotten a little soft and spread too thin?

Let your voice be heard on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 from 3:00-7:30 p.m. at the FCC workshop at USF's Marshall Student Center. You'll get two minutes to say whether or not you want cross-ownership to happen, and what you think of the media in your town.

The FCC commissioners won't be in attendance, but staffers from their Media Bureau will be present as well as folks from our local media. And the workshop will be streamed live on http://reboot.fcc.gov/live. Questions from the Internet audience can be submitted throughout the course of the workshop via email to 2010quadrennial@fcc.gov and via Twitter using the hash tag #MoWksp.