Recommendation:
Diversity is an important value in broadcasting, whether it is in programming, political discourse, hiring, promotion, or business opportunities within the industry. The Advisory Committee recommends that broadcasters seize the opportunities inherent in digital television technology to substantially enhance the diversity available in the television marketplace. Serving diverse interests within a community is both good business and good public policy.
Much attention has been paid historically to the concept of "diversity" in broadcast programming. It is undeniably a good thing for the broadcast industry as a whole to present a wide range of information, opinion and entertainment programming, including programming that responds to the needs and interests of minorities and other underserved communities in our society. Some argue that the marketplace can be relied upon to generate this diversity. Others say that government-imposed station ownership limits, and policies encouraging station ownership by minorities are necessary, at least as adjuncts to marketplace forces. The Advisory Committee recognizes the value of program and viewpoint diversity and recommends that broadcasters take the opportunity presented by the innate flexibility of digital television to enhance substantially the diversity available in the television marketplace.
Much of the discussion and many of the recommendations contained elsewhere in this report bear on the diversity issue. For example, we have recommended that innovation in the use of digital channels for multiplexed, multichannel programming not be discouraged by government policy. A multichannel digital broadcasting model could, of course, include program streams that are "narrowcasts" aimed at distinct audiences, including minority groups and other underserved communities. Multiplexing could also create new opportunities for minority entrepreneurship through channel-leasing agreements, partnerships, and other creative business arrangements.
We have also recommended that, at the end of the transition, one new 6 MHz broadcast channel should be reserved in each market for noncommercial, educational purposes, including the provision of educational programming directed at minority groups and other underserved communities. We have recommended that the flexibility of digital technology be exploited by the use of newly available audio channels to help serve the needs of individuals with disabilities. The Advisory Committee wants to emphasize that this enhanced audio capability will also facilitate increased use of foreign language audio tracks to expand the usefulness and entertainment value of broadcast programming for minority communities, and we recommend that broadcasters take advantage of this capability. Finally, our recommendations on ways that political discourse can be made more effective in the context of digital television will have a direct impact on the diversity of viewpoints that will be available on television in the future.
Independent production is often a prime opportunity for the non-mainstream to be heard, including persons of color and cultural minorities, thereby adding to the plurality of voices represented in our mass communications. Therefore, our recommendations on diversity should serve to aid independent producers both in providing funding for programming and providing incentives for giving these voices access to the airwaves. Our recommendations should result in providing revenues to support the creation and promotion of programming from diverse and independent producers to air on noncommercial channels.
The Advisory Committee also believes that hiring and promotion policies that result in significant representation of minorities and women in decision-making positions in broadcast management could tend to increase programming diversity. While this effect may be difficult to prove or quantify, we believe that such policies (as well as policies facilitating station ownership by minorities and women) are important in their own right, apart from any direct impact on programming diversity. Digital television will gradually create new programming and business opportunities. The Advisory Committee recommends that broadcasters voluntarily redouble their individual and collective efforts during the digital transition to encourage effective participation by minorities and women at all levels of the industry.
Serving diverse interests within a community is both good business and good public policy. Broadcasters should aggressively seek out ways to employ digital technology in creative ways to accomplish this goal, including but not limited to those described above.
Additional Links
- Independent Television Service (ITVS)
- Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT)
- Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy
On to Recommendation 10