A service of the Benton Foundation (http://www.benton.org)
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
State and National Consumer Groups Urge Congress to Roll Back FCC
Media Deregulation
Focus on Media Ownership Issue Takes Lawmakers by Surprise
Communications Failure: An Interview with Reed Hundt
Commentary: Fewer Owners Means Fewer Watchdogs
21ST CENTURY SKILLS
A Question of Skills or Scholars
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Hill Tribes Go High-Tech to Preserve Way of Life
INTERNET
Online, Off and Running: Web a New Campaign Front
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
STATE AND NATIONAL CONSUMER GROUPS URGE CONGRESS TO ROLL BACK FCC MEDIA
DEREGULATION
Fifty-five consumer groups have called on Congress to adopt legislation to
roll back the FCC's recent deregulation of the national media before its
August recess. Both chambers of Congress are considering such legislation.
"This letter sends a strong signal to Congress that average Americans
support legislation that will prevent large media conglomerates from
dominating local sources of news and information," said Gene Kimmelman of
Consumers Union. Dr. Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America
echoed his sentiments, arguing that such legislation "is needed to preserve
independent news voices so critical to our democracy."
SOURCE: Consumer Federation of America
For the full text of the letter, please contact Dr. Mark Cooper at
mcooper( at )consumerfed.org
FOCUS ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP ISSUE TAKES LAWMAKERS BY SURPRISE
As House Republicans worked to drum up support for Medicare legislation late
last month, Rep. Richard Burr was trolling the floor for co-sponsors to his
bill to roll back the FCC's recently adopted broadcast ownership cap
expansion. With 163 cosponsors signed on, Burr is quickly approaching the
threshold at which the House leadership will take notice. "If we get up to
230, 240, 250 cosponsors, it becomes an issue that the leadership has to
deal with," he said last week. "I think we'll aggressively work it over the
next couple weeks and make sure we get to that level." By all accounts, the
issue of media ownership was not expected to rise to the top of the
telecommunications policy agenda, let alone become a hot legislative issue.
Lawmakers were stunned by the public outcry following the commission's June
2 vote, and the issue rose to more prominence when the Senate Commerce
Committee approved a series of measures scaling back the FCC's recent moves
and directing further regulations on the broadcast industry. House
Republican leaders, such as Rep. Billy Tauzin, Rep. Tom DeLay and Speaker
Dennis Hastert support the FCC changes, however, suggesting that the
commission did not go far enough to protect free speech and property rights.
The stage is set for a legislative dogfight as the session comes to a close;
tactics are likely to include riders to appropriations bills, which House
Appropriations Committee Chairman Billy Young say he will vigorously oppose
"unless the leadership tells [him] to do it."
SOURCE: CQ Weekly; AUTHOR: Joseph C. Alselmo
http://www.cq.com (subscription required)
COMMUNICATIONS FAILURE
Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt says that the FCC's June 2 ruling on media
ownership has left his congressional colleagues "perplexed, dumfounded,
outraged, aghast, troubled, mystified and bewildered" about the
transformation of the FCC, as well as how to fight the news rules. Noting
that the commission improperly used competition as a basis, Hundt called the
rules "an abandonment of the traditional policing function of the FCC
[representing] a disregard of the responsibility to promote democracy [or]
to follow the dictates of congress." He said he would like to see the FCC
"say things that are true" regarding the impact of Internet use on more
traditional media. When asked about the current rollback legislation under
debate in Congress, Hundt suggested that "Congress should pass a law, in
whatever is the most rapid and feasible manner, that tells the FCC to throw
out this new proposed set of rules and adopt rules that reflect the
anti-trust law and democracy values," adding that every American should
contact their representatives on Capitol Hill and weigh in on the debate.
Ultimately, Hundt said he regrets not having foreseen this kind of action as
chairman and taken affirmative steps to prevent it. "I never anticipated
that anyone could do anything like this.... [T]hey have acted like channel
45 in Washington is just as important as channel 4 and as if Salon.com...
was just as important as the Washington Post....[T]hese are crazy ideas."
SOURCE: The Foundation for National Progress; AUTHOR: Jennifer Hahn
http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2003/28/we_440_01.html
FEWER OWNERS MEANS FEWER WATCHDOGS
Wisconsin columnist and former radio broadcaster Warren Bluhm laments the
current climate of shrinking media voices, especially in the news arena.
Before the newsroom became the business it is today, it was more common to
see reporters from multiple outlets covering items of local interest such as
town meetings. "Eventually the bean counters began to think of news as a
product, not a public service, and pressure was exerted to make the news a
profit center, too," he writes. "That meant fewer reporters on the local
level, just as the big guns had decided to make do with fewer reporters on a
global scale." Bluhm voices frustration that media consolidation as a
political issue has only reached the mainstream in the brief time since the
FCC's June vote to loosen media ownership rules. "The sad thing about the
current debate is how long it took people to care, because the horse was out
of the barn long before the recent FCC decision to relax media ownership
rules even further. Deregulation and consolidation long ago took those eight
radio news jobs in Green Bay away."
SOURCE: Green Bay News-Chronicle; AUTHOR: Warren Bluhm
http://www.gogreenbay.com/page.html?article=120915
See also the Internet story "Online, Off and Running," below, for more on
media ownership via Lawrence Lessig and Howard Dean.
21ST CENTURY SKILLS
A QUESTION OF SKILLS OR SCHOLARS
BBC correspondent Mike Baker asks his readers the question, "Which do we
need most: more university graduates or more adults trained in technical or
craft skills?" The short answer, he says, is both, but the British
government is now beginning to recognize the importance of the latter. While
the percentage of Brits receiving university degrees is higher than the
average industrialized country, the UK is lagging behind when it comes to
its citizens possessing relevant technical skills for the workplace.
According to a new British government white paper, "21st Century Skills:
Realising Our Potential," only 28 percent of the British workforce possesses
technical skills, compared to 51 percent in France and 65 percent in
Germany. The UK government has decided to assist adult tech students at the
intermediate level with weekly stipends and free tuition. "Our fast-changing
economy needs workers who retrain in new -- but same level -- skills just as
much as it needs the unskilled to gain better qualifications," Baker writes.
"So, if we are providing a substantial subsidy for young people to go to
university, shouldn't there be a similar, or even higher, level of support
for those working towards the lower-level skills of which the economy has
the most pressing shortage?"
SOURCE: BBC; AUTHOR: Mike Baker
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3059647.stm
DIGITAL DIVIDE
HILL TRIBES GO HIGH-TECH TO PRESERVE WAY OF LIFE
A village in northern Thailand is preparing to make the leap to cyberspace.
Members of the Lahu tribe are designing a virtual museum to showcase the
region's minority ethnic communities. The plan is to have an Internet link
in a village building, dependent upon solar power until the village gets
electricity. The museum will chronicle and preserve ceremonies, traditions,
rituals, clothing and other aspects of minority culture that are being lost.
Another objective is an online talking dictionary for the Akha tribe, which
lacks a written script. These communities, which have roots going back to
Burma, Tibet and southern China, are noted for colorful women's clothing,
their diverse languages and unique customs. This cultural diversity has not
always translated into broad societal support, however. Hill tribe members
do not automatically get Thai citizenship, and the educational system tends
to emphasize assimilation into Thai culture. Phayoong Phetcharat, a Thai
language teacher, says that the hill tribe children need alternative ways to
gain awareness and celebrate their way of life. The museum, he points out,
is ''trying to fill this void to help preserve and sustain hill tribe
culture.''
SOURCE: Inter Press Service News Agency; AUTHOR: Marwaan Macan-Markar
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=19238
INTERNET
ONLINE, OFF AND RUNNING: WEB A NEW CAMPAIGN FRONT
Democrat presidential hopeful Howard Dean is redefining the way campaigns
are organized and financed through his use of the Internet. At a recent
neighborhood Dean campaign meeting in Alexandria, Virginia, more than 100
activists gathered to support the candidate and write personal appeals to
Democrats in Iowa. This meeting, along with the 300 others that occurred
that same night accross the country, was organized online via the meeting
tool Meetup.com, with the idea to write Iowa voters coming from an online
suggestion. With Dean's blessing, tens of thousands of his supporters are
chatting up ideas and strategy over the Net, not to mention raising money --
more than $3.5 million so far from online contributors. According to
Internet politics expert Michael Cornfield, Dean already has as many online
supporters on his email list as Internet campaigning pioneer John McCain had
at the peak of his campaign in 2000. "The Internet benefits insurgents,"
adds political scientist Carol Darr. "It is a way for candidates who can
connect with people to make an end-run around the established process."
SOURCE: USA Today: AUTHOR: Jim Drinkard and Jill Lawrence
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/2003-07-14-online-cover-u...
x.htm
See also:
Stanford Professor Lawrence Lessig's Web Log. Howard Dean is subbing for
Lessig while he's on vacation. Dean begins the blog with a discussion on the
FCC media ownership decision. As of 10am this morning, over 175 users had
posted responses on the topic.
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/
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