The Federal Communications Commission has considered four aspects of diversity: 1) Viewpoint diversity ensures that the public has access to a wide range of diverse and antagonistic opinions and interpretations provided by opportunities for varied groups, entities and individuals to participate in the different phases of the broadcast industry; 2) Outlet diversity is the control of media outlets by a variety of independent owners; 3) Source diversity ensures that the public has access to information and programming from multiple content providers; and 4) Program diversity refers to a variety of programming formats and content.
Diversity
Aging Connected: Closing the Connectivity Gap for Older Americans
OATS, in partnership with the Humana Foundation, for the first time quantifies the size and degree of the digital isolation crisis among seniors in the United States, finding nearly 22 million older Americans continue to lack broadband access at home. Key findings:
‘Break up the groupthink’: Democrats press Biden to diversify his tech picks
Democrats for years have pressured Silicon Valley companies to address their poor track records on workforce diversity. Now they’re calling on President-elect Joe Biden to do the same for federal agencies that oversee the tech industry.
FCC Denies Permanent Waiver for WWOR/New York Post Combination, Instead Grants Temporary Waiver
The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau denied a permanent waiver request of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule sought by Fox Corp regarding the continued common ownership of WWOR-TV, Secaucus, New Jersey, and the New York Post. Instead, the Bureau granted a temporary waiver to preserve the status quo while the fate of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule is resolved. Absent a waiver, the current rule prohibits common ownership of a daily newspaper and a broadcast station serving the same geographic market, in this case, New York (NY).
Broadcast Deregulation Foes File Supreme Court Brief
In advance of the Supreme Court's Jan.
Remarks of Commissioner Starks at MMTC Digital Equity & 35th Anniversary Kickoff
I am honored to join you for this kickoff in recognition of Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council’s (MMTC) thirty-five years of serving as a leading voice for communities of color and other marginalized groups, and working to achieve equity and inclusion in the Tech, Media, and Telecom industries. As noted by the late Congressman John Lewis: “Access to the internet ... is the civil
Commissioner Starks on Release of NPRM to Modify FM Booster Rules
Regarding the adoption of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on whether to modify the FCC’s FM Booster Rules to permit geo-targeted content to originate from FM booster stations, which could provide a way for small and minority-owned stations to better serve their communities by offering hyper-localized content including alternative language news, weather, emergency alerts, and advertising periodically during the broadcast day:
Comcast RISE program lends a hand to more than 700 Black-owned SMBs
Comcast's RISE program is providing more than 700 Black-owned businesses support including technology upgrades from Comcast Business. Awards in the program can also include consulting, media, and creative production services from Effectv, which is the advertising division of Comcast Cable. The first phase of Comcast RISE -- which stands for “representation, investment, strength and empowerment” -- was focused on U.S. Black-owned, small businesses.
Commissioner Starks Keynote Remarks at Rainbow PUSH Coalition Symposium
Our failure to create inclusive policies that close the digital divide has done serious harm to the Americans who were already struggling to put food on their tables prior to the pandemic. The failures of our past, however, do not have to dictate the future. It is time—in fact, it is past,time—for the tech and telecom sector to take account for issues of equity and fairness.
Internet Access Disparities in Alabama & the Black Belt
Alabama’s Black Belt region is markedly behind the rest of the state when it comes to internet access. Of the 24 Black Belt counties to be part of the region, all except two are below the statewide average of 86 percent coverage, and half are below 50 percent. Further, Choctaw and Perry counties zero percent coverage of 100+ mbps internet (Greene County has a negligible 0.02 percent coverage).