Common Cause Study on Telecommunications Act of 1996

The Fallout From the Telecommunications Act of 1996: Unintended Consequences and Lessons Learned is the best concise overview of that bill I've come across on the web. I recommend it to all my readers. This piece provides a chance to see the blow-by-blow history of the Telecom Act and how it has effected Americans 10 years later. Check it out.

"Big Media Won't Bring Good Things to Life"

From the Denver Post, October 24, 2006:

It controls the news you watch, which has become kinder and gentler to government and corporations, while focusing on sex scandals, manhunts, and the big crime story of the day.

That's the mantra of media giants, who are more concerned with profits than educating viewers. GE, just like Disney and Time Warner, are monsters with insatiable appetites. They want to control more media and would if there weren't Federal Communications Commission rules prohibiting big media from getting bigger.

All that could change if the FCC has its way this winter and allows corporations to own more media outlets in the same city.

The writer, Cindy Rodriguez, brings in a lot of examples of how corporate-controlled newsrooms fill the airwaves with useless news stories which they tend to run into the ground. Interesting op-ed piece from a major newspaper.

Case Study of Possible Effects of Cross-Ownership on Washington State Media

From Reclaim the Media, October 19, 2006:

Cities across Washington State will suffer if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) eliminates or further relaxes key limits on media ownership, according to new research examining the impact of potential media mergers in Seattle, Spokane, and Yakima. The study, released by Reclaim the Media in conjunction with the national Media and Democracy Coalition, focuses on the potential impact of newspaper-broadcast "cross-ownership" mergers.

There are some interesting findings in this report, that should serve as a warning to the rest of the nation of what is at stake.

Additional links:
The full report (pdf)

Job Losses and Lower Wages in Radio Due to Consoldation

From PR Newswire, August 9, 2006:

A study released today by the Future of Music Coalition (FMC) found that the vast majority of major U.S. cities has experienced both layoffs and lower wage growth within the radio profession, associated with the unprecedented consolidation of radio station ownership over the last decade. The study also shows that the job losses in radio impede federal policy mandates to promote localism and diversity in media.

...

The study's findings include:
-- The combined market share of the top four radio companies in each local
market increased by an average of 14.3 percent between 1993 and 2004
across 265 markets.
-- Cities with higher degrees of radio consolidation had greater job
losses among news reporters and broadcast technicians from 1996 to
2003.
-- Cities with higher degrees of radio consolidation experienced smaller
wage growth for DJs and news reporters from 1996 to 2003.

Additional Links:
PR Newswire: http://www.prnewswire.com
Future of Music Coalition: http://www.futureofmusic.org/

Pastor Speaks About Consolidation

Here's a piece from Free Press on October 5, 2006, by a pastor in the United Church of Christ about the difficulty his church had securing a station for spreading his church's message. It says a lot about the challenges consolidation of ownership is bringing to diversity on the airwaves.

Report: Media Consolidation Shuts Out Female and Minority Owners

From The Louisiana Weekly, September 25, 2006:

As the Federal Communications Commission considers sweeping changes to the nation's media landscape, Free Press released a new report last week on female and minority media ownership that shows the consequences of further consolidation.

The new study, "Out of the Picture," is the first complete assessment and analysis of female and minority ownership of full-power commercial broadcast television stations. The report argues that the FCC has abandoned its responsibility to monitor and foster the diversity of media owners, while ignoring the impact of its own policies.

The report was done by the media watchdog group Free Press. Among the findings:

- Women comprise 51 percent of the entire U.S. population, but own only 4.97 percent of all TV stations.

- Minorities make up 33 percent of the entire U.S. population, but own only 3.26 percent of all stations.

- While the level of female and minority ownership has advanced in other industries since the late 1990s, it has worsened in the broadcast sector.

- Hispanic- or Latino-owned stations reach just 21.8 percent of the Latino TV households in the United States.

- 91 percent of African-American TV households are not reached by a black-owned TV station.

- Markets with minority owners are significantly less concentrated than markets without them — even if the size of the market is held constant.

The complete report is available at http://www.stopbigmedia.com/files/out_of_the_picture.pdf

Media Ownership Hearings Begin in California

From the Associated Press, October 4, 2006:

The battle over media consolidation began with hundreds of people, including actors, writers and musicians, imploring the Federal Communications Commission to prevent media conglomerates from growing even bigger.

Two FCC public hearings on the topic Tuesday resembled baseball playoff games with attendees whooping, clapping wildly and even booing as the five commissioners sat quietly and listened for more than seven hours.

Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, has said he backs a repeal of the rule that restricts a company from owning both a newspaper and broadcast station in the same city.

With most U.S. cities supporting only one daily newspaper and usually 3 or 4 local news stations, allowing one company to own a newspaper and a TV station in a single market would give them dominating control over how people get their news. Repealing this restriction might also lead to a media conglomerate cutting back staff at either the newspaper, the TV station, or both, and produce content for both outlets out of the cut-back newsrooms.

There are arguments for repealing this restriction, however:

Several speakers supported lifting some restrictions, noting that advertisers were shifting their spending to the Internet and cable channels even as local TV stations find it more expensive to provide news coverage of their communities.

Paula Madison, president and general manager of KNBC in Los Angeles, noted that 90 percent of local content is provided by the largest media companies in the market, contrary to the "big media is bad media assumption."

At some point, putting newspapers and local TV stations under a single ownership umbrella, may be a financial necessity, but that should be a last resort. Ms. Madison's assertion may that 90 percent of local content is provided by the largest media companies may be true due to the disproportionate market share of conglomerates to local owners, but according to the recently released FCC report on local tv news stations, locally owned stations provide more local content per half-hour.

Interesting quotes from the hearing:

"Homogenization is good for milk, but bad for ideas." Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, west

"Locally owned newspapers, TV news and radio used to be the rule and not the exception." FCC member Michael Copps