Common Cause has a page of example citizen testimony that reveals the direct impact of media consolidation our communities and nation.
Some examples:
Studies have shown that there are significant disparities in the treatment of African-Americans in local and national news. In addition, African-Americans still face a lack of quality programming in the media focused on their needs, interests and perspectives.I strongly believe that minority owned radio stations provide more minority focused content and a greater focus on the concerns of the minority community.
One of the most insidious byproducts of media consolidation is the practice of "voice-tracking" entire air shifts. Up to 70% of Clear Channel's radio broadcasts are voice-tracked...The end result - no local flavor, no local input, no local jobs, no local coverage and no local connection.
We believe that a station owner who resides in his or her own local community is more likely to understand and respond to local standards than someone making programming decisions from hundreds or thousands of miles away.
a chemical explosion happened a few months ago in Sioux Falls. That information was not captioned. So my wife was babysitting my granddaughter and was completely unaware of what had happened
Technorati Tags: FCC, Media Ownership, Columbus, Common Cause, FCC Hearing
1 comment:
If anything the rules should be loosened. Because unfortunately, changing the media ownership rules to break up the conglomerates somewhat wouldn't put them back into minority hands per se, and what it actually might do is force some of them out of business. Banding together -- yes, sometimes under non-local ownership -- gives those stations a chance to survive.
It's a more competitive media environment these days, and with newspapers hemorrhaging money and local TV stations now competing with online videos (think ABC's primetime lineup on the web) it's getting tougher and tougher.
And I work for the NAB -- I should know. We represent local stations.
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