Federal Communications Commission Report Finds Serious Shortage In Local Reporting

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — There is a shortage of in-depth local journalism needed to hold government agencies, schools and businesses accountable, the federal agency that regulates television broadcasters concludes in a new report.

The dearth of reporting comes despite an abundance of news outlets in today’s multimedia landscape, the report says.

The report being released Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission is the product of an 18-month effort to explore the turmoil sweeping the traditional media business in the U.S. — particularly daily newspapers.

Newspapers have seen a sharp drop in revenue because of the weakening economy and a shift by advertisers to free or cheaper alternatives on the Internet. That has forced newspapers to cut staff and shrink their publications. The report says staffing levels at daily newspapers have fallen by more than 25 percent since 2001.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-government/federal-communications-commission-report-finds-serious-shortage-in-local-reporting/2011/06/09/AGTVXiMH_story.html

[Demeter]

1. Break up the Media Conglomerates--They are Monopolies, and Worthless

[movonne]

2. You got that right...

[ProfessionalLeftist]

5. +1000 n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Break up the local political networks that can kills a story with just a phone call.

[Orrex]

3. Bullshit.

The nightly news hour in Pittsburgh features at least 48 minutes of football coverage, plus about 11 minutes for weather. How much more serious can you get?

[freshwest]

4. Michael Powell didn't care about that as head of the FCC, despite national meetings. So now what?

Him and his 'the free market is my god' speech really rubbed the salt into the wound of those who gave good reason to bring back the Fairness Doctrine and stop the consolidation. The GOP is fighting to have any reference the Fairness Doctrine removed from the CFRs.

Acknowledging the problem is a good thing, and something Obama has spoken out on repeatedly, especially in his criticism of the SCOTUS decision in Citizens United.

Of course that wasn't covered by the same crooks that brought this calamity on us. We'll see if anyone can make the media more honest. It's gonna be a hard road.

[alp227]

11. Julius Genachowski already scrubbed the FD from the registry n/t

[freshwest]

12. Did he create new words to get around the Fairness Doctrine misinfo from the RW? If not, eff him.

[nosmokes]

6. Really? And what Federal regulatory agency might be responsible for this?

This is why people hate government and all that Ayn Rand poison goes down like syrup.

[alp227]

7. A Federal Study Finds That Local Reporting Has Waned

Source: The New York Times

An explosion of online news sources in recent years has not produced a corresponding increase in reporting, particularly quality local reporting, a federal study of the media has found.

Coverage of state governments and municipalities has receded at such an alarming pace that it has left government with more power than ever to set the agenda and have assertions unchallenged, concluded the study, which is to be released on Thursday.

“In many communities, we now face a shortage of local, professional, accountability reporting,” said the study, which was ordered by the Federal Communications Commission and written by Steven Waldman, a former journalist for Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report. “The independent watchdog function that the Founding Fathers envisioned for journalism — going so far as to call it crucial to a healthy democracy — is in some cases at risk at the local level.”

On Thursday, Mr. Waldman is to issue a number of recommendations, none binding. Those include making actual in-the-field reporting a part of the curriculum at journalism schools, steering more government advertising money toward local instead of national media and changing the tax code to encourage donations to nonprofit media organizations.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/09/business/media/09press.html

[lib2DaBone]

8. The Telecommunications Act of 1996...signed by Clinton

Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) refers to a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing share of the mass media.<1> Contemporary research demonstrates increasing levels of consolidation, with many media industries already highly concentrated and dominated by a very small number of firms.<2><3>

Media concentration closely related to issues of editorial independence, media bias, and freedom of the press. In that sense, the term "media consolidation" is used especially by those who view such consolidation as sociologically detrimental, dangerous, or problematic



The Telecommunications Act of 1996 set the modern tone of deregulation, a relaxing of percentage constrictions that solidified the previous history of privatizing the utility and commodifying the spectrum. The legislation, touted as a step that would foster competition, actually resulted in the subsequent mergers of several large companies, a trend which still continues.<37> Over 4,000 radio stations were bought out, and minority ownership of TV stations dropped to its lowest point since the federal government began tracking such data in 1990.<38>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership

[No Elephants]

10. Damned Republicans!

[ChrisBorg]

13. What are they going to do, force people to buy newspapers?