Big Media Meets Its Match

Article Tools

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

In 2004 the Bush administration set a goal of providing affordable, universal broadband access by 2007, but many rural areas remain unwired, and the United States continues to lag in worldwide rankings measuring per capita broadband usage--an issue that media critics believe will affect the future of democracy and the economy. What's more, neither Congress nor the FCC has vigorously addressed the now pressing issue of 'net neutrality': the idea that broadband network operators such as Comcast and Time Warner, who control the Web's infrastructure, should not be allowed to block or degrade competing content.

Internet issues are on Copps and Adelstein's radar (they were instrumental in inserting some net neutrality language into the recent merger agreement between AT&T and BellSouth), and, rhetorically at least, they can switch from analog to digital when they're prompted (Copps calls broadband 'the big infrastructure challenge of this generation'). But online issues are not high on the agenda during this round of FCC hearings; they come up only incidentally, which concerns media advocates like Jeff Chester.

'I challenged Copps recently, saying that in a way the broadcast ownership rules don't make a difference anymore,' Chester says. 'I've spent most of my time since 1991 working to preserve those rules, but my analysis is that it doesn't make a difference anymore for two reasons: One, it's not going to change the basic structure of the media. What difference does it make if it's NBC or Rupert Murdoch? It's the same commercialized, corporate approach. And--I think this is very important for progressives--we have to be focused on where younger people are, and where the market's going. We must do it now, because the new system is so much more powerful and interactive and personalized.'

Chester also points out that the business model for the next generation of Web content, commonly referred to as Web 2.0, is based on interactive advertising, marketing, and entertainment. 'It's learning about you, collecting data about you. It will send avatars to meet your avatars.'

This spring, the commission did issue a 'notice of inquiry' on matters related to net neutrality. Crawford calls this a small, tentative step. 'Copps and Adelstein didn't have the power to request a rulemaking on that issue,' she says, 'so the change in the makeup of Congress is not making that much difference so far.'

Copps and Adelstein will remain in the minority on the commission at least until the next president takes office in 2008, when their terms will be nearing an end: Adelstein's in June 2008, Copps' in June 2010. If a Democrat takes the White House, though, he or she could reappoint both, give one of them the chair, and bring in a new Democratic commissioner. 'It would be almost like a revolution, that sort of change in policy,' McChesney says.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print