Media Justice Policy Brief
Media Consolidation: Back with a Vengeance
Corporate media companies are again crying foul about competition, claiming they cannot compete with the Internet and need to have consolidation rules relaxed in order to do so. Their claims are contrary to a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) study that found incumbent media dominating in online local news markets as well. A dearth of people of color and women in broadcast station ownership is the most obscene symptom of this consolidation trend. Free Press notes, “People of color own just 3 percent of all full-power TV stations and 7 percent of radio stations; women own just 6 percent of all broadcast outlets.”
Last month, a coalition of civil rights groups, including Media Literacy Project, wrote a letter to the FCC demanding action be taken to remedy underrepresentation of women and people of color in media ownership. While corporate media seeks to buy up its competition, media and social justice organizations are asking the FCC to maintain existing media ownership limits to allow a diversity of voices into the media landscape.
Last week, FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps held a hearing on media ownership issues in Atlanta, GA. The event gave working class Americans a chance to tell the commissioners how media consolidation negatively impacts communities. New Mexico, you can still let the FCC know how media consolidation impacts our communities.
Net Neutrality
Last month the Senate successfully stopped an effort that would have fundamentally altered the future of the internet. Media Literacy Project (MLP) released a statement acknowledging Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall for voting nay on the measure. In doing so, the senators affirmed their dedication to maintaining an open internet that allows everyone the same access to the wide range of news, business and ideas that have become central to the way we communicate as a nation.
Without net neutrality rules, providers would be able to speed up access to web sites that pay added fees and slow down traffic to those that aren’t able to pay the higher prices. This would give control over our internet to large corporations that can afford premium rates and, as a result, stifle the new businesses, original ideas and independent news coverage that have constantly spurred innovation since the internet began.
This issue is particularly important to communities of color and those of us interested in social justice. MLP extends its gratitude and praise to all of our local and national partners who worked so hard to achieve this result. The FCC’s guidelines will preserve an open internet that allows independent viewpoints and diverse perspectives to be voiced. It will also preserve an important tool that allows us to organize around critical issues and strengthen our communities.
AT&T withdraws its bid to purchase T-Mobile
On Thanksgiving morning, media justice organizations gave thanks…to you. The outpour of phone calls, public comments, letters, petition signings, conversations and outrage from New Mexican consumers played a critical part in AT&T withdrawing its bid to acquire T-Mobile last month. Already scheduled for a federal hearing before the United States Department of Justice in February, the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger seems far less like a “done deal” than it did just a few months ago.
In an additional blow to AT&T’s claims that the merger would benefit Americans, the FCC released a 157-page staff report that found the purchase not in the public interest last week. The report found that the combination of two of the nation’s largest wireless providers would harm competition through “an unprecedented increase in market concentration.” Additionally, the report suggested that wireless consumers (across the nation, not exclusive to those who subscribe to AT&T or T-Mobile) could see a cost increase of 6% per year, each year through 2015.
The chief finding of the report was also a critical point that was repeatedly trumpeted by media justice groups across the nation, including MLP. The report found that AT&T’s claims of expanded service to American consumers, especially rural America, were false. Furthermore, the report also found that AT&T’s claim that the merger would create 55,000 – 96,000 jobs was false, as well.
Media Literacy Project would like to thank all of our members, friends, partners, volunteers and community (locally and nationally) for all of your support and action on behalf of media justice. We will continue to keep you updated as these issues progress.
