Below is an excerpt from an article that ran on StopBigMedia.com last week, which covers the recent meeting here in Columbus regarding media ownership rules.
This is an ongoing discussion that’s been around for some time, and it’s interesting to hear how it pertains to us on a more local level. The media is changing all over the world, and while large media outlets continue to grow, smaller “news outlets” in the form of blogs and other technologies are thrivingonline.
Columbus may only have one main newspaper, which also has ownership of several other formats (tv stations, radio stations, magazines, etc) but there is a growing online community that more and more people are turning to for their news and information.
Do the airwaves need to be restored to the people as Rev. Robert Chase says below, or do the people need to look beyond the airwaves for the next step in local news distribution and syndication?
Columbus Speaks Out Against Consolidation
Thursday, March 8th, 2007Nearly 400 people packed into the Broad Street Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Ohio Wednesday night to testify for more than four hours about the threat of sweeping changes to the nation’s media ownership rules.
“I am concerned that only a few companies own most of the media,” said 13-year-old Lucy Powell, resident of Athens, Ohio. “This is my future and I need to hear different viewpoints to know what is going on. Thank you for thinking about me and the rest of my generation as you make decisions on this important issue.”
“When large companies take over local newspapers and radio and television stations, they strip the local news staff and package recycled news programming to the community, making the kind of reporting I witnessed in my early days as a social worker shallow at best and non-existent at worst,” said Alvin Hadley, executive director of the Columbus Metropolitan Area Church Council.
“As the message we receive becomes increasingly controlled by fewer and fewer sources, we lose the rich diversity that surrounds us,” said Rev. Robert Chase, director of communication at the United Church of Christ. “We call upon the FCC to exercise itscongressionally mandated authority and set policies based not on economic efficiencies, but on the public interest, and restore the airwaves to the people.”
“Decisions about local media should not be made in New York,Los Angeles, or even Washington, D.C.,” said Democratic Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein . “They should be made right here in Columbus, Ohio. If we are to craft media ownership rules that best serve the public interest, we must hear from the public.”
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