Eric Klinenberg: Local Media Content Shouldn't Be a Luxury

[marmar]

from the Seattle Times, via CommonDreams:



Published on Thursday, February 1, 2007 by the Seattle Times (Washington)
Local Media Content Shouldn't Be a Luxury
by Eric Klinenberg

Can you still hear the sounds of Seattle when you turn on your radio?

When you watch your local newscast, can you find local news? Do your daily and weekly newspapers offer a good supply of original, primary reporting?

During the past five years, I've traveled across the country asking these questions of citizens, political officials and journalists. I've studied what happened to our media since the controversial Telecommunications Act of 1996, when Republicans and Democrats joined hands to relax longstanding ownership limits and allow a small number of large corporations to dominate local markets.

The responses are alarming — even for Seattle, where, thanks to the city's relative affluence and robust civic life, the media market is more competitive, and the content more diverse, than in most other towns.

Not long ago, Americans considered local news and entertainment as necessary for our democracy and culture. In today's consolidated media system, however, truly local content is becoming a luxury good.

In the television industry, I discovered stations that scheduled local news programs throughout the day but refused to increase the staff levels. Instead, they recycled the same stories and used scripted packages, including promotional video news releases from businesses and government agencies, to fake local reports. .....(more)

The rest of the story is at: http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0201-28.htm