quiz 3 for comm 101

Ascertainment Policies

-In 1971, the FCC enacted ascertainment policies. These were detailed instructions on how to determine community needs. Stations had to document the demographics of the station's market, identify "significant community groups" and hold meetings with them to "discuss community needs," and propose programming that would meet those needs. These had to be filed with license renewals In 1973 the FCC stipulated that at least ten percent of a station's programming had to be "non-entertainment," and in 1976 further specified that five percent of programming had to be local programming, and five percent news and public affairs In 1975, the FCC passed the newspaper and broadcast cross-ownership rule This ban prohibited the ownership of a daily newspaper and any "full-power broadcast station that serviced the same community" enacted to prevent any single corporate entity from becoming too powerful a single voice within a community in 1981, the then FCC abolished ascertainment procedures in 1987, FCC announced it would no longer enforce the fairness doctrine there has been no fairness doctrine since leads to more partisan media

Communications Decency Act added as an amendment at the end to the Telecom Act Protections for the Internet: Section 230

A congressional grant of immunity from suit to Internet Service Providers and other interactive computer services for content originating with third parties. "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider "CDA 230 creates a broad protection that has allowed all kinds of speech online to flourish. So some scholars argue that social media companies should be held responsible for content posted on their platforms, just as newspapers, broadcast outlets, and other forms of legacy media are responsible for what they publish or broadcast

IS MEDIA REGULATION BORING?

A media conglomerate, media group or media institution is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media. These are large for-profit corporations that reap revenue from advertising, subscriptions and sale of copyrighted material

Radio Act of 1912

A watershed in broadcasting regulation all operators to be licensed stations adhere to certain wavelength allocations distress calls take priority over all others—SOS 300 meter-band—distress calls Secy. of Commerce and Labor empowered to issue licenses amateurs relegated to short waves, 200 meters and down Fines established for "malicious interference" and sending fake distress calls Ships with 50 or more passengers—at least two skilled wireless operators Auxiliary power for wireless Navy gets increased hegemony in the spectrum

The Frightful Five

Alphabet, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple All the movies that you watch on Netflix are actually stored on Amazon servers - so every time you use Netflix, Netflix is paying Amazon for that kind of storage Netflix makes original TV shows and so does Amazon. And so Netflix has this dependence on one of its competitors All app makers have to put their apps in the Apple app store or the Google app store. And when they sell in those apps, 30 percent of that money goes to Apple or Google.They have to advertise on Facebook or Google to get customers because that's become the way to advertise on digital platforms. Epic games took Apple to court over this; got an injunction against being forced to go through Apple's pay system; Apple I appealing Frightful five—like Google, Amazon, have a major impact on jobs, housing and inequalityI n 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the biggest owners of local TV stations announced that it had agreed to purchase Tribune Media's 42 stations for $3.9 billion Merger—would have given Sinclair access to about 70 percent of the nation's television audience; deal was not permitted Most Americans don't know it exists. And yet, Sinclair Media Group is the owner of the largest number of TV stations in America Sinclair owns TV stations across 88 media markets; have centralized their news production Sinclair has imposed a right-wing bias on its local stations; one result of centralized consolidation

Major Media Industry Trends

Conglomeration Globalization Media Fragmentation Audience Segmentation Distribution of Content across media boundaries We'll cover the companies that dominate the legacy and some digital media in areas of entertainment and news media—Disney (which now owns Twentieth Century Fox,) Viacom, NBCUniversal/Comcast, WarnerMedia, and Viacom CBS Also what NY Times columnist Farhad Manjoo calls the "Frightful Five"-- tech giants Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft, which make up half of the top 10 most valuable companies on the American stock market Monopoly-domination by a single firm Oligopoly-domination by a few firms

Measuring Media Audiences

Evolution in how to monetize media Gaps in measuring audiences From monitoring, counting viewers to putting viewers/users under surveillance Increased concerns about privacy

Federal Radio Commission

First government agency, established in 1927, to regulate broadcasting FRC—was very important because the Precedent set--trustee model—meaning the government would be the custodian, the trustee of the airwaves, give out licenses, and make sure those holding licenses fulfilled the public interest Law also based on spectrum scarcity, meaning, at the time, the main airwaves people knew about and used were the AM band and there were only so many radio frequencies available on it So, broadcasters could use frequencies, but not own them Early in 1927, the FRC set the broadcast band at 500 to 1500 kilocycles (today AM goes from 535 to 1604 kilohertz), and assigned fixed frequencies to station all regulation was to be guided by the standards of upholding "the public interest, convenience or necessity" as opposed to serving merely private interests again, reaffirms that the air waves are a common property resource Another Precedent: those stations with the most sophisticated and expensive transmitters (and thus backed by the most money) got the best slots on the AM dial. Others were forced to share frequencies or given daytime-only licenses

Trends

From mass and crude to more precise Increasingly mechanized, then digitized Always has involved surveillance and invasion of privacy But often we have given up that privacy

The "Mayflower decision"

In May of 1941, the FCC ruled that "the broadcaster cannot be an advocate," thereby forbidding editorializing on the air Mayflower decision revoked in 1949; now editorializing was permitted, but the FCC required that stations doing so must present opposing views; known as the Fairness Doctrine

At least one critic, Julia Angwin, have raised concerns about what she calls from Dragnet Nation:

Indiscriminate tracking where institutions are stockpiling data about individuals at unprecedented rate Rise of government surveillance Rise of corporate surveillance, use of cookies, rise of data brokers DoubleClick decision—2001, when you visit a website, Ok for them to install cookies so they can watch your subsequent actions; rise of "Data mining"

Consequences of and Concerns About this Media Conglomerization?

One is eroding trust in the news— correlation between media consolidation, focus on profits, erosion of the quality of the news and erosion of public trust in news media Large corporations can seek to shape the news agenda through their massive PR branches Minority ownership decreases as markets become more deregulated and more concentrated Corporate control can also let advertisers influence the news Corporate control can also let advertisers influence the news "Frightful Five"--these data-opolies--have attained a scale unlike anything the world has ever seen; they've come to dominate media distribution, and they increasingly stand in for the public sphere itself. Data-opolies have been charged with suppressing innovation by squashing competition from upstart firmsRise of "news deserts"

Broadband Access:

Prior to the rise of the internet, the FCC classified telephone companies as common carriers; they were forbidden from interfering with or discriminating against the content flowing through their channels; they're common carriers because they don't produce the content that goes over their wires or cables A Common carrier is an arrangement in which one network is open to independent service providers to offer services. Since early access to the internet was provided by telephone lines via dial-up, internet access was also governed by common carrier rules So this classification empowered the FCC to prevent phone companies from blocking or throttling traffic Cable Companies did not want to be common carriers who would have to sell access to their networks to independent ISPs So in 2002, FCC chairman Michael Powell reclassified internet access provided over cable wires as an information service, which transmits media products and information, a designation with fewer restrictions because the FCC doesn't regulate content except for indecency So now cable companies did not have to offer access at all to their data lines Brand X decision, the Supreme Court rules that cable companies were exempt from common carrier laws The result of the ruling? monopoly control for Americans across the country means high prices, slower speeds, unreliable connections, a refusal to invest in network upgrades, and a dearth of options in rural areas as huge ISPs sought profits in urban markets big cable and telephone companies have lobbied to limit local authorities to create broadband networks .Public policy in 19 states deliberately impedes communities' abilities to create public options, strengthening monopoly control, and preventing competition, investment ,and a better deal on Internet service

Most important: Spectrum recognized as a common property resource, a "commons " All have equal right to these resources; a public good Like rivers, seas, mountains, no one should own them Overuse by one or some reduces the availability and value to all (like over-fishing, over-grazing) Need to restrict number of users

RCA formed in 1919, a government sanctioned monopoly Radio boom begins in 1920, establishment of KDKA Rise of massive interference, need for regulation

Radio Act of 1910

Ships sailing into or out of US ports, fifty or more passengers, and plying between ports200 or more miles apart had to have wireless apparatus send and receive over a distance of 100 miles

five largest companies in local tv

Sinclair, Nexstar, Gray, Tegna, and tribune

KEY CONCEPTS/TOPICS

Spectrum—common property resource Spectrum scarcity FCC's Trustee Model Regulation of Online Speech Deregulation of the media

1996 telecomm act

The Act was the first comprehensive rewrite of the communications act of 1934 changed the ground rules for competition and regulation in virtually all sectors of the communications industry it deregulated broadcast media and removed key broadcast ownership limits it deregulated broadcast media and removed key broadcast ownership limits first piece of legislation to address internet access in the US all nationwide limits on radio station ownership were repealed, but local limits on concentration were maintained although relaxed rate regulation requirements were removed on all cable services except the "basic tier" that includes over-the-air-channels and public and educational channels the act relaxed the FCC's media concentration rules by allowing any single company or network to own TV stations that reached as many as 35 percent of the nation s television households Precipitated the greatest wave of media consolidation in history single passage of the 1996 telecommunications act, clear channel (now called IHeartMedia) has grown from 40 stations to 1,240 -30 times more than congressional regulation previously allowed Trump's FCC. further deregulated the industry now there is no limit on the number of stations a single entity may own nationwide as the station group collectively reaches no more than 39 percent of all US TV households eliminated the longstanding "cross-ownership" rule that generally prohibits a single individual or company from owning a daily newspaper and a radio or TV station in the same market

Over the years, how have WE been monetized?

The first ratings service, the Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting started by Archibald Crossley in 1929, also called the Crossley ratings involved telephoning between 1500 and 3500 people in cities around the country and asking them to recall who in the household had listened to which stations and programs during the previous twenty-four hours, and which of these program family members preferred. It was a crude system and left critical questions unanswered. Why did people listen to some shows and not others? What shaped their tastes? There was also a class bias here, as only 41 percent of households had telephones, and many working class and ethnic listeners were excluded from the survey. Respondents also misremembered what they had heard the day before: there were lapses, false reports and deliberate misrepresentations. (social desirability) In 1934 a new research firm, Clark-Hooper Inc., which eventually came to be known as the Hooper ratings--inaugurated the "coincidental telephone interview. "Those called were asked to report what they were listening to right then, and on which station. In mid-1930s Frank Stanton and Paul Lazasfeld develop the program analyzer, or, more familiarly, "Little Annie."The program analyzer was a box with two buttons, one green and one red. Interview subjects were recruited and each given one as they gathered in a room to listen to a particular radio show. When they liked what they heard, they pressed the green button; when they didn't, they pressed the red. If they were indifferent, they were not to press anything The buttons were connected by wire to a device not unlike a polygraph which was in an adjoining room, invisible to the listeners. In the polygraph, a paper tape moved continuously under paired sets of pens. Each red button activated the red pen which swung down, marking a valley of dislike on the tape. A.C. Nielsen in Chicago in 1942 introduced its audimeter. The audimeter mechanically recorded on a piece of tape every time the radio dial was changed and where it was changed to When the tape was compared with the day's broadcasting schedule, Nielsen could see which shows were listened to and for how long.Hooper sold his ratings company to Nielsen in 1950 for $600,000. By 1959, A.C. Nielsen, which had, of course, also expanded into television ratings, was grossing $26.8 million a year

Net Neutrality:

The principle of Net neutrality—ISPs like Comcast, AT&T, Verizon--should not discriminate against legal internet traffic and online communication based either on its source or destination meant to prevent ISPs from pressuring websites to pay for faster streaming services and load times—called "paid prioritization" Paid prioritization creates "fast lanes" for wealthier companies and slow lanes for the rest of us Enacted by the FCC in 2015, In 2018, the Trump FCC ended net neutrality

Section 315:

also known as the "equal time provision;" stipulated that broadcasting stations were required to provide "equal opportunities" to all legally qualified candidate for public office to speak to the electorate on the air. Time made available to the candidate of one party had to be made available to all other candidates on basically the same terms

The FCC empowered to:

classify stations prescribe the nature of service to be rendered by these stations assign frequencies determine station location regulate the kind of apparatus used prevent interference designate call letters issue licenses for station operator restrict obscenity on the air

Horizontal Integration

consolidating control over the same time of production or distribution facility—e.g, controlling numerous oil wells example of horizontal integration would be controlling movie theaters or bookstores Media conglomeration: combination of companies in different media businesses to form a conglomerate—Time, Inc. which was a publishing company, merges with Warner Brothers, which was a TV/movie company, to form Time Warner

Ratings

determine how much advertisers have to pay or can be charged to advertise on particular shows percentage of a market's total population that is reached by a piece of broadcast programming estimate of the percentage of households tuned in to a particular program today each ratings point is a percentage of the population

Federal Communications Commission

established by the Federal Communications Act of 1934consolidated regulation of broadcast and line communications (telegraph and telephone )within one agency regulates use of and access to the electromagnetic spectrum consisted of seven members appointed by the president and approved by the Senate, one member being designated as chairman--no more than four of the seven could be of the same political party they must all be U.S. citizens, may not have a financial interest in the communications business, each serves for a seven year term; 1983 changed to 5 commissions serving 5 year terms

Sweeps periods

four times a year February, May, July and November when ad rates were setBut sweeps week outmoded; traditional sweeps months are now a thing of the past portable people meters: PPM is worn like a pager, and detects hidden audio tones within a station or network's audio stream, logging each time it finds such a signal Neilsen deploying on device meters to measure smartphone activity, and surveying mobile consumers via telephones, in person and online surveys so how are online audiences measured and tracked? use of cookies - information profiles collected on our browsing habits transferred between computer servers when you visit a a website, the website sends the cookie to the computers == computer stores it in a file in your browser -- these allow marketers to track your behavior rise of data brokers collect consumers personal info online -- resell or share that info • Collected from a wide range of sources; voting records, credit scores, online surfing and purchases • Lack of transparency; many consumers unaware, no interaction with us

Media consolidation/concentration

hen companies merge or one takes over another, so fewer companies in the industry—rise of newspaper chains, one movie studio acquiring another, equals less competition

Synergy

means the interaction and cooperation of two or more organizations or other agents to produce a combined effect that is greater than the sum it is mutually advantageous -- combined efforts and resources to maximize process

Share

measures a program audience as a percentage of the television sets in use at the time it airs tells what proportion of the actual audience a program attracts shows how well the show does against the competition The old Nielsen system had a meter system and a diary system Developed "People meters" first installed in 1987: a little box that sits on top of the television set and can be operated from a hand-held remote control. counted how many households are tuned to which programs. The diaries were now kept electronically, with each member of the household, demographically profiled in advance, pushing an assigned button whenever he or she watches television."overnights"--instant ratings gathered from gathered from homes in several urban areas

To monetize:

o make money from something; to convert uses and behaviors into revenue, profits; to utilize something as a source of profit The object of this scrutiny--the "audience"--was itself an invention, a construction that corralled a nation of individual listeners into a sometimes monolithic group that somehow knew what "it" wanted from broadcasting.

Fairness Doctrine

that broadcasters had the obligation to address all sides of public controversy during the course of their broadcasting; so required both that stations cover controversial issues of public importance and provide differing points of view about such issues