Regulation of Media Ownership by the Federal Communications Commission PDF Download

Author: Stanley M. Besen
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 9780833006271
Category : Radio
Languages : en
Pages : 77

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Book Description
This report assesses the state of current knowledge about the likely effects of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) restrictions on the ownership of broadcasting stations and cable TV systems, to reach judgments about the desirability of modifying or eliminating existing FCC ownership regulations. It examines the evidence on the effects of group ownership of broadcast stations, concentrated regional ownership, common ownership of broadcast stations within a local market, television station-cable system cross-ownership, and telephone-cable cross-ownership. The report reaches four broad conclusions: (1) Concentrated broadcast station ownership leads neither to large operating efficiencies nor to anticompetitive behavior; (2) there is little or no basis for the FCC's group ownership rules, some support exists for rules limiting regional concentration, and stronger support exists for rules that limit cross-ownership within narrow geographic areas; (3) there is no compelling basis for lifting the telephone-cable system cross-ownership ban; and (4) present FCC rules, and many of the proposals for their repeal or modification, are often deficient because they fail to take into account actual competitive conditions.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Federal Communications Commission's rules governing media ownership, traditionally implemented under a trustee model, have changed radically as the result of deregulatory moves in the 1980's and a change to a regulatory implementation based on economic competition in the mid 1990's. Under the statutory obligation of Statute 202 to review ownership rules, the FCC has acted outside of the guidelines of the rulemaking procedures of the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has remanded a pair of FCC decisions to the agency for lack of supporting evidence. A significant part of the evidence issue lies in the reality that at the heart of the regulation of media ownership is an empirically unexplored relationship between the diversity of content and ownership. The belief that each owner represents one viewpoint has been used by the FCC as a proxy measurement when assessing the changes on the quantity and quality of the informational content being provided to local audiences by broadcasters. This dissertation explores the history of the ownership-diversity relationship, beginning with the FCC's 1975 ban on Newspaper-Broadcast Cross-Ownership, and tracks the development of media ownership policy through the changes to the broadcast industry which began after the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. 1039 individual decisions on media ownership were analyzed for evidence that the agency had assessed the effects of ownership on viewpoint diversity. This analysis demonstrates that there is a minimal amount evidence of which exists to support the central theory at the heart of the FCC's media ownership policy. After discussing the evidence the FCC continues to collect as part of the ongoing 2010 Quadraennial review, the author concludes that the lack of supporting evidence is not a new problem, nor has the agency taken the necessary steps to evaluate the effects of policy implementation.

Author: Ronald E. Rice
Publisher: Hampton Press (NJ)
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
Trends and developments in social values, political ideologies, media policies, economic conditions, globalization, media technologies, and telecommunications networks have all interacted to generate significant changes in the nature of media industries, production, content, distribution, exhibition, and use. This book considers a wide variety of interdisciplinary discussion and analysis of historical, legal, cultural, policy, research, professional, oppositional and ethical perspectives on the media ownership question.

Author: Tom Robinson
Publisher: ABDO
ISBN: 9781604535341
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
Examines the debate over media ownership, includes the legislation that has shaped the issue as well as the numerous sides of each argument.

Author: Congressional Research Service: The Libr
Publisher: BiblioGov
ISBN: 9781294250357
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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Book Description
On June 2, 2003, the Federal Communications Commission modified five of its media ownership rules, easing restrictions on the ownership of multiple television stations (nationally and in local markets) and on local media cross-ownership, and tightening restrictions on the ownership of multiple radio stations in local markets. The new rules have never gone into effect. Sec. 629 of the FY2004 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 108-199) instructs the FCC to modify its new National Television Ownership rule to allow a broadcast network to own and operate local broadcast stations that reach, in total, at most 39% of U.S. television households. On June 24, 2004, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ("Third Circuit"), in Prometheus Radio Project vs. Federal Communications Commission, found the FCC did not provide reasoned analysis to support its specific local ownership limits and therefore remanded portions of the new local ownership rules back to the FCC and extended its stay of those rules. Several media companies and media associations sought appeals at the Supreme Court, based in part on challenging the continued viability of the spectrum scarcity rationale for broadcast regulation, but on June 13, 2005 the Court declined to consider the appeals. On ...

Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce. Subcommittee on Communications
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Radio broadcasting
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Committee Serial No. 91-6. pt. 1: Considers general review of FCC activity on various subjects, including: domestic satellites, the fairness doctrine, public broadcasting, cable television, and violence on television. pt. 2: Considers the need for FCC regulation of the content of television programs. Focuses on the problem of violence on television programs and its detrimental effect on the public

Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce. Subcommittee on Communications
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Radio broadcasting
Languages : en
Pages : 540

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Book Description
Committee Serial No. 91-6. pt. 1: Considers general review of FCC activity on various subjects, including: domestic satellites, the fairness doctrine, public broadcasting, cable television, and violence on television. pt. 2: Considers the need for FCC regulation of the content of television programs. Focuses on the problem of violence on television programs and its detrimental effect on the public

Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Broadcasting
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description

Author: Beata Klimkiewicz
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 615521185X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Addresses a critical analysis of major media policies in the European Union and Council of Europe at the period of profound changes affecting both media environments and use, as well as the logic of media policy-making and reconfiguration of traditional regulatory models. The analytical problem-related approach seems to better reflect a media policy process as an interrelated part of European integration, formation of European citizenship, and exercise of communication rights within the European communicative space. The question of normative expectations is to be compared in this case with media policy rationales, mechanisms of implementation (transposing rules from EU to national levels), and outcomes.

Author: Mara Einstein
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135634076
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Media Diversity: Economics, Ownership, and the FCC provides a detailed analysis of the regulation of diversity and its impact on the structure and practices within the broadcast television industry. As deregulation is quickly changing the media landscape, this volume puts the changing structure of the industry into perspective through the use of an insider's point of view to examine how policy and programming get made. Author Mara Einstein blends her industry experience and academic expertise to examine diversity as a media policy, suggesting that it has been ineffective and is potentially outdated, as study after study has found diversity regulations to be wanting. In addition to reviewing diversity research on the impact of minority ownership, regulation of cable and DBS, duopolies, ownership of multiple networks and cross ownership of media on program content, Einstein considers the financial interest and syndication rules as a case study, due to their profound effects on the structure of the television industry. She also poses questions from an economic perspective on why the FCC regulates structure rather than content. Through the presentation of her research results, she argues persuasively that the consolidation of the media industry does not affect the diversity of entertainment programming, a conclusion with broad ramifications for all media and for future research about media monopolies. This volume serves as a defining work in its examination of the intersection of regulation and economics with media content. It is appropriate as a supplemental text in courses on communication policy, broadcast economic and media management, broadcast programming, political economy of the mass media, and media criticism at the advanced and graduate level. It is also likely to interest broadcast professionals, media policymakers, communication lawyers, and academics. It is a must-read for all who are interested in the media monopoly debate.