The Internet has severely disrupted the media landscape — and one of the key victims is local news coverage, a new study by the Federal Communications Commission reports.
Coupled with the economic downturn and the decline of print and its pricier ad rates, journalists are losing jobs at an alarming clip. The consequence, the study argues, could be the absence of an important watchdog against government and corporate corruption.
“A shortage of reporting manifests itself in invisible ways: stories not written, scandals not exposed, government waste not discovered, health dangers not identified in time, local elections involving candidates about whom we know little,” the study says.
The more than 400-page report stops short of identifying a magic elixir for the vanishing profits and shrinking newsrooms of newspapers and television news stations, but it does suggest that the worsening situation could be improved by having news organizations more fully embrace behavior targeted advertising.
It may be a fight against the clock to implement that particular strategy. Though web ads that better exploit users personal information would allow news organizations to charge higher rates, privacy groups and the Obama administration are calling for tighter restrictions on the way that advertisers capture personal data, according to the Hill.
That’s not the only solution that the commission proposes for propping up cratering ad revenues. The FCC also suggests that more federal government advertising for military recruiting and public health issues should be directed toward local news outlets. Currently the government spends roughly $1 billion on these campaigns, representing a potential windfall for a news sector hit hard by shrinking classified pages.
Though government has a role to play and should consider creating public affairs cable channels like C-SPAN or ease tax rules for non-profit news organizations, the study implies that there are limits to its involvement in news-gathering.
In particular, the study pours ice water on proposals to create an AmeriCorps-like program for reporters, saying that such a move would needlessly politicize an organization that provides a valuable social safety net.
While it expresses concern about the diminishing media landscape, the report says that some safeguards are antiquated and need to be swept away. In particular, the study says that commission should do away with the last remnants of the “Fairness Doctrine,” a policy that mandates broadcasters present balanced reports on political issues. The commission said that the rule is largely ignored, and that it has the potential to violate Free Speech rights.
To arrive at its findings, the study group conducted more than 600 interviews, received public comments, held several open workshops and visited newsrooms across the country.
