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Regular readers of this blog may recall that I've recently posted a couple of stories about how Michael De Kort used YouTube get his message out to people when the mainstream media failed to listen. Making this important is the fact that national security is at stake and authorities appear to be saying that he was correct.
I am interested in this because it takes place in an environment in which more and more media outlets are consolidated in the hands of fewer owners.
I am not a conspiracy theorist on the topic because I tend to believe that media outlets are inept; only interested in profits. However, I can't help but notice that real newsworthy events (and sometimes insightful opinions) are everywhere but actual news reporting seems to be decreasing. While you or I cannot expect to buy a television station to change the world, we can use new media distribution channels to get a message out.
Recently, barbara boxer has been critical of the Federal Communications Commission. Her first observation was about radio station consolidation. But recently she dropped a bombshell that said in effect that copies of a draft of an FCC study showed that locally owned stations air more news than stations that are controlled by companies not based locally. Boxer claimed that the report was shelved, and a former FCC lawyer told the Associated Press last week that FCC managers ordered its destruction.
FCC Commissioner, Kevin Martin, who had previously voted in support of weakening media-consolidation rules, has now called for a formal investigation. That move is also interesting because in a different news item last Tuesday, he said he may rethink his decision about media consolidation.
However the drama in Washington DC plays out, it is vital to understand that content generated by people and groups ignored by the mainstream media now have new opportunities afforded them because of digital media and the Internet.
Posted by admin on September 20th, 2006 :: Filed under Internet TV
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