Values

We fight for policies that will strengthen our media — and our democracy — by putting the public interest before corporate profits. Here’s what healthy media look like:

Locally Owned Airwaves

Our local media should be just that: local. Local media allows us to engage with our neighbors and support local economic activity. It can help advance social justice, promote civic engagement and spur community dialogue. It can support local arts, music and culture. And it can highlight locally relevant issues, from providing crucial information during emergencies to conducting investigations of local officials.
When stations are owned by people living in the community, those stations are more likely to have programming that actually reflects what’s happening locally. The Federal Communications Commission should create policies that limit consolidation and foster local ownership of broadcast stations.

Competition, Not Consolidation

There are all sorts of benefits to a competitive media landscape. The more independent outlets a community has, the more different viewpoints will be presented on the air. But what happens when there’s no one to compete with? When one company owns everything in your town, it can cut staff and not worry about being scooped by a competitor. The fewer reporters there are on the streets, the less journalism there is on the news. The fewer DJs there are at your local radio station, the more automated computers and pre-programmed playlists take over.

The FCC sets limits on how much of your local media one company can own. These limits are designed to encourage stations to compete with one another to provide quality journalism. To preserve the benefits of competition, the FCC should not allow one company to own broadcast outlets and the major daily newspaper in the same town. The FCC should also recognize that one company controlling multiple stations is the same as one company owning multiple stations.

Media That Look Like America

Our mainstream media often perpetuate negative stereotypes, especially regarding women and people of color. That’s partly because the people in charge are generally not women or people of color. Women own only 6 percent of all radio and TV station licenses; people of color own just 7 percent of radio licenses and 3 percent of TV licenses. What we see and hear in the media should reflect the diversity of our communities. We need more opportunities for women and people of color to own media outlets, and we need our stations to engage in a dialogue with viewers about how programming can best serve local needs.

Women and people of color have historically been excluded from opportunities to own media outlets. The FCC should create policies that limit consolidation and expand ownership of broadcast stations by underrepresented groups.

Transparency in Media

Communities need access — both online and off — to meaningful information on how stations cover local news.

Right now the public has no way to access basic facts about our media outlets. We can’t easily determine who’s paying for political ads. We don’t know exactly what kind of educational and public affairs programming is being aired. Stations are allowed to hide the existence of news-sharing agreements that allow a broadcaster to air the same newscast on multiple stations in the same community. We can’t compare coverage of local issues on area TV stations. Without this information, we can’t determine what stories our local stations have ignored.

This information has been hidden from public view for far too long. People should be able to access it easily to hold their local broadcasters accountable. In this day and age, that means putting information online in a searchable public database. Without transparency, we can’t guarantee that our local stations are serving our communities’ needs.