Eric Newton of the Knight Foundation at the FTC hearing

Posted by Nestor Bailly on December 16, 2009 at 3:42 PM

Eric Newton, Vice President of the Journalism Program at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, spoke at the FTC journalism workshop on December 2nd about ways the government could help journalism.

Boldly opening with an account of how Cicero was disappointed with his 'commercial news packets coming from Rome' when he was sent to the provinces, Newton explained that a lot of people today have similar problems; they don't get the news they want from the places they feel are important.

He asserts that many governments at the regional or local level are held unaccountable because there is no local reporting; of the 3,248 counties and 30,000 towns and villages in the U.S. as of 2007, the Newspaper Association of America reported only 1,422 daily papers.

That gap leaves a lot of wiggle room for administrations and bureaucracies. Newton cites the paper he used to edit, the Oakland Tribune, which won awards for watchdog coverage but only covered 5% of their regional government.

His point is that journalism and newspapers have not suddenly dropped off in serving the public good; it has always picked and chose specific things to cover within its ability.

A statement from the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy sums up his position well: 'Journalism does not need saving so much as it needs creating.'

Newton is less concerned with 'saving' newspapers and journalism in their current forms than with finding out new ways to expand the flows of information and reporting to make sure it stays apace with new communication technologies.

Governmental involvement in the media and communications is as old as the nation itself, from colonial postal subsidies to allocating sections of wavelength for broadcast. The problem now is that government policies and regulations are too old and are not adapted to the new digital media environment.

Newton provides five examples of how the government could revamp its policies and help journalism for the public good:

"Public media: A lot of the government money that flows to public media is status quo money. Not good enough. Perhaps everything the Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds should be media innovation, to make public media more local and more interactive.

Nonprofit digital startups: Our old rules don't treat them fairly. Tax rules make it hard to switch to being a nonprofit, or a L3C. Nor do the rules allow these types of news organizations to exercise as much community leadership as for-profit entities, in, for example, the writing of editorials. Access rules don't give nonprofit news organizations equal access to press galleries.

University journalism: Students everywhere are showing they can do great journalism. But our old rules don't treat student journalists fairly. Many of our shield laws don't protect them, don't consider them journalists.

The government itself is a huge producer of mass media today: But in general not a very good one. For the most part, local, state and national government can't seem to use the new technology to do a better job obeying its own freedom of information laws, not even on the people's web sites that it now runs."

The final recommendation is a bit radical, as it calls for universal broadband access for all American consumers. He calls this the l'evel playing field upon which everything else depends,' and would be within the FTC's purview to promote affordable broadband for everyone.

These seem like great ideas, and although they have been said before in different places, it is important to have them voiced in front of federal officials. One hopes that they listen.

Source: Knight Foundation