NCMR08 4: FACT, continuation

Krishna Jayakar, "I'm a member of the Penn State mafia." Universal service!

Four programs:

• Lifeline and Linkup
• Schools and Libraries (E-rate)
• High Cost Areas
• Rural Health Care

This money comes from end-user fees, to the tune of $7.4 billion over the last four quarters. However, Universal Service Fund (USF) expenses has steadily increased while telecom revenues are flat. Proposals:

• Make the USF funding sustainable
• control costs: capping High Cost Areas Program (I'm going to have to look this up later)
• expand contribution pool. Ouch - he's talking about adding fees to VoIP calls and all broadband traffic. That's not going to be popular.
  
• Improve effectiveness
• Cross-promoting Lifeline and Linkup (again, to look up later)
• Consumer protection against unpredictable phone bills

Long term proposals:

• Emphasize value creation over affordability. I don't understand what this does for universal service.
• Move from uniform service to consumer choice
• Foster innovation in service
• Ensure continuance of support for the disenfranchised

I really don't see how this pro-consumer framework gets us to Universal Service. I'm not saying I disagree, but I don't think Krishna made the case. It might have just been a case of the attack of the Powerpoint presentation - bullet points over coherent argumentation. It happens.

Marvin Ammori, Free Press/University of Nebraska on broadband adoption. "We need to move forward with the idea the competition does work."

• Need info on our markets
• Need to understand other regimes abroad
• Need a broad commitment to competition
• Possibly include some structural separation to create more competitive markets
  
• Net Neutrality
  

NCMR08 3: FACT, continued

Kathryn Montgomery, American University, will discuss children's issues. Kathryn works closely with the Jeff Chester at the Center for Digital Democracy. She highlights that both the Executive transitions and the digital transitions work together to open opportunities for positive change.

Major points

• The new digital marketing infrastructure is taking shape. Still, it's fluid, and there are opportunities for intervention. Marketers are looking at the digital media culture as an ecosystem that develops across platforms, creating "brand-saturated environments." They are leveraging social networks and encouraging young people to actively market to their peers through these ne
• Intervention opportunities
• Food marketing - most of the debate has been around TV advertising, but it's time to look at digital marketing. Kathryn is working on the FTC on this.
  
• Childrens' privacy online: IPR, US PIRG, CDD and others are also pressing the FTC on this.

Why is the FTC the regulatory body to pressure on children's issues? I guess its better to work within the trade framework than the speech framework to protect kids.

Rob Frieden, Penn State, on wireless policy. Frustrations:

• Policy favors concentration in control for carriers. Verizon announced intentions to acquire Alltel. "The FCC never saw a merger it didn't want to approve."
• 40 years ago, the FCC said consumers can own our own phones, despite the Big Bell's prophesies of doom. Carterphone for wireless! Wonky radicals, unite!
  

NCMR08 2: FACT

First off is Richard Taylor, Penn State, who wrote on the transition of cable and other platforms to the broadband network. "Everybody gets fast Internet - that's where we'd like to end up."

Radi0ctive Gavin just sat down next to me, so I missed the denser points Richard made, but on PEG: channel slamming, loss of close captioning, Richard has worked out a long list of public service, continuity, do no harm policies for PEG.

I can see now that I wish they had produced a 3-5 pager collection of abstracts for each paper in progress, because these folks are going to have to present with speed and fury, and it's going to be difficult to absorb, analyze, blog, and/or respond to any of it.

Philip Napoli, Fordham, is covering media ownership. Guiding principles:

• Assessment of the media system not in relation to the past, but in relation to its contemporary potential
  
• The media ownership policy process should be as values-drive as it is an empirical process, with a focus on "First Amendment, democratic theory principles"
  
• The goal should be anti-protectionist for incumbent (I love this point)
• Number of channels is irrelevant. The focus should be on the distribution of resources for the production of content. Philip says this is a point the Mark Cooper has been making for some time. It's a well articulated response to the cant that says "but there are so many choices." We'll have to work on the language a little for mobilization purposes, but that's ok.
  
• The burden of proof should be equally distributed between the assessment of benefits and harms.
• Demands for rigorous data analysis must be accompanied and supported by rigorous data collection

Next Up, Len Baynes of St. John's University on the problems in media for minorities. Lack of coverage (Katrina and aftermath), lack of representation (central roles), Imus-level hate speech are the major.

On media ownership: it's clear that minority ownership has dropped. Recommendations:

• It's a little late for the FCC to just now be rolling out non-discrimination policies.
• Remedy the structural discrimination in access to capital, advertising. We can use race-based criteria to remedy these.
• Tax certificate program "was the most effective program the FCC had to" increase minority ownership before Congress killed it off. There are bills in Congress by Rush and Rangel that Len supports.
• Amend the indecency statute so that "racially abusive language would come within the purview of the statute."
  

NCMR08 1: Academic Symposium

NCMR08 is up and running, and I am at the academic symposium part of the conference today.

The first panel, a discussion with the Future of American Communications Working Group (FACT), is the main reason I chose this pre-conference from the dense menu of advertised pre-conferences and other meetings. FACT is a project supported by the Media and Democracy Fund that is pulling together some top brains to present a "new vision for communication policy in America for the 21st century for the new administration that will be entering the White House in January" (Amit Schejter, Director).

Depending on how this project works out, the groups I work from will likely be pulling heavily from this project, and this is the first unveiling of the direction the project is taking.