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Two recent studies by Free Press highlight the dismal state of minority ownership in the broadcast industry.
According to Out of the Picture 2007, minorities and women are grossly under-represented in ownership of our nation's commercial television stations. The study found that while minorities comprise 34 percent of the U.S. population, they own just 3.15 percent of television stations. Women make up 51 percent of the population, but own just 5.87 percent of television stations.
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Likewise, Off the Dial, Free Press' report on radio station ownership, found that while minorities make up 34 percent of the population, they own just 7.7 percent of all full-power commercial broadcast radio stations.
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The StopBigMedia coalition urged the FCC to stop further concentration of media ownership until it has taken the necessary steps to promote minority and female ownership of broadcast stations. (Read the coalition's letter to the FCC).
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps called his agency's failure to foster minority voices in the U.S. media system "a national disgrace" that demands immediate action. "The FCC needs to look before it leaps into another abyss," he said. "We just should not be voting again on changing media ownership rules unless and until we have tackled this problem and come up with initiatives to redress a crying national need."
The results of these studies indicate a perilous state of under-representation of minorities in the ownership of broadcast media. The results also point to massive consolidation and market concentration as one of the key structural factors keeping minorities from accessing the public airwaves.
Before the FCC moves to further increase local market concentration by abandoning longstanding ownership rules, it should carefully consider the potential harms this shift in policy will bring to the under-represented communities of this country. It is not sound policymaking to assert that diversity, localism and female/minority ownership are important goals, then to ignore the effects that rule changes would have on those goals.
Even if Congress or the FCC were to enact other measures aimed at increasing female and minority participation in broadcast ownership -- from tax credits to digital channel leasing -- these efforts will likely be futile in an atmosphere of increased consolidation. The best way to ensure a diversity of owners on the public airwaves is to roll back media consolidation.
The marriage of Comcast and NBC is bad news for consumers. But Washington and Wall Street have already bought into the idea that it's a done deal. That's why Americans need to speak out now and stop the mega-merger!
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