• The Internet Must Remain in the Hands of the People

    Rep. Raul M. Grijalva
    August 19, 2010

    The recent announcement that Google and Verizon believe Internet and wireless providers should decide what kinds of online content they allow customers to access should spur the FCC to immediate action. As it stands, Internet and phone service providers cannot and must not discriminate between different kinds of online content and applications.

  • Keeping Local News Flowing

    Rep. Raul M. Grijalva
    January 20, 2010

    Local news was a focal point at the recent FTC workshop, “How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?" Reed Hundt reported on the Knight Commission recommendations and emphasized the role of local news in promoting the traditional U.S. policy goal of localism both in newspapers and in broadcasting. Matthew Gentzkow reported on his study that the entry and exit of newspapers from local communities have the most pronounced effect on voter participation in local elections. Tom Rosenstiel emphasized again that local newspapers have more reporters on the ground to cover local news stories than all other local news entities combined, and drew the logical conclusion: Economic threats to local newspapers strike at the heart of the availability of information concerning the issues of public importance to local communities.

  • Public Funding is a Necessary Part of the Mix

    Rep. Raul M. Grijalva
    December 7, 2009

    Mark MacCarthy is a professor at Georgetown University’s Communications, Culture and Technology program. The following are his remarks delivered at the Federal Trade Commission’s “News Media Workshop” held on December 1 and 2, 2009. Read an expanded version of these remarks in his earlier guest blog post here.

    I want to develop the idea that public funding is a necessary part of the mix of support mechanisms for the journalism of the future.

    Why? The Internet has undermined the advertising and bundling mechanisms that subsidized news production.

  • Public Media and Journalism: A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste

    Rep. Raul M. Grijalva
    October 23, 2009

    This is a guest post by Mark MacCarthy, a professor at Georgetown University's Communication, Culture, and Technology Program.

    I want to develop the idea that substantially increased federal funding for public service media that provide local news and information would be an effective public policy response to the crisis in journalism. I start from several propositions: