• The FCC's Ownership Review Marks a Critical Chance to Turn the Tide

    Libby Reinish
    January 19, 2012

    Our local media outlets are being stripped for parts. Aided by decades of bad policymaking, the large companies that control most of the broadcast outlets across the country are laying off local DJs, shuttering local newsrooms and inching ever closer toward creating monopolies in local marketplaces. The more media outlets consolidate, the more our diverse local media is being replaced by faceless, automated infotainment. If it’s true that the media influences and shapes our culture, then we’re headed down a path to uniformity, where cheap centralized content replaces diverse local voices and quality programming.

  • Why We Went Black

    Timothy Karr
    January 19, 2012

    Wikipedia and Google blacked out? Redditers in an uproar? Thousands of geeks abandoning their cubicles to take to the streets?

    What's happening here?

  • Momentum Builds Against SOPA and PIPA

    Josh Levy
    January 17, 2012

    Tomorrow you might be wondering who turned out the lights. Don’t worry — it will simply be one of the biggest days in the history of the open Internet.

    Thousands of websites — including Wikipedia, reddit, BoingBoing, FreePress.net and SavetheInternet.com — will go dark to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), bills in the House and Senate that could open the door to widespread censorship online.

  • Does Corporate Cash Explain the Networks' Silence on SOPA?

    Josh Levy
    January 12, 2012

    Earlier this week we pointed to a Media Matters for America study showing that most of the major networks — ABC, CBS, Fox News, MSNBC and NBC — have failed to cover opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

    Online piracy is definitely a problem. But these bills would do little to solve it. They’re the latest effort in Hollywood’s Sisyphean quest to close the open Internet — and slow down the kinds of online innovation that threaten the old-school media masters.

  • Charitable Donations Given Via Cellphones on the Rise

    Amy Kroin
    January 12, 2012

    The first-ever study on mobile donors found that charitable donations made via cellphones have jumped in recent years. The report from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Pew Research Center analyzed the “Text to Haiti” campaign that followed the devastating 2010 earthquake.

    The study shows that most text donors contributed on impulse as news about the campaign spread via friend networks. “Three quarters of these donors contributed using their phones on the same day they heard about the campaign,” the study notes, “and a similar number say they typically make text message donations without conducting much in-depth research beforehand.”

  • Citizen Journalist Arrests on the Rise at Occupy Protests

    Josh Stearns
    January 10, 2012

    Late last Friday journalists and protesters gathered outside the home of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to speak out in defense of the First Amendment. The event drew more police than participants, which only reinforced the message the group hoped to send regarding the NYPD’s heavy-handed approach to journalists covering Occupy Wall Street. 

  • Journalists Need to Advocate for Better Media Policy

    Josh Stearns
    January 9, 2012

    The Stop Online Piracy Act has sparked an important debate among journalists and within journalism organizations about their role as advocates for and against policies that impact the future of news. Of course, journalists have long been important advocates for policies like the shield law and the Freedom of Information Act and have been staunch defenders against incursions on freedom of the press. However, in terms of some of the most important media policy discussions, many journalism organizations have been silent.

  • The News Networks' SOPA Blackout

    Josh Levy
    January 9, 2012

    You may have heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. Simply put, it's a bill in the House that could open the door to widespread Internet censorship.

    Opposition to the bill has reached a boiling point. Millions of activists, hundreds of startups, social media sites like Tumblr, Reddit and Twitter and even big companies like Google, Yahoo! and eBay have joined with Free Press and other Internet advocacy groups against it.

  • Verizon's Deal with Big Cable Spells the Demise of the Telecom Act

    Joel Kelsey
    January 5, 2012

    We all remember the 1980's and its awesome fashion and music. While some may want to revisit those aspects of the past, I don't think anyone wants to return to the era of the cable and Ma Bell monopolies.

    Opening up communications markets was the purpose of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The Act was designed to help phone companies get into the pay-TV business, and cable companies get into the phone business. Yet after a series of regulatory blunders, this promise of increased competition and lower prices has become a distant memory, like 7-Up Gold. And the situation is only getting worse.

  • Iowa Kicks Off the Media's Mud Season

    Timothy Karr
    January 4, 2012

    If you flip on a local television station and watch for an hour or so, you're likely to see at least one: a political ad that attacks a candidate for public office.

    If you live in any of the "battleground states," you'll see up to 12 political ads an hour.

    Viewers in Iowa fell under a barrage of these ads leading up to Tuesday's caucuses. This on-air onslaught offers the rest of us a preview of what television viewing will be like as Election Day 2012 draws closer.

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