And Communications for All: A Policy Agenda for the New Administration

375 Pages·2009·1.75 MB·English

by  Amit Schejter

. . . A N D
C O M M U N I CAT I O N S F O R A L L

. . . A N D
C O M M U N I C AT I O N S F O R A L L
A Policy Agenda for a New Administration
Edited by
Amit M. Schejter
LEXINGTON BOOKS
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Copyright © 2009 by Lexington Books
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This volume is the product of the Future of American Communications (FACT) Working
Group assembled at the Institute for Information Policy (IIP) at the Pennsylvania State
University in December 2007, with a supporting grant provided by the Media Democracy
Fund (MDF). The editing was done by Judy Maltz, and the project coordinator was
Jonathan Obar.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
—And communications for all : a policy agenda for a new administration / edited by
Amit M. Schejter.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-2919-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7391-2919-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-2920-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7391-2920-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-3483-2 (electronic)
ISBN-10: 0-7391-3483-3 (electronic)
1. Telecommunication policy—United States. I. Schejter, Amit.
HE7781.A75 2009
384.0973—dc22 2008044657
Printed in the United States of America
(cid:64) ™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992.
Contents
Preface: A Second Chance vii
Introduction: Summary of Recommendations xi
Part I: Frameworks
1 Broadband, Internet, and Universal Service: Challenges to the
Social Contract of the Twenty-First Century 3
Jorge Reina Schement
2 Digital Media, Modern Democracy, and Our Truncated
National Debate 29
Ernest J. Wilson III
3 Public Scholarship and the Communications Policy Agenda 41
Robert W. McChesney
4 International Benchmarks: The Crisis in U.S. Communications
Policy through a Comparative Lens 57
Amit M. Schejter
Part II: Infrastructures and Industries
5 Competition and Investment in Wireline Broadband 81
Marvin Ammor i
6 U.S. Cable TV Policy: Managing the Transition to Broadband 109
Richard D. Taylor
7 A Spectrum Policy Agenda 137
Jon M. Peha
— v —
8 The Way Forward for Wireless 153
Rob Frieden
9 Rethinking the Media Ownership Policy Agenda 167
Philip M. Napoli
Part III: Access
10 Universal Service 181
Krishna Jayakar
11 America’s Forgotten Challenge: Rural Access 203
Sharon L. Strover
12 Municipal Broadband 223
Andrea H. Tapia
13 The Future of the E-Rate: U.S. Universal Service Fund Support
for Public Access and Social Services 239
Heather E. Hudson
Part IV: Content
14 Public Service Media 2.0 263
Ellen P. Goodman
15 Creating a Media Policy Agenda for the Digital Generation 281
Kathryn Montgomery
16 Race and Media: Several Key Proposals for the Next
Administration 301
Leonard M. Baynes
Index 325
About the Contributors 343
Preface
A Second Chance
It is rare that policymakers get a second chance, but today, they may be
fortunate enough to have such an opportunity. As this book goes to press in
the fall of 2008, it is aimed to assist the new administration that will be elected
this fall to seize the opportunity, learn from past mistakes, and design a com-
munications policy that will be forward-looking, make information technolo-
gies available to all, enhance their contribution to a more vibrant democratic
sphere, to a greater sense of social responsibility, and to an improved quality
of life for all Americans.
Twelve years after the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996 was
passed, the media and telecommunications industries in the United States
are more concentrated and less competitive than they were beforehand.
Fewer Americans are taking advantage of new technologies in comparison
to their peers in other industrialized countries; the technologies avail-
able to them are inferior, yet at the same time they are required to pay
more for them. The combination of shortsighted, though well-intended,
policies and the tendency to cater to the powerful interests of incumbent
industries—telephone, cable, and broadcasting companies—has led to
disastrous results.
Half a century ago, the United States was light years ahead of the rest of the
world when it came to providing its citizens with access to communication
networks and when it came to the sophistication of these networks. Today,
it lags behind most of the developed and some developing nations on both
counts. Even worse, evidence suggests that in the absence of dramatic policy
changes, this trend will only intensify.
— vii —
viii Preface
The policy agenda set down in these pages was prepared by a group of
sixteen scholars of eleven major American universities. Media and commu-
nications studies scholars, economists, legal scholars, public policy scholars,
education researchers, engineers, and social scientists from various disci-
plines, they joined together to form the Future of American Communications
Working Group under the auspices of the Institute for Information Policy at
Penn State University. Their work was supported by a generous grant from
the Media Democracy Fund. Each member of the working group enjoyed a
free hand in drawing up his or her recommendations, and no vote or unani-
mous agreement regarding each recommendation was taken. In this sort of
interdisciplinary work, it is our belief that the whole is greater than the sum
of its parts.
The policy prescriptions we offer take into account the current crisis plagu-
ing U.S. communications policy, as policymakers strive to support a future in
which the United States will reclaim its position as a world leader in the field.
Indeed, policy alone will not suffice, but it is an indispensable tool in this ef-
fort. While each chapter represents solely the views of its author, some com-
mon threads are evident throughout, among them the following:
(cid:118) The United States should adopt a comprehensive and pro-active national
information policy that promotes social inclusion as well as ubiquitous,
high-quality, open Internet service.
(cid:118) The policy should be technologically neutral, embracing all communica-
tions technologies and redefining the breadth and scope of longstanding
corrective policies.
(cid:118) The policy should address the four Cs of access: connectivity, capabil-
ity, content, and context. The goal of connectivity, at the heart of most
policies that aspire to increase access and/or bridge the digital divide,
represents but a first step toward functional access and empowerment.
Capability, content, and context must be woven into any strategy seeking
to achieve a better informational future for all.
(cid:118) A balance needs to be struck between measures that are market-led and
measures that are government-led.
(cid:118) National policy should recognize that a vibrant national broadband net-
work is comprised of both public goods and consumer products and that
it is designed to promote the former and create truly competitive markets
for the emergence of the latter.
Our recommendations are based on a consensus that all communications
services, including interactive, information, and entertainment services, will
eventually be provided over broadband. At the same time, we believe that the
Preface ix
Internet reduces uncertainty for users in important contexts, encourages civic
engagement, enables the creation of social capital, and is shaped through user-
generated content.
Our national goal, therefore, should be making broadband ubiquitous. All
policies and rules adopted in the next several years should be viewed as tran-
sitional, their objective being the smooth transition to a national, content-
rich, nondiscriminatory broadband network. But even if the Internet is kept
open and broadband becomes inexpensive and ubiquitous—two huge policy
challenges—that alone will not resolve all the key issues. Derailing hypercom-
mercialism, creating vibrant noncommercial zones, and protecting privacy are
other important goals to be addressed in these pages.
The forward-looking policy we propose stems from a vision of how the
industry should look in the future, and mid-range policy measures are recom-
mended to take us there.
The recommendations of the working group members are outlined in the
following chapter, the introduction and summary. More detailed descriptions
are provided in the individual chapters. Following the summary, the book is
divided into four sections. In section I, Frameworks, Jorge Reina Schement
of Rutgers University discusses the new contract for universal access in the
twenty-first century; Ernest J. Wilson III of the University of Southern Cali-
fornia Annenberg School for Communications urges us to revisit the tradi-
tional perspectives for viewing the media industries; Robert W. McChesney of
the University of Illinois argues that scholars of all disciplines need to engage
in the policy debate, and Amit M. Schejter of Penn State provides a compari-
son of communications policies across the globe that sheds light on where the
United States has erred.
The recommendations outlined in the introduction are discussed in fur-
ther detail in section II—Infrastructures and Industries. Marvin Ammori of
the University of Nebraska College of Law discusses the wireline industry for
delivering high-speed Internet access and the means by which to make it more
competitive; Richard D. Taylor of Penn State prescribes the way the cable in-
dustry should be prepared for the transition to an all-broadband network; Jon
M. Peha of Carnegie Mellon offers a middle ground in spectrum management
that balances between property claims and the call for a spectrum commons,
and proposes the launching of a national emergency communications system;
Rob Frieden of Penn State discusses the wireless industry and prescribes ways
by which to increase competition among wireless operators for the benefit of
consumers; and Philip M. Napoli of Fordham proposes a new framework to
guide the debate on ownership in the media industries. In section III—Access—
Krishna Jayakar of Penn State lays the foundation for a new approach to uni-
versal service; Sharon L. Strover of the University of Texas proposes a strategy