Sustaining Democracy in a Digital Age

Each day as we log on to the Internet, use our cell phones for more than just talking, watch television, and connect on social networks, we are part of a small group of giants.

Tonight the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and The New America Foundation will host “Getting Media Right: A Call to Action,” a panel discussion on the state of media policy in the US today (which will also be streaming live for those who cannot attend).

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps will address the crowd and respondents include Barbara Cochran, Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Missouri School of Journalism; Yochai Benkler, Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard Law School; and Steve Coll, President of the New America Foundation.

This discussion comes at a time when our digital habits are either determined or dominated by a few large companies.

For social networking, most of us turn to Facebook. According to the site, one-third of its 500 million users are in the US.  The company’s recent valuation, which is a moving target, was speculated at $50 billion. The company is even trying to trademark the word “Face,” reportedly.

Search engine, data and online advertising company Google, with a market capitalization of $180 billion and 66 percent of the search market, may undertake its largest acquisition yet in a reportedly $6 billion deal for Groupon, the “group buying” local advertising network. Google is also in the cell phone business with its Android platform for Verizon smart phones. Maybe you’ve noticed at your local Best Buy that you can now buy a Google TV system.

And if the powerhouse marriage is approved for content provider NBC Universal and cable and Internet company Comcast, here is a list of what the combined company will control.  The list includes film companies, a television network and TV stations in the top 10 US markets.

For media policy to move forward equitably in the digital age, we have to reconcile the bigness of powerful media companies with the reality of local smallness. Too many local news and information systems throughout the country continue to operate with an analog mentality, whether due to budget constraints, little understanding of Web 2.0 concepts, daily newspaper monopolies, inferior digital infrastructure, or media illiteracy among generations of consumers.

Emerging from the smallness are hyperlocal news outlets: A new one seemingly launches (or dies) overnight. These often independent news centers, like their traditional media ancestors, seek the holy grail of monetization and are experimenting with ways to pay for community journalism. Journalism schools are taking note. The City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism will start a master’s degree program in entrepreneurial journalism, for instance.

Besides finding the right way to support their information business, hyperlocal news founders also deal with staffing, training, content, and legal issues. Media policy makers should keep in mind not only this small businessperson, but also the local reader who has come to rely on and interact with their new community information source.

Municipalities are clamoring for an upgraded high-speed Internet access infrastructure. Google’s Fiber for Communities program, an experiment to institute “competitively priced” 1 gigabyte per-second fiber-to-the home Internet access, has received more than 1,000 respondents in 49 states and DC.

There is plenty of ground to cover at tonight’s panel discussion at Columbia, but considering FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s release yesterday of a three-point proposal for an open Internet, Commissioner Copps will no doubt weigh in on what the government should do to protect net neutrality while fostering competition in land and wireless networks. In the Open Technology Initiative here at New America, director Sascha Meinrath has already observed that yesterday’s proposal from Chairman Genachowski (to promote transparency, and prohibit content blocking and network traffic discrimination)  looks like “a great victory for the largest telecom corporations and a sound defeat for those working to support innovation and the economic vibrancy that an open Internet facilitates.”

The FCC will vote on the proposal Dec. 21.

The panelists tonight will have a lot of ground to cover in the one-hour talk – net neutrality, sustaining journalism and the pursuit of open information. And I haven’t even mentioned Wikileaks.