At a time in which the ways we consume media have been changing rapidly, how much do we want the government to help support media industry growth or determine media industry restrictions? These questions are not some purely
academic exercise. The answers affect what you get to see, where you get to see it, and who gets to offer it to you. On this episode of Media Inside Out, we explore government regulations and the media industry.
Two guests will be guiding our discussion:
Jan Fernback is an associate professor within Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University. She earned her doctorate from the University of Colorado, and her MA from Temple University. She consults on various web-related projects and has published studies and commentary on cybercommunities and new technology. Her current work examines the impact of information and communication technologies in urban revitalization efforts, the institutional uses of ICTs, issues of privacy and surveillance online and in mobile technologies, and the meaning of virtual communities in contemporary culture.
Bob Fernandez is a veteran business reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer who has covered the telecom and media for about a decade, primarily writing about Comcast Corp. Among his topics have been Comcast’s acquisitions of NBCUniversal and Sky TV, as well as its failed deal for Time Warner Cable. He has written extensively on sports media business and recently the travails in the newspaper business.
Bob also is the author of The Chocolate Trust, published in 2015 and an expose of the $14-billion Pennsylvania trust for poor children funded by Hershey and Reese’s chocolates. He also is writing a series for the Inquirer on the student debt crisis called Debt Valley with reporter Eric Arvedlund.
If you would like to publicly comment on issues discussed in this episode, here are some resources:
- The FCC is currently allowing public comments on network neutrality. Click here to see popular proceedings open for comment.
- If you would like to comment on network neutrality specifically, click here.
- Anyone can browse public comments for the FTC here.
- Comments can be made on a current private policy being considered here.