Given the current American administration’s corporate “Christmasses at once” approach to big business and economics, the deregulation of US media seems pretty much an historical inevitability. But there are people – quite a few people, in fact – who are doing their best to stop America going down the path that New Zealand took some 14 years ago. It would have a different effect there than here, of course. Clear Channel won’t have to work from scratch, for a start.
This is the Media Reform Network, and they had their conference in Madison, Wisconsin earlier in the month. I was in Madison a couple of months back, and the support for local public radio there is astonishing. WORT, a listener-supported radio station with an unapologetically left-wing agenda, is absolutely thriving. Media theorist, and author of ‘Rich Media, Poor Democracy’, Robert McChesney hosted a show there for years.
The University of Wisconsin, Madison is also the first place Marshall McLuhan held a teaching post. Not strictly relevant here, but I mention it because, well… McLuhan, y’know?
Although an American site, Media Reform Net is definitely a good place to start reading up about communication rights, the democratic potential of media and the threats to democracy of wholesale corporatisation. There are also some audio and video recordings of the presentations at the conference, including addresses by Bill Moyers, Naomi Klein and Ralph Nader. All good stuff.
McChesney says: ‘If we are serious about democracy, we will need to reform the media system structurally. This reform will have to be part of a broad movement to democratize all the core institutions of society.’
Back here at home, Steve Maharey has announced plans to re-negotiate the radio broadcasting environment from scratch (or at least, play ‘let’s pretend it’s a blank slate’). He’s going to get a panel of people together, sit them down and ask them to describe what they would design if they were going to build New Zealand’s radio broadcasting system from the ground up.
Very good idea. Of course, it won’t be remotely realistic, but it will give a clear picture of a direction to head starting from where we are now.
More than anything, though – we need to remember that we don’t have a ‘consumer’ relationship with media – we have a ‘citizen’ relationship with it (or at least, we should). Spectrum is a public asset. Like National Parks.
