Consolidation Could Shut Minorities and Women out of TV Ownership, Report Finds
Feature Story by Trevor Clark - 10/5/2006
When Americans tune in to watch their favorite TV shows this week, chances are the broadcast will not be coming from a station owned by a minority or woman.Of the 1,349 commercial television stations in the United States only 67, or 4.97 percent, are owned by women--and 44, or 3.26 percent, are owned by minorities, despite women and minorities making up 51 and 33 percent of the population respectively.
According to a recently released report by Free Press, Out of the Picture, this disparity could get even worse with an increase in media concentration and consolidation. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering eliminating longstanding limits on media consolidation and ownership.
"This is the first study to show the direct link between increasing media concentration and the lack of minority ownership in the media. It...provides a detailed assessment of the stations that left minority hands as a result of specific policies adopted by the Congress and FCC to allow media consolidation," said Mark Cooper, director of research at Consumer Federation America and co-author of the report.
After the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, there was a 30 percent drop in minority ownership of networks, according to S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press and co-author of the study. "The pressures of consolidation and concentration brought on by bad policy decisions have crowded out women and minority owners...and now it's [the FCC] preparing to make the situation even worse," Turner said.
The report notes that the nation's segregationist history has contributed to the under-representation of women and minorities in broadcast ownership. Beginning in the late 1970s, the FCC pledged to rectify the situation and increase diversity in media ownership, but, as the report asserts, progress has been slow in coming.
And despite promises to evaluate and increase diversity, the FCC has not done a major study of minority and women ownership of stations since 2000.
"This is a very important study, but it is one that we should not have had to write," said Free Press' Turner. "The FCC has the duty and responsibility to monitor and foster female and minority broadcast ownership. But the FCC has failed."
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) has urged FCC Chairman Martin to commit resources to study the barriers to participation and ownership by women and minorities in the upcoming review of the FCC's rules governing media ownership. "LCCR...is convinced that the FCC is not doing an adequate job of identifying and working to eliminate the barriers to participation of women and minorities in this important industry," LCCR's letter to Chairman Martin said.
The Free Press report shows that lack of diversity in ownership also severely affects availability and access of diverse programming for viewers. Nine out of ten African-American homes are not served by an African-American owned station. The data is equally as grim for Latinos and Asians: eight out of ten Latino homes are not served by Latino-owned stations and nine out of ten Asian homes are not served by Asian-owned stations.
Civil rights leaders have called on the FCC to address its mandate to ensure diversity in U.S. media.
"This debate should focus on localism, competition, and diversity of views," said LCCR Deputy Director Nancy Zirkin. "The low levels of female and minority ownership--should be a national embarrassment."
"Latinos continue to be severely underrepresented in the mainstream media in terms of employment, content and ownership," said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza. "This report confirms what we strongly believe--that increased media concentration has significantly exacerbated this situation and that increasing media diversity in media ownership could help stem it."
The FCC had the first of six planned public hearings on October 3 at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. "The Commission is looking for input on our rules and how they impact the three core goals they are intended to further: competition, diversity and localism," said FCC Chairman Martin, during his statement at the Los Angeles hearing.
In a room packed with musicians, members of Congress, TV producers and community leaders among others, the FCC heard complaints that an increase in consolidation will increase none of the aforementioned goals.
"Casting decisions are now made by the networks," said actress Anne-Marie Johnson in an interview with Reuters. "A requirement for independent voices in production is critical to the completion of a goal of diversity in America."
The remaining five hearings, to be held at various locations across the country, have yet to be announced.
It's likely that with the prodding of community activists and others, diversity will continue to be the prevailing theme, something that FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps, one of the two commissioners who opposed a similar relaxation of rules on consolidation in 2003, welcomes.
"[S]erving the public interest means the public interest of everyone in this great land. Some among us see our diversity as a problem to be overcome; I say our diversity is an opportunity to be harnessed," said Commissioner Copps, in his remarks at the hearing.
