Minority ownership of media outlets in the United States

Minority ownership of media outlets in the United States is the concept of having ownership of media outlets to reflect the demographic population of the area which the media serves. This is to help ensure that media addresses issues that are of concern to the needs and interests of the local population.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is charged by federal law to ensure that the people of the United States have access to "rapid, efficient, Nationwide, and worldwide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable prices" Their longstanding policy and mandate is to make sure that there is access to communications for all, and this access is not discriminatory, especially in relationship to one's race or gender. For many decades a pillar to the policies that the FCC followed was that of “competition, diversity, and localism” and this policy guided its decisions on “regulating media ownership” was first created by United States Congress through the Communications Act of 1934. Ever since its inception, one of the main goals of the Commission is to ensure that without discrimination, all people of the United States would have access to “rapid, efficient, Nationwide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities"

The FCC also was required by law to monitor and distribute a limited resource, the spectrum available for broadcast via the airwaves, in such a way that is to the maximum benefit of the people of the United States. From the very first section of the Act that institutionalized the FCC was the declaration that these services would not be withheld on the basis of “race, color, religion, national origin, or sex” To accomplish these goals, policies were crafted to ensure that consumers were able to have access to multiple voices, and that at least some of the precious resource of spectrum would be used for to give voice to educational, nonprofit, and diverse voice. Since the FCC controlled the regulation of information that was broadcast over the airwaves or traveled by wire, this eventually included granting licenses for television, radio, cable, and media outlets. For many years licenses were granted freely, but rather arbitrarily to organizations who were able to demonstrate to the commissioners their ability to serve the public with the bandwidth they were granted. Also the FCC would give consideration to applicants by “broadcasting content, the limits placed on explicit program regulation by the U.S. Constitution,...the economic importance,” and following the goals of the FCC.

The ownership of media outlets is often strongly tied to freedom of speech, advocates for minority rights say that only through ownership of an outlet can a group be assured of a voice in the media marketplace. The philosophical background to seeking to ensure that media ownership be treated as a public good is credited to James Madison. His concept was that it is essential to have avenues of free speech to assure political equality, particularly if there are economic inequalities involved. Since the 1940s the FCC had several rules in place that helped protect diversity in the media, these included that no company could own: more than one major TV network; more than one TV station in the same local media market (unless there were at least eight stations in that market); more than one AM station while at the same time owning more than one FM station in the same market; both a radio and TV station in the same market; or both a daily newspaper and a broadcast station in the same market. Even in the 1960s there was a growing concern over the ownership of media as an important tool for free speech. Law professor Jerome Barron wrote, "the modern world is witnessing at present a Political Revolution as searing and as consequential as the Industrial Revolution, a revolution which has concentrated coercive power and thought control in a few hands. Power...has shifted from those who control the "means of production" to "those who control the media of mass communication"" It has been a concern since the publication of the first black owned newspaper in 1827, that well-meaning groups were trying to represent the interest of minorities without, "becoming acquainted with the true state of things."

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