On March 5th, 2012, the CCLP and the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism filed comments in response to the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rule Making regarding the 2010 Quadrennial Regulatory Review, Review of the Commission’s Broadcast Ownership Rules (FCC MB Docket No. 09-182) and Promoting Diversification of Ownership in the Broadcast Services (FCC MB Docket No. 07-294).

The CCLP and the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism submitted the comments on behalf of the Communication Policy Research Network (CPRN), a national consortium of non-partisan and multidisciplinary social scientists, legal scholars, journalists, and communication experts. This group has spent the last year collaborating on media policy analysis relevant to the broadcast ownership policy concerns that were raised by the Third Circuit Court of Appeal’s rulings in Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC (3d Cir. 2011).

The comments address the foundational research and data collection measures that support the media ownership rules and proposed changes thereto. The comments build upon prior FCC policy proceedings and court cases, specifically, the Commission’s media park.jpg ownership proceedings and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ remands in the two Prometheus cases. Moreover, the comments submitted address methodologies that can be employed to define, measure and reevaluate the public interest goals of localism, competition, and diversity.

This blog was contributed by CCLP Research Fellow Michael Park.