information needs

Copps offers rebuttal to FCC report on the future of news

By Adam Powell

WASHINGTON — Federal Communications Commission member Michael J. Copps is calling for reinvigorated federal regulation of broadcasting to encourage more, and more serious journalism. Expanding on his June 9 remarks following the release of the FCC's staff report on the information needs of communities, Copps criticized the report's optimism about the Internet. "What we have gained on the Internet," said Copps (pictured left), "does not match what we have lost" due to cutbacks in newspaper and broadcast newsrooms. And he urged new FCC regulatory initiatives to help create new and strengthened forums for journalism and debate….

USC forum explores new FCC transparency & accountability requirements

By Adam Powell

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission will propose a new "streamlined web system" regulatory regime for broadcasters, requiring licensees to file all information on the Internet in a publicly accessible and searchable form. That promise came from Steven Waldman (pictured left), senior advisor to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who spoke at a Washington, D.C. forum organized by USC's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism to discuss the report, The Information Needs Of Communities: The changing media landscape in a broadband age which was released on June 9. First came the good news: the U.S. is close to having "the best…