FCC Commissioning New Study on Information Needs of Public

This one in association with need to build record for boosting market entry chances for small businesses and entrepreneurs

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/6/2012 5:19:59 PM

The FCC is commissioning a study of how the current communications marketplace meets the critical information needs of the American public with an eye toward collecting evidence to support boosting media participation, including by lowering entry barriers, to entrepreneurs and small businesses, including those run by minorities and women.

The request for quotation (RFQ) is being launched in conjunction with the FCC's Communications Act charter of identifying those barriers.

According the Office of Communications Business Opportunities (OCBO) and the Media Bureau (Bureau), which issued the request, they want to know: "How Americans meet their critical information needs; how the media ecosystem operates to address critical information needs; and What barriers exist in providing content and services to address critical information needs. "

But rather than commissioning new research, the FCC said it was looking for a review of the relevant studies already done, with one goal being coming up with a definition of "critical information needs."

"In order to assess whether government action is needed to ensure that the information needs of all Americans, including women and minorities, are being addressed, to determine the relationship, if any, between meeting critical information needs, and the available opportunities for all Americans to participate in the communications industries, it is first necessary to examine what prior research has been conducted with regard to how the public acquires critical information, how the media ecosystem operates to provide critical information, and what barriers exist to participation," the FCC said.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has been arguing that one of the ways the FCC needs to meet those needs is freeing up more spectrum, including broadcast spectrum, for wireless broadband.

The commission has also been instructed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in its remand of ownership rules to better buttress whatever diversity initiatives it undertakes.

It is not clear whether the FCC's own report will be included in the analysis of existing studies. The FCC issued a report on the information needs of communities last year, but that primarily provided a state of the news industry recap and recommended, among other things, that the FCC should terminate its localism proceeding, replace enhanced disclosure of TV station's public service programming with a more streamlined, online version, and encourage the government to move its billion of dollars of mostly national advertising buys to local media like TV stations. More broadly, the report found a generally vibrant media landscape with a troubling gap in providing community news about schools and local government that has yet to be filled by the disruptive explosion of web news content.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said she was extremely pleased with the announcement of the new study. She has been pushing for better data to support FCC actions on boosting minority and female ownership, data that will be necessary to buttress any affirmative action measures in court.

"As directed by Congress, under Section 257 of the Communications Act of 1934, the Commission must identify and eliminate market entry barriers for small businesses and promote policies favoring 'a diversity of media voices, vigorous economic competition, technological advancement, and promotion of the public interest, convenience and necessity,'" she said. "We are in need of more detail in describing how the Commission's actions have fulfilled those purposes, and set forth, where appropriate, specific examples and data that support the conclusions found in past FCC reports."