Saturday, November 29, 2014
Effects of the Telecommunications Act of 1996
Discuss one or more of the major effects of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 on technology, content, or industrial policy. Why do you think the FCC enforced more regulation on content at the same time that they ushered in less regulation on media corporations? What seems different in today's media environment concerning this/these issues?
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The initial seeds of the 1996 Telecommunications Act were sewn in the 1980s. The breakup of the AT&T monopoly in 1984 and lobbying on the part of other companies like the Bell offshoots paved the way for widespread legislative change. President Clinton signed the Act into effect in 1996, the first landmark change in telecommunications policy in over six decades. The Act addressed a number of different issues including corporate deregulation, increased regulation on media content, and implementation of technological advancements. A major provision of the Act was to encourage competition between telecommunications companies (local services, cable providers, long distance providers) by opening up previously incumbent markets, which were dominated by local telephone companies. Another provision of the Act was the reduction of prohibitive measures such as the ownership cap, which limited a company’s involvement in local markets, and restrictions on cross-ownership. The overarching goal of the Act’s provisions was to provide consumers and previously untapped markets with better quality services at a lower cost.
ReplyDeleteWhy did the 1996 Telecommunications Act seek to deregulate corporate media while increasing regulation on content? The answer lies in the technological and industrial changes that were occurring at the time. While the Act sought to deregulate corporate media to promote competition, it also introduced the regulatory aspects in order to control the increase in access to media content. With the deployment of newer, faster technologies (digital frequencies and fiber optics) and especially the first web browser in 1995 (Netscape Navigator), Congress believed that children were at greater risk of being exposed to and consuming “indecent” or “obscene” material on the Internet. The Communications Decency Act, one of the major components of content regulation in the Telecommunications Act, essentially called for increased censorship of Internet pornography. This move would be shut down the following year, however, in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union. All nine of the American Supreme Court justices struck down the censorship measures, citing violations of free speech.
One of the big differences that can be discerned in today’s media environment is the surprisingly few number of telephone companies. I’ve read that the Telecommunications Act, while it did stimulate competition, actually led to corporate consolidation and therefore a decrease in the number of companies. Also, pornography still holds a huge presence on the Internet today.