Before Deregulation

• News departments have been eliminated from most radio stations.Announcer and dj at small broadcasting station image by Oleg Kulakov from Fotolia.com
  
  Prior to deregulation, media companies had an obligation to create need-based studies and use them to serve the public interest in the form of relevant public affairs and news programming. One major media outlet could not buy up the other, and broadcasters could not own both a radio and a television station. The rules were set up to prevent media conglomerates from forming. With regulation, the Big Three Networks--Columbia Broadcasting Company, American Broadcasting Company and National Broadcasting Company--would not have been able to grow and diversify. They now even own cable networks and radio stations because of deregulation.
  Published in 1990, Marc Sophos writes in the Pace Law Review, that deregulation led to the media conglomerate mergers that we have today. Regulations were based on the idea that there are not enough broadcast channels for all who want them, according to the article. Because of that "scarcity," the good of the public interest is at stake as it relates to the idea of airwaves as a publicly owned natural resources.
  
  

Deregulation

• U.S. legislators opened the door for the formation of news conglomerates.US Kapitol - Washington D.C. - USA image by Clemens Birkert from Fotolia.com
  
  Deregulation meant that the FCC eliminated the rule for multiple ownership of news companies, radio duopoly (a company that owns two or more stations in the same market) and one-to-a-market rules clearing the way for fewer entities to guide and control information for entire broadcast regions. This change opened the way for mass media to form conglomerates, concentrating broadcast air wave ownership among fewer stations.
  
  

Ethical Considerations

• The deregulation debate centers around a question of ethics. Allowing businesses use of all the public air waves for private profit when it may not necessarily benefit the public good is at issue. However, deregulation has left that decision to uphold the free flow of information to individual media companies.
  In 1985, the Federal Communications Commission ended guidelines for minimal amounts of news and public affairs programming media outlets had to broadcast and how many ads per hour media outlets could broadcast.
  
  

Ramifications

• Broadcasting rules regarding the public's right to be informed have changed.people boarding a train image by Galina Barskaya from Fotolia.com
  
  Radio station news departments especially felt the crunch after deregulation. Staff was reduced and the reporting of original news stories became nearly impossible. As it stands, many radio stations no longer have a news department. Instead they have wire service traffic and weather and headlines read by an announcer, known in industry lingo as rip and read.
  News companies can choose to either serve the community's right to be informed or let programming be determined by their profit margin. They now regulate themselves based on their individual, journalistic ethical code.
  
  

Future Considerations

• In light of the shifting community needs, a new trend is forming. The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities website, writes that "the time has come for new thinking," in a report on the future of journalism.
  They, along with Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, think the American public should be more informed about the needs of their community so they can become more involved.
  The trend now is to "save journalism" by ensuring a free flow of information, according to the Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age report.
  One of the Knight Commission's recommendations is to increase financial and technical support for public service media that meet local news needs. One such example is the Public Broadcasting Corporation's grant of $1 million to the five major public broadcasting networks to provide an Internet platform.