Net Neutrality: Coverage in the Corporate Interest: net neutrality and the communications companies

Friday, November 2, 2007

Coverage in the Corporate Interest: net neutrality and the communications companies

Is net neutrality finally gaining some ground in the national media?

Two weeks ago Comcast delayed and effectively blocked BitTorrent peer-to-peer traffic. Last week Senators Byron Dorgan and Olympia Snowe called for a congressional hearing in order to investigate practices by phone and cable companies that are constricting communications over the Internet and on cell phones (AP, 10/26/07). This week, during an MTV event, Senator and Presidential candidate, Barack Obama voiced his support of net neutrality legislation. Also this week, public interest groups such as Free Press, Public Knowledge, Media Access Project and the Consumers Union filed a petition with the FCC asking to fine Comcast for interfering with file-sharing applications (AP, 11/2/07).

It seems that net neutrality is finally gaining some ground as a national public-interest issue. However, this hasn’t always been the case and it is dubious that this kind of coverage will persist. Historically, the great preponderance of media coverage on net neutrality has been relegated to business or technology sections of the news and has not addressed public interest or democratic concerns.

To explore this issue, I recently spoke with Jeff Chester, founder and executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a national nonprofit dedicated to the promotion of a digital media system that fosters democratic expression and human rights. Chester has been working on public-interest media issues for more than two decades and is author of Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy.

Jeff Chester on Network Neutrality Coverage

Chester doesn’t believe the issue of net neutrality has been covered sufficiently in the mainstream news media. He attributes this to an overall crisis in American journalism in terms of concentration, consolidation, and cutbacks in news staffs that have negatively impacted the ability of reporters to investigate stories. Chester explains:

It’s a particular problem when you have issues that are related to the broader concerns of democracy but that are seen by the news media as business stories. Issues such as network neutrality, spectrum reform, media ownership have been allowed to be placed by editors as news business stories. The orientation generally acts favorably towards business interests.

Reporters who cover business don’t view raising larger public concerns as part of their role, Chester said. When there are not enough personnel to seriously tackle issues that require a little footwork by reporters, it’s difficult to generate interest. When there is an emerging story like network neutrality that is not easy to cover or document, it makes it increasingly difficult to get interest in the story, said Chester.

He points out that it was Google, followed by other corporations such as eBay and Yahoo! that generated greater visibility for net neutrality in the media and in Congress. “It shows you the kind of biases of the news media that when corporate interests are fighting other corporate interests it gets noticed,” Chester said. “But you can’t really separate the lack of reporting on network neutrality from the overall failure of the news media to cover its own businesses including media consolidation.”

Moreover, Chester makes the point that Google and other major communications companies in favor of net neutrality are not proponents for democratic purposes, but rather their own business interests. In fact, a Google lobbyist confirmed that to him several months ago. “Namely, they want an open system to deliver the same kind of interactive advertising and big media entertainment communications that the other guys want as well,” said Chester. He points out that failure to have an open network illustrates the political corruption of both parties and suggests that either way you cut it, the future of the Internet will likely be determined by the interests of big communications companies and not the public interest. “I frankly have my suspicions that even in a network neutrality world, the plans of Google and others to advance the interests of the deep-pocketed advertisers and programmers will also ultimately challenge the Internet’s potential to be a more diverse media,” said Chester.