New Research on Public Interest Groups in Communication-Information Policy

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Milton Mueller <mueller () syr edu>
Date: July 15, 2004 11:35:18 AM EDT
To: declan () well com
Cc: school-dfc () anize org, dboaz () cato org, dave () farber net
Subject: New Research on Public Interest Groups in 
Communication-Information Policy


================================
Research analyzing role of citizens' groups in shaping
communication and information policy released.
================================

Communication and information policy (CIP) has taken its place
alongside the environment as one of the main preoccupations of
lawmakers, according to a new report by Syracuse University
professor Milton Mueller. The report is titled "Reinventing Media
Activism: Public Interest Advocacy in the Making of U.S.
Communication-Information Policy."

The full report is available at http://dcc.syr.edu/ford/tnca.htm
The report's data on congressional testimony and public
interest organizations will be downloadable from the project's
Web site.

The report traces the evolution of U.S. citizen advocacy from the
broadcast licensing challenges of the late 1960s and 1970s through
the telecommunication regulation reforms of the 1980s, the battles
over privacy and Internet censorship of the 1990s and the conflicts
over digital intellectual property and media concentration in the early
2000s.

"There are many parallels between the emerging citizens' activism
around communication-information policy in the late 1990s and the
emergence of the environmental movement during the 1960s," says
Mueller.

The report compiles data on how many public interest organizations
are involved in CIP and how that population has changed over the
past four decades. It also analyzes how many commercial and
professional interest organizations are involved in CIP.

Key empirical findings of the study show how CIP has grown in
importance:

  * During the late 1990s and early 2000s, CIP replaced the
environment as the policy domain of greatest congressional activity,
as measured by number of hearings.

   * From 1997-2001, the annual number of congressional
hearings devoted to CIP surged to approximately 100 per year.

   * The number of public interest advocacy organizations
focused on CIP has not changed much since the 1980s, but the rise
of the Internet in the mid-1990s brought a major change in
the nature of those organizations. Organizations focused on
criticizing or regulating mass media content declined in the late 1990s;
the new organizations that formed in the 1990s and 2000s tend to be
focused on rights-oriented advocacy related to digital technology, such
as privacy rights, First Amendment rights and rights to fair use of
intellectual property.

   * In its measurement of congressional testimony by public interest
groups, the study found that during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) dominated representation of
public interest perspectives, accounting for 20 percent of all testimony
by public interest groups on CIP topics. In the second half of the 
1990s,
however, organizations such as the Electronic Privacy Information
Center (EPIC), the Consumers Union and Center for Democracy and
Technology (CDT) reached parity with the ACLU.

   * The population of public interest advocacy organizations focused
on CIP is overwhelmingly liberal in ideological orientation. Advocacy
organizations classified as liberal made up 68 percent of the total
population in the 2000s, up from 48 percent in the 1980s; the
conservative share has declined from 21 percent in the 1980s to 13
percent today.

The research was supported by the Ford Foundation's Knowledge, 
Creativity
and Freedom Program.

The Convergence Center at SU supports research on and
experimentation with media convergence. The Center is a joint effort of
the School of Information Studies and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public
Communications. Its mission is to understand the future of digital media
and to engage students and faculty in the process of defining and 
shaping
that future.

http://www.digital-convergence.org



-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/