News Showcase

On Feb. 8, 1996, President Clinton promised the overhaul of U.S. telecommunications he was signing into law would be "truly revolutionary," boosting competition while creating "flexible government regulation."

That promise 12 years on remains unfulfilled within the nation's media landscape, including Anniston and northeast Alabama.

Broadcast ownership in the Anniston market is still mostly local or regional, bucking the national trend toward consolidation. However, the number of local television and radio reporters has dropped sharply since 1996.

A survey of radio stations found that only one has a full-time news reporter.

WHMA, once Anniston's lone network-affiliated television station, has joined forces with another station in west Alabama, forming the Birmingham-based ABC 33/40.

According to media observers, little or no coverage of local news erodes democracy at the point where it most impacts people's lives.

As the deans of eight prestigious U.S. college journalism schools wrote in the Dec. 22 New York Times, "[W]e do not believe that the market can be absolutely trusted to provide the local news gathering that the American system needs to function at its best."

The northeast Alabama picture before 1996 was different. Anniston was awash in local news media. As recently as the mid-1990s, the public could find local news across the spectrum, from this daily newspaper to radio stations staffed with journalists to locally produced television newscasts.

The fare was a mixed diet. The unhappy stories — murders, abductions, house fires, firings, pollution and so on — of the day were well-read, well-listened to and well-watched. And there were the uplifting stories about the prize-winners, the do-gooders and the humorous. Most items, however, fell into the category of the day-to-day, the essential stories that constructed for the reader, listener and viewer a portrait of a living, functioning community.

Water board and city council meetings, construction projects, bonds, debts and permits, are not subjects that set the heart to pounding. They are more like an MRI, not all that exciting, except they show the workings of a more complex organism and can show the signs of trouble.

And they can, in essence, be the vehicles to understanding not only the complexity of a place, but also the democratic process and our way of being in this society.

The times have changed.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 rewrote the media ownership rules, triggering industry consolidation just as cable TV and the Internet were shaking up the old rules.

Free-marketers won a major battle in their decades-long conflict, persuading Washington to dismantle regulations created to watch out for the public good and tamp down consolidation of broadcasting outlets lest the marketplace of ideas shrink down to a few outlets.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 poses a threat to media's essential role in democracy, according to critics.

In a four-part series beginning today, The Anniston Star examines the law's impact on local news media.

Thanks to the 1996 act, some communities saw local media coverage continue and salaries and benefits for local journalists improve, according to media observers.

Numerous scholars and broadcasting insiders insist, however, that for many other communities the changes have meant that less local news goes on the air and that they now may be served by media interests that are headquartered outside the community.

Once the standard in the print industry, independent locally owned newspapers such as The Anniston Star are a minority. Newspaper consolidation has been the order of the business over the last two decades, with such chains as Newhouse, The New York Times and Gannett snapping up papers in Alabama and across the country.

As a 2005 Project for Excellence in Journalism report noted, "While there are hundreds of newspaper owners, about two dozen continue to dominate both in terms of the numbers of newspapers they own as well as their percentage of the total daily and Sunday circulations."

In television, something similar is happening. Common Cause, a Washington-based citizens' advocacy group, says that since 1995, the number of companies owning commercial television stations shrunk by 40 percent, while cable news is dominated by three media giants.

Ditto for radio, with more ownership concentrating into a few corporate hands.

The absence of local coverage is directly related to media consolidation and budget cuts, argues Eric Klinenberg, New York University sociology professor and the author of "Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America's Media."

Corresponding with a reporter from The Star, Klinenberg called Anniston's media landscape typical.

"When disaster strikes and having live human beings to report news becomes a matter of life or death, chain media have a hard time meeting their public interest obligations," Klinenberg wrote in an e-mail to The Star. "Luckily for them — but not for citizens — the FCC doesn't seem to mind. The agency has essentially given irresponsible broadcasters a free pass to do as they please."

He went on to say that the only thing standing in the way of a return to solid local news reporting is the FCC.

"For now, the best thing to do is to start complaining and hope that the next president will appoint [FCC] commissioners who care about the common good," Klinenberg said.

Mark Crispin Miller, author and professor of media studies at New York University, looks back to the founding of the Republic to explain the importance of local media: It keeps a populace informed while contributing to the quality of our democracy.

"It's worth recalling," Miller wrote in response to a question from The Star, "how much different things were in the early years of the Republic, when the post office was there specifically to keep a far-flung rural population well-informed on politics and other matters of the day."

"Tocqueville commented on how many newspapers even the remotest farmers read," Miller continued. "It's heart-breaking to recall that moment, now that most Americans are uninformed about what's going on."

About this series

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 poses a threat to broadcast media's essential role in democracy, according to critics.

In a four-part series which began Sunday, Anniston Star Editor at Large John Fleming examines the law's impact on Calhoun County's once-abundant local news media.

Related articles:

• What's on TV?

• Local radio news a dying art

• The consequences when local media isn't there for the public

Alabama television station ownership

WCFT/WJSU, Channels 33/40, Birmingham ABC, Allbritton Communications, (Virginia)

WIAT, Channel 42, Birmingham CBS, New Vision, (Los Angeles)

WBRC, Channel 6, Birmingham Fox, News Corp., (New York)

WTTO, Channel 21, Birmingham CW Sinclair Broadcast Group (Baltimore)

WJXS, Channel 24, Jacksonville Independent Alabama Heritage Communications (Jacksonville)

WVTM, Channel 13, Birmingham NBC, Media General (Virginia)

WBIQ, Channel 10, Birmingham PBS, Alabama Educational Television Commission

Alabama radio station ownership

Station — City of license — Owner

WDNG-AM/1450 — Anniston — Charles Fuller and J.J. Dark (Anniston)

WHMA-AM/1390 — Anniston — Williams Communications (Anniston)

WGRW-FM/90.7 — Anniston — Word Works Inc. (Anniston)

WHOG-AM/1120 — Hobson City — Mark Hogan (Florida)

WLJS-FM/91.9 — Jacksonville — Jacksonville State University

WCKA-AM/810 — Jacksonville — Les Graddick (Georgia)

WVOK-FM/97.9 — Oxford — Woodard Broadcasting (Oxford)

WVOK-AM/1580 — Oxford — Woodard Broadcasting (Oxford)

WANA-AM/1490 — Oxford — Jacobs Broadcast Group (Oxford)

WTBJ-FM/91.3 — Oxford — Trinity Christian Academy (Oxford)

WJCK-FM/88.3 — Piedmont — Immanuel Broadcasting (Georgia)

WPID-AM/1280 — Piedmont — Piedmont Radio Co. (Piedmont)