Policy

    One of the groups talked about different policies. The five that were mentioned were the Antitrust Laws, News Desert, Cord Cutting, Media Consolidation, and Net Neutrality. 

    The Antitrust Laws were created in Congress in 1890, the reason being to prohibit any type of monopolization in terms of business. There are three main laws under the Antitrust Laws. One that was passed automatically was the Sherman Act. Following that legislation passed two other acts: the Clayton Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.

    News Deserts were the next things talked about. A news desert is a community, either rural or urban, with limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive information that feeds democracy at the grassroots. There is a rapid decline in local news coverage in many areas of the United States. The challenge of the news desert is that it causes a lack of information in communities and democracy. A lack of access to reliable local news can cause residents to be uninformed about critical issues going on locally and nationally.

    The term cord-cutting refers to the practice of canceling cable or satellite TV subscriptions in factor of streaming services or other forms of contract. Some of the pros of cord-cutting are that there are no long-term contracts, it is flexible, it saves money, and has access to a wider range of content. The cons are that people will have to depend on internet access, the content is fragmented, there will be limited access to live programming, and there will be a lack of local programming.

    Media consolidation is the ownership of the mass media by fewer individuals. The effect of this is the way that people receive and perceive information. 

    Network neutrality is the idea that Internet service providers(ISP) should treat all data that travels over their network fairly, without improper discrimination in favor of particular apps, sites, or services. This affects the way we use and access the internet. Without network neutrality, the ISP can control what we see online.

    Listening to what this group said really opened my eyes to things behind the scenes.