This chapter discusses how the issue of statewide cable franchising in the United States reintrod... more This chapter discusses how the issue of statewide cable franchising in the United States reintroduced us to two actors in communication policymaking that have long been dormant: local municipalities and state legislatures. Moreover, it exemplifies both convergence and deconvergence in American telecommunications policy. Convergence occurred through the 1996 Telecommunications Act that allowed multi-modal competition in cable, telephony, and internet. Deconvergence occurred with the emergence of new policy actors. Separately, neither regulatory convergence nor deconvergence are problematic. Their concurrence, however, has led to a state of what critical political economists call “regulatory capture” and “policy failure.” As a result, the public interest is often left unprotected while the various legislative and regulatory bodies vie for jurisdictional authority over cable television.
The Palgrave Handbook of Methods for Media Policy Research, 2019
This chapter introduces critical discourse analysis (CDA) and demonstrates its applicability to c... more This chapter introduces critical discourse analysis (CDA) and demonstrates its applicability to critical media policy studies. The chapter progresses iteratively, beginning with a brief discussion of discourse, followed by an outline of critical discourse analysis. It then demonstrates how CDA is an appropriate methodological tool for media policy studies and walks the reader through how to apply CDA to media policy. Following examples from studies on American broadcasting policy and British digital media policy, it concludes with a summary of both the limitations and benefits of CDA.
Too often we tend to hear one single narrative about the state of newspapers in the United States... more Too often we tend to hear one single narrative about the state of newspapers in the United States. The newspaper industry is not one sector. While there are considerable variances between the myriad of outlets — whether national titles, major metros, dailies in large towns, alt weeklies, publications in rural communities, ethnic press, and so on — a major challenge for anyone trying to make sense of industry data is its aggregated nature. It’s nearly impossible to deduce trends or characteristics at a more granular level. The story of local newspapers with circulations below 50,000, or what we call “small-market newspapers,” tends to get overlooked due to the narrative dominance of larger players. However, small-market publications represent a major cohort that we as a community of researchers know very little about, and a community of practitioners that too often — we were told — knows little about itself. Our study seeks to help redress this recent imbalance. We embarked on our re...
Drawing on the increasing body of literature on policy stakeholders and the ever-growing acknowle... more Drawing on the increasing body of literature on policy stakeholders and the ever-growing acknowledgement that communication policy is crafted by more than just parliamentarians and formal communication regulators this paper examines the role that another set of regulators plays in communication policy: agriculture regulators. Based on a study of the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), this paper explores alternative agents of communication policy. More specifically, through document analysis we examine the way in which the Rural Utilities Service has shaped rural broadband policy in the United States over the last three decades. The implications for this research are wide, as it brings another policy actor into the policy making melee, and pushes communication policy scholars to consider the role that non-traditional communication regulators play in the communication policy making process.
Recent years have seen numerous attempts by community broadcasters around the world to reinvent t... more Recent years have seen numerous attempts by community broadcasters around the world to reinvent their practices in an effort to remain relevant and financially sustainable in the digital age. One proposed initiative is to have community programming distributed via satellite, either in the form of a single channel or as a subscription service for local stations to find programming. Combining two case studies and multiple research methods, this article investigates the potential impact of satellite distribution on community broadcasting in Canada and East Africa. We observe that it is often not the community media organizations themselves that are pushing for satellite delivery, but, rather, outside actors such as media corporations and non-governmental organizations. As a result, we argue that a more spirited discussion within the community media sector is warranted to better understand the implications of this technological shift in delivery mechanisms.
The television systems of Canada and Australia are often assumed to be similar if not synonymous.... more The television systems of Canada and Australia are often assumed to be similar if not synonymous. Both are dominated by American imports; rely on a networking of stations; and trace their media systems to a combination of American and British influence. Moreover, in the past decade, both have implemented tremendous changes to their broadcast policies, particularly with regard to local television. Yet despite these similarities, scholars have never critically reflected on the evolution of these countries’ local television policies. As such, this article concentrates on how Canada and Australia have historically framed, defined, and implemented the concept of localism in broadcast policy. Through an analysis of policy documents from 1950 to 1963, the argument is made that when compared with Australia, localism was not an immediate priority, but rather a taken-for-granted assumption by Canadian policy-makers. Thus, the nationalism debate in Canadian television was fought at the expense...
This article investigates the changes, challenges and opportunities present in American community... more This article investigates the changes, challenges and opportunities present in American community media through a case study of PhillyCAM, a community television/media center in Philadelphia, PA. From this ethnographic study, it is suggested that community media navigate the tensions between television and digital media/user-generated content through reliance on place and liveness. In shifting from ‘community television’ to ‘community media’ these organizations are able to situate themselves as dynamic components in a local and participatory media ecosystem, develop new programs and strategic partnerships, and differentiate themselves from other organizations, while remaining consistent with their original mandates.
Information Systems: Behavioral & Social Methods eJournal, 2017
The observations in this paper are based on the results of an online survey conducted between Mon... more The observations in this paper are based on the results of an online survey conducted between Monday, November 14 and Sunday, December 4, 2016. Survey respondents identified a number of key challenges for the sector, including: Shrinking newsrooms: More than half (59 percent) of our survey participants told us that the number of staff in their newsroom had shrunk since 2014. Recruitment: Low pay, long hours, and limited opportunities for career progression can impede the attraction and retention of young journalists. A long-hours culture: Many respondents reported that they regularly work more than 50 hours a week. Job security: Just over half of respondents (51 percent) said they feel secure in their positions. A further 29 percent had a neutral view (neither positive nor negative) about their job security. Despite these considerations, we encountered a sense of optimism among much of our sample. This confidence is rooted in an understanding that small-market newspapers are often c...
Drawing on the increasing body of literature on policy stakeholders and the ever-growing acknowle... more Drawing on the increasing body of literature on policy stakeholders and the ever-growing acknowledgement that communication policy is crafted by more than just parliamentarians and formal communication regulators this paper examines the role that another set of regulators plays in communication policy: agriculture regulators. Based on a study of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS), this paper explores alternative agents of communication policy. More specifically, through document analysis and in-depth elite interviews we examine the way in which RUS has shaped rural broadband policy over the last three decades. We label RUS a “reluctant regulator” when it comes to rural broadband to signal its perceived legitimacy in the space but lack of consistent initiative in setting policy. The implications for this research are broad as it brings another actor into the policy making process, provides a comprehensive description of rural broadband policy,...
This chapter discusses how the issue of statewide cable franchising in the United States reintrod... more This chapter discusses how the issue of statewide cable franchising in the United States reintroduced us to two actors in communication policymaking that have long been dormant: local municipalities and state legislatures. Moreover, it exemplifies both convergence and deconvergence in American telecommunications policy. Convergence occurred through the 1996 Telecommunications Act that allowed multi-modal competition in cable, telephony, and internet. Deconvergence occurred with the emergence of new policy actors. Separately, neither regulatory convergence nor deconvergence are problematic. Their concurrence, however, has led to a state of what critical political economists call “regulatory capture” and “policy failure.” As a result, the public interest is often left unprotected while the various legislative and regulatory bodies vie for jurisdictional authority over cable television.
The Palgrave Handbook of Methods for Media Policy Research, 2019
This chapter introduces critical discourse analysis (CDA) and demonstrates its applicability to c... more This chapter introduces critical discourse analysis (CDA) and demonstrates its applicability to critical media policy studies. The chapter progresses iteratively, beginning with a brief discussion of discourse, followed by an outline of critical discourse analysis. It then demonstrates how CDA is an appropriate methodological tool for media policy studies and walks the reader through how to apply CDA to media policy. Following examples from studies on American broadcasting policy and British digital media policy, it concludes with a summary of both the limitations and benefits of CDA.
Too often we tend to hear one single narrative about the state of newspapers in the United States... more Too often we tend to hear one single narrative about the state of newspapers in the United States. The newspaper industry is not one sector. While there are considerable variances between the myriad of outlets — whether national titles, major metros, dailies in large towns, alt weeklies, publications in rural communities, ethnic press, and so on — a major challenge for anyone trying to make sense of industry data is its aggregated nature. It’s nearly impossible to deduce trends or characteristics at a more granular level. The story of local newspapers with circulations below 50,000, or what we call “small-market newspapers,” tends to get overlooked due to the narrative dominance of larger players. However, small-market publications represent a major cohort that we as a community of researchers know very little about, and a community of practitioners that too often — we were told — knows little about itself. Our study seeks to help redress this recent imbalance. We embarked on our re...
Drawing on the increasing body of literature on policy stakeholders and the ever-growing acknowle... more Drawing on the increasing body of literature on policy stakeholders and the ever-growing acknowledgement that communication policy is crafted by more than just parliamentarians and formal communication regulators this paper examines the role that another set of regulators plays in communication policy: agriculture regulators. Based on a study of the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), this paper explores alternative agents of communication policy. More specifically, through document analysis we examine the way in which the Rural Utilities Service has shaped rural broadband policy in the United States over the last three decades. The implications for this research are wide, as it brings another policy actor into the policy making melee, and pushes communication policy scholars to consider the role that non-traditional communication regulators play in the communication policy making process.
Recent years have seen numerous attempts by community broadcasters around the world to reinvent t... more Recent years have seen numerous attempts by community broadcasters around the world to reinvent their practices in an effort to remain relevant and financially sustainable in the digital age. One proposed initiative is to have community programming distributed via satellite, either in the form of a single channel or as a subscription service for local stations to find programming. Combining two case studies and multiple research methods, this article investigates the potential impact of satellite distribution on community broadcasting in Canada and East Africa. We observe that it is often not the community media organizations themselves that are pushing for satellite delivery, but, rather, outside actors such as media corporations and non-governmental organizations. As a result, we argue that a more spirited discussion within the community media sector is warranted to better understand the implications of this technological shift in delivery mechanisms.
The television systems of Canada and Australia are often assumed to be similar if not synonymous.... more The television systems of Canada and Australia are often assumed to be similar if not synonymous. Both are dominated by American imports; rely on a networking of stations; and trace their media systems to a combination of American and British influence. Moreover, in the past decade, both have implemented tremendous changes to their broadcast policies, particularly with regard to local television. Yet despite these similarities, scholars have never critically reflected on the evolution of these countries’ local television policies. As such, this article concentrates on how Canada and Australia have historically framed, defined, and implemented the concept of localism in broadcast policy. Through an analysis of policy documents from 1950 to 1963, the argument is made that when compared with Australia, localism was not an immediate priority, but rather a taken-for-granted assumption by Canadian policy-makers. Thus, the nationalism debate in Canadian television was fought at the expense...
This article investigates the changes, challenges and opportunities present in American community... more This article investigates the changes, challenges and opportunities present in American community media through a case study of PhillyCAM, a community television/media center in Philadelphia, PA. From this ethnographic study, it is suggested that community media navigate the tensions between television and digital media/user-generated content through reliance on place and liveness. In shifting from ‘community television’ to ‘community media’ these organizations are able to situate themselves as dynamic components in a local and participatory media ecosystem, develop new programs and strategic partnerships, and differentiate themselves from other organizations, while remaining consistent with their original mandates.
Information Systems: Behavioral & Social Methods eJournal, 2017
The observations in this paper are based on the results of an online survey conducted between Mon... more The observations in this paper are based on the results of an online survey conducted between Monday, November 14 and Sunday, December 4, 2016. Survey respondents identified a number of key challenges for the sector, including: Shrinking newsrooms: More than half (59 percent) of our survey participants told us that the number of staff in their newsroom had shrunk since 2014. Recruitment: Low pay, long hours, and limited opportunities for career progression can impede the attraction and retention of young journalists. A long-hours culture: Many respondents reported that they regularly work more than 50 hours a week. Job security: Just over half of respondents (51 percent) said they feel secure in their positions. A further 29 percent had a neutral view (neither positive nor negative) about their job security. Despite these considerations, we encountered a sense of optimism among much of our sample. This confidence is rooted in an understanding that small-market newspapers are often c...
Drawing on the increasing body of literature on policy stakeholders and the ever-growing acknowle... more Drawing on the increasing body of literature on policy stakeholders and the ever-growing acknowledgement that communication policy is crafted by more than just parliamentarians and formal communication regulators this paper examines the role that another set of regulators plays in communication policy: agriculture regulators. Based on a study of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS), this paper explores alternative agents of communication policy. More specifically, through document analysis and in-depth elite interviews we examine the way in which RUS has shaped rural broadband policy over the last three decades. We label RUS a “reluctant regulator” when it comes to rural broadband to signal its perceived legitimacy in the space but lack of consistent initiative in setting policy. The implications for this research are broad as it brings another actor into the policy making process, provides a comprehensive description of rural broadband policy,...
Uploads
Papers by Christopher Ali