One of the stories that will most influence your future as a media writer is developing as we write. President Obama issued a call Monday for the Federal Communications Commission to adopt rules ensuring that internet service providers do not speed up or slow down access speeds on the web for commercial purposes.
This is complicated stuff, and I welcome you to learn as much as you can. As we accept that digitization has huge effects on media practices — including business practices — we need to appreciate that the governance of the web has profound implications.
Let’s read up on this. Here is a breaking news story from a website, ars technica, that covers trending media-technology issues, particularly bedrock issues about the internet. And here is an essay from an involved U.S. player in this contest.
We need to be careful and attentive readers here, too. Since the leaders and owners in the media industry often have financial interests in this outcome, we need to appreciate that stories may reflect certain positions that various corporations may stake out. In other cases, individual reporters and editors may be trying their elegant best not to show any favoritism to certain arguments that might favor or harm their organizations.
At any rate, read carefully. The media are direct players in this issue.
Consider this article from Bloomberg news, an international business wire and information service for stockbrokers, investors and currency traders. This is a company that earns its profits from instant reportage around the globe, mostly via internet transmissions. Does Bloomberg have a stake in net neutrality? I would think so, though I’m not schooled in the precise perspectives of its wealthy, politically oriented founder and chairman.
We surely expect Bloomberg’s correspondents to be well informed on the twists and implications of the ways that the FCC might apply rules on internet services, fee systems and transmission speeds. That makes it all the more interesting to read Bloomberg’s coverage.
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