Democracy & Public Access TV

"Public Access Television and the Struggle for Democracy" by Douglas Kellner was extremely thought provoking. It appears to be dated material, and we are presently living out the threats to Democracy that Kellner feared. Mass media news, for example, has now been completely transformed into a profit-centered commodity. What Kellner did not see coming, however, were two other major problems that accompanied this dramatic change.

First is that internet news would be free. But more importantly, internet news would become a bland, generic commodity.

Second is that mass media news would become internationalized. Mass media now serves up commodity news to the entire world. That of course leaves no room for old-fashioned patriotism where Americans are allowed to celebrate victories over our enemies, nor is there room for local community activists to highlight the ills produced by globalization.

I'm beginning to see for myself what Aufderheide stresses in his keynote address. (Daniels also alludes to this in his video interview.) There is great potential in public access television when it is distributed on the internet. In my mind, it solves many of the pressing issues. It would bypass today's mass media outlets: high circulation newspapers that amount to nothing more than junk mail delivery systems wrapped in Associated Press articles, sensationalist local TV newscasts that feature endless rapes, murders, and fires, and empty world newscasts that serve up more commercials than information.

While the internet does provide mass access for community based news, a way must be found to penetrate commodity news and silly YouTube videos. Work is being done on this, as shown by the PEGspace intitiative. Grand Rapids TV is tackling it head-on. They can now be found on MySpace. Lowell is creating a Web presence for itself, as described by Jason Daniels. He makes an excellent argument for Democracy when he says we need to get away from self reverential videos on the internet, and start paying attention to community driven efforts.

Local productions with worldwide distribution could overcome the constant drum of globalized everything; where everyone on the planet must respect everyone else on the planet. I believe globalizing our information outlets is a formula for us all becoming Stepford Earthlings and accomplishing absolutely nothing!