The government has tried to harness control over what is released over the internet in the past, and it’s a battle that they’ve quickly lost, at least when it comes to video and live coverage. For example, it is now pretty common to take video of a police officer trying to detain a person who they believe committed a crime. The case of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson Missouri is one of the earlier instances in which eyewitnesses actually recorded the activity with their phones, and posted it online afterwards. The news quickly went viral, before anything had really been aired on national Television By the end of the very same day, everybody in the US and around the world knew that a young man had been shot by police multiple times. The footage was unedited, everybody saw the shooting and death occur right in front of their eyes.
The law that primarily affects what can and cannot be shown on local and cable TV is the Obscenity/Indecency rule. It is obscene to show people being shot to death by cops who may have racist leanings. It is even more obscene to show a person enshrouded in black clothing chopping off the head of an innocent reporter. Obscene footage is not protected by the first amendment at any time over the air, which prevents it from being shown locally or nationally. Things deemed indecent by the FCC can only be shown between 10 at night to six in the morning. The coverage that is allowed nationally versus locally is dependent on national community standards and local community standards, respectively. These laws change constantly as Americans progress more towards desiring more coverage. There has never been consistency, as is shown on the FCC Cable regulations chart in the cass powerpoint (McGregor, Driscoll, and McDowell, 2010). Local channels are controlled by state community standards, while cable follows national community standards. These two standards are rarely different from each other when it comes to obscene/indecent coverage.
Work Cited
McGregor, M., Driscoll, P., and McDowell, W. “Heads Broadcasting in America: Tenth
Edition.” Pearson Education. 2011. Slideshow. Apr. 2016
Electromagnetic Transmission
There are several layers of differences that distinguish the different telecommunication channels, and they have evolved over the years. For most people, these minute distinguishments would seem very onerous or unmanageable, but the companies who work to not become common carriers, or that try to protect parts of their company from becoming common carrier, seem to be able to easily overcome all the contradictory regulations put in place.
The term common carrier had nothing to do with communications at all until telephone use in the 1930’s switched from being a luxury to being a mandatory method of conducting business expediently. In order to stop companies from overcharging for their services, common carrier regulations were passed and enacted, and the FCC came in to regulate standard fees based on average standards. In addition, the FCC began to regulate other things, too, such as the Calm Act, which ensured that everything was coming in on a reasonably standard volume. It ensures that the first amendment is being followed in regards to when a channel or type of telecommunication decides to cancel or refuse to air certain programming. Broadcasting is strictly regulated by the FCC, whereas cable and satellite services, until recently, have remained relatively unregulated (McGregor, Driscoll, and McDowell, 2010).
The rationale that companies will give for not wanting to be common carrier are many. Right now, there is a battle being waged over cell phone carriers and what they are allowed to charge for data usage. It may be for this reason that we are seeing a lot of low rates for data coverage in advertising for various plans. The FCC has one the latest round, declaring in a 3-2 vote, then winning an appeal that makes broadband internet, aka the type of internet technology used with smartphones. This will probably work its way up to the supreme court. When it comes down to it, this difference in regulations is extremely valid and necessarily onerous. We could be paying a lot more for phone services, and now cable/internet services, if not for common carrier regulations that control cost, access, and what we are able to view.
Work Cited
McGregor, M., Driscoll, P, and McDowell, W. “Heads Broadcasting In America: Tenth
Edition.” Pearson Education. 2010. Slideshow. Apr. 2016
