What Can Independent Producers Learn from the New FCC Report?

[Source: Public Radio Makers Quest 2.0, by Jessica Clark, June 15, 2011]

Weighing in at a hefty 475 pages of densely packed text, the latest FCC report, The Information Needs of Communities, is unlikely to replace your summer beach reading. But it does offer some key takeaways for independent producers seeking to understand the current media and funding landscapes.

Already on vacation? This Twitter exchange might just say it all:

someone really needs to come up with a future of media that's under 400 pages

 

 
how about 4 words: Support original content creation

 

Got a few more minutes? Here are some other key points:

1) It's crowded out there:

Even a decade ago, major stations and the national radio networks were still the main games around. Independent producers had to either vie for those gigs, or make the case to stations and funders that they alone represented much-needed diversity on the dial.

Now, given the rise of new platforms and production tools, there are many more hubs of noncommercial news and documentary production, and a much broader swath of players: from listeners acting as sources and tipsters via projects like the Public Insight Network, to unpaid students and volunteers who are pitching in to generate online and on-air content, to citizen journalists and bloggers who have begun to adopt journalistic standards, to displaced print journalists refashioning themselves as online reporters at broadcast stations, and beyond.

This isn't news to most of us, but it's striking that a federal document accurately reflects the current field of play. The report notes: "Public TV and radio stations are moving well beyond 'broadcasting,' aggressively using mobile and digital platforms. Moreover, there is a large and growing world of nonprofit media unaffiliated with traditional public broadcasting — including state public affairs networks; low-power FM stations; public access, educational and governmental channels; nonprofit programmers carried by satellite TV; and, now, a burgeoning world of nonprofit websites...what these groups have in common is this: they plow excess revenue back into the organization, and they have public-interest missions that involve aspirations toward independent journalism."

For producers, this means there is both more opportunity and more competition, with increasing pressure to develop sophisticated personal branding, marketing and business strategies alongside technical and editorial skills.

2) Federal dollars are shrinking...but AIR's on the case:

Despite much lobbying from public broadcasters and media reform advocates, this report does not explicitly recommend additional funding for public broadcasting. However, it does recommend CPB funding requirements be reconsidered so that it's easier for new kinds of projects and outlets to receive federal dollars.

AIR Executive Director Sue Schardt is one of the few voices in this report arguing explicitly for independent producers. The report notes:

"The advocacy group Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) has urged the FCC to adopt local content rules for noncommercial stations that would prod stations to seek new voices, including independent producers," adding, "In the past, adjustments to federal legislation have served to broaden CPB's pool of grantees. For example, in response to TV and film producers' complaints that they were being excluded from the public television schedule, in 1988 Congress made the Independent Television Service (ITVS) a mandatory CPB grantee in order to promote innovative content for underserved audiences. AIR has argued that there should be a similar intervention on behalf of independent radio producers."

3) Local is the place to be

If this report is any indicator, whatever new dollars might flow to nonprofit media from federal or state sources are likely to be targeted to local production. The authors join a parade of others over the past few years in observing that the journalism crisis is most acute when it comes to reporting at the community level, and urging both government and foundations to reroute resources to fill this gap.

For independent producers, this might mean checking in with your local stations to see if they have any new news initiatives, familiarizing yourself with new online news startups in your area who may be seeking out audio producers, or — only if you happen to have a day job — throwing your hat in the ring as a "hyperlocal" producer.

Block By Block, which tracks the growth and evolution of hyperlocal reporting, tallies FCC report mentions of this term a record 63 times — mentions that in many instances stress that such projects reap civic rewards but not many financial ones: "For the most part, hyperlocally oriented websites and blogs do not operate as profitable businesses, but they do not need to. This is journalism as voluntarism — a thousand points of news."

Want to learn more? Here's my roundup of responses to the report at the PBS MediaShift site.