Tomorrow my program at the Social Science Research Council will be releasing four important studies on the media during a telephone press conference at 1pm EST. Specifically, the studies focus on four areas:
- The Radio Industry. Peter DiCola, of the University of Michigan and the Future of Music Coalition, examines how the concentration of radio station ownership affects the diversity of music programming.
- Minority and Women-owned Media. Carolyn Byerly of Howard University takes a critical look at FCC data on minority and women-owned media.
- Minority News Consumption. Carolyn Byerly, Jamila A. Cupid and Kehbuma Langmia examine minority perspectives on the media coverage of minority communities, drawing on 196 interviews with African-Americans, Africans, Latinos and Asians in the DC and Maryland area.
- TV/Newspaper Cross-ownership & Public Affairs. Michael Yan of the University of Michigan analyzes the relationship between newspaper and television cross-ownership and the provision of local news and public affairs programming.
I’m not sure that much press will show up, but our release is timed to coincide with the conclusion of the FCC’s comment period on their current proceedings on media ownership rules. So we’re likely to garner at least some attention from that.
This is the first telephone press conference that I’ve ever organized. The idea of having 25 reporters listening in to our speakers and then asking questions from wherever they are in the world sounds rather unwieldy to manage. But I’ve got a veteran moderator from the media reform group Free Press that I’m sure will handle the proceedings smoothly.