Convergence, Issues, and Attitudes in the Fight Over Newspaper-Broadcast Cross-Ownership

Abstract

Since broadcasting began, conflict has existed about whether newspapers should own radio stations. Some believed that cross-ownership would decrease the variety of issues available to the public, and the conflict increased in 2003 when the Federal Communications Commission proposed that more cross-ownership should be permitted. The fact that the new media combinations would include newspapers, radio, television, cable, and the Internet inspired controversy. Many noted that journalists would be working simultaneously in several media, including some in which they lacked training, and some felt that pressures on journalists working in multiple media would provide news of lower quality. Others, however, expected convergence to promote efficiency. Research will determine how journalism education should change to prepare for convergence.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mickie Edwardson

MICKIE EDWARDSON is a distinguished service professor emerita from the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. She has written about former FCC Chair James Lawrence Fly, and references to a “Fly personal collection” in this article refer to materials that were in his files at the time of his death and now are in the possession of the author.