NYU prof says local news is 'fighting for air'

In San Francisco, it broke the HIV/AIDS story. In Houston, it could have prevented the Enron scandal. And in Minot, N.D., it could have saved lives.

Local news, explained Eric Klinenberg, the guest speaker at last night's 2007 Dean's Lecture at Annenberg, is the fabric that ties our nation together - but that fabric is being unraveled as major media conglomerates claim control over increasingly unregulated airwaves, sapping the country of its local flavors.

In a lecture based on his recently released book, Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America's Media, Klinenberg, a sociology professor at New York University, analyzed the consequences of consolidation of media outlets, focusing on how current policy debates impact local communities.

Klinenberg's greatest concern was the "homogenization of our content" that is eating away at the "incredible tradition of distinctively local sounds" because of cost cutting and centralization of control. He used as an example the Clear Channel Communications radio station KISS FM, which can be heard in 47 cities across the nation, all with the exact same content.

Print and broadcast media are being syndicated, prerecorded and commercialized - sometimes to the detriment of the public.

When a train derailed in Minot, in 2002, releasing a cloud of poisonous gas, the local radio stations never broadcast a warning; the result was one death and countless injuries.

However, Klinenberg added, there is a media-reform movement on the rise, which he likened to the environmental movement 40 years ago, noting the surge in public support for policy change.

"Americans from all walks of life are saying we don't have to passively accept this," he said.

Klinenberg hopes to encourage that push for change through creating public discourse, repeatedly emphasizing that, more than ever, "it's time for us to be talking about this."

Annenberg Ph.D. candidate Magdalena Wojcieszak commented on how the lecture bridged the real world with the "ivory tower of academia" and appreciated its applicability at a time when "certain very important and potentially challenging voices are being silenced."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.