Law & Policy: Who controls & monitors the media?

This week’s question is the “Law & Policy: Who controls & monitors the media?” The focus of my study is on the monopoly in the telecommunication industries, and how Internet Service Providers can control the media.

In my presentation, I cover the repeal of Net Neutrality and how that allows Internet Service Providers to control, throttle and block content as they see fit. This leads to a larger monopoly of the industry and could affect how the U.S. population receives media. ISP’s will have the ability to force the consumers to pay more for specific content that doesn’t fall in line with the company's or shareholders values.

ISP’s are not alone in fault for this industry-wide monopoly, local governments will often charge ISP’s much higher than needed to lay down the necessary lines and poles to service an area. These local governments also can stop other ISP’s from coming into the same area because they have the final say when it comes to building a new network or adding to the lines already installed.
The conclusion to my presentation was that our current system encourages these monopolistic practices, the current monopoly could have a very dangerous impacted on free media, and there are multiple areas of blame when it comes down to who is at fault for this system and the monopoly built in this industry.


Sources:
Collins, K. (2017, December 14). Why Net Neutrality Was Repealed and How It Affects You. Retrieved January 26, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/technology/net-neutrality-rules.html

Berin Szoka, Matthew Starr, and Jon Henke. (2013, July 16). Don't Blame Big Cable. It's Local Governments That Choke Broadband Competition. Retrieved January 26, 2018, from https://www.wired.com/2013/07/we-need-to-stop-focusing-on-just-cable-companies-and-blame-local-government-for-dismal-broadband-competition/