The Free Press Media Reform conference last Thursday in Washington D.C. was an interesting event. The media policy reform organization was able to obtain heavy weight speakers including three former FCC Chairs, Barack Obama's current National Economic Policy leader, and the CEO of NPR. The conference focused on broadband policy, internet reform, and the crisis in journalism. The issues were framed around policy initiatives. Unfortunately, the conference did not touch on issues that will impact the future of media including fundamental changes to our mode of production with the change to production of intangibles (brand) versus tangibles (products), and the power of the internet to shift the paradigm of market capitalism in the same way that other new technologies have changed political economic paradigms in the past. While the current policy issues are certainly important, the conversation needs to grow to incorporate the economic and sociological changes we are currently seeing related to the internet.
Content from the Free Press Summit
Michael Copps: New Media Shouldn't Pay for 'Old Media Sins'
