Media Justice

Last weekend, I participated in a Common Cause conference that asked the question, "Is the Media Undermining our Democracy." I loved Brad Friedman's response below.



In general, the conference covered many of the issues I care about and have thought about before, but as I prepared for my session on Using Web 2.0 to Get Your Message Out, I was reminded of some sobering facts:

On Broadband Speed

• Median real-time download speed in the U.S.: 1.9 megabits per second (mbps)
• Average download speeds in Japan:61 mbps
• Average download speeds in South Korea: 45 mbps
• Average download speeds in France: 17 mbps
• Average download speeds in Canada: 7 mbps.
• More info: http://www.speedmatters.org/

On Access to Broadband

• 22 out of 100 of Americans have broadband subscriptions, ranking the U.S. at 15th among industrialized nations
• America ranks 5th among industrialized nations for the most expensive broadband
• More info: OECD Broadband Portal
  

On What Americans do on the Internet

• Check out these statistics. Sure, 75% of Americans use the internet everyday, but only 16% use it to access information about politics, just 9% log in to the very social network sites I talked about in my session, and only 7% read blogs.
  

So does the concept of Web 2.0 have value? Absolutely. But is it truly cutting through the b.s. put out by mainstream news sources? Not for the majority of the population.

We have a long way to go. In the meantime, let's do what we can to advocate for net neutrality, because if we don't stay on top of that, it won't matter who has access.