Dunn County residents to meet to discuss lack of local news coverage

Resident of Dunn County concerned about local news coverage are holding a community brainstorming session on Thursday, February 9 at 1:30 pm at the Menomonie Library in Menomonie. Attendees will learn more about what the needs of the community are and will talk about how everyone can work together to develop more sustainable and powerful news coverage.

This is an in-person meeting, but an online option is available through WisCommunity here: https://streamyard.com/watch/hx9WBHmzWbwA .

According to Steve Hanson, publisher of the WisCommunity website and newsletter that focuses on Dunn County, the idea for the meeting grew out of an informal news discussion group that has been meeting for several months. The group includes some former journalists in the county. “We are working on developing new ideas and methods for improving news coverage in the county in a sustainable way,” he said.

Hanson noted that his one-man operation cannot alone “plug the quickly leaking hole in the news coverage dike.” He said he has been “for some time been concerned about the state of news coverage in Dunn County, particularly the declining coverage of civic events and government.”

There are no PEG access stations operating in Dunn County. The closest one is Converge Media just east of the county in Eau Claire. Formerly known as Converge Radio, the organization took on the responsibility for a PEG access station just last year and is in a rebuilding phase.

Those interested in attending in person on Feb 9 are asked to register at 
https://forms.gle/wfq5AWj1VkDcfgLH8

— Mary Cardona

FACTv coverage of apartment fire used by local press

Talking Fitchburg provides timely coverage of an apartment fire.

In a January 30 news article about an apartment building fire that occurred the previous day, The Fitchburg Star relied on an interview given by Fitchburg Fire Department Chief Joe Pulvermacher to Fitchburg Access Community Television on Talking Fitchburg where the chief’s comments were aired over video footage shot by FACTv videographers at the scene. The Fitchburg Star article quoted the chief explaining how the department responded to the call and the status of the affected residents, and gave credit for the interview to FACTv.

Talking Fitchburg forms the backbone of FACTv’s program schedule. “Our goal is to get new information sprinkled into the schedule throughout the day and make it easy for viewers to catch features they may have missed,” said Crosby.  The schedule works like this.  Every weekday at 11 am, a new live 5-minute headline segment premieres.  This segment is repeated on the half-hour until 6 pm when the next new headline segment premieres.  After headline news, viewers watching at 6 pm see another new segment that runs 10 to 15 minutes long. This might be an interview, coverage of a recent or upcoming event, a health segment, or a city department update.  Seamlessly following this new segment is another segment that premiered earlier.  In this way the entire schedule is filled 24/7.

Crosby got the idea for Talking Fitchburg after attending a community media conference and getting inspired by how PEG access centers were filling the need for local news.  “Our staff decided to jump in,” said Crosby.  “We try to be anywhere where there’s a news story.”   

With traditional newspapers shrinking in size and number, this story is an example of how Fitchburg FACTv is working to fill the breach.  It’s no secret that government meeting coverage on PEG channels is heavily relied on by news media outlets everywhere.  It’s a sign of community media’s importance in the media landscape that traditional media is looking to it for help with breaking local news stories.

Congratulations FACTv!

FCC opens rulemaking to promote equal access to broadband

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on December 22, 2022 to seek comment on how to “promote and facilitate equal access to broadband internet service for everyone, with the goal of creating a framework for combatting digital discrimination that has caused harm to historically excluded and marginalized communities.” 

According to a release by the Law Firm of Bradley Werner based in Woodbury, Minnesota, the NPRM “has the potential to impact local governments’ ability to ensure equitable broadband deployment throughout their communities as well as local rights-of-way management generally.”

The rulemaking will also look at revising the FCC’s consumer complaint process to accommodate complaints about digital discrimination, create a model of best practices for states and localities, and draft additional rules to prevent “digital discrimination of access,” a term which the NPRM will be defining.

The work is being undertaken to flesh out statutory language in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.  Comments are due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, which is anticipated to be sometime this month.  Bradley Werner emphasized that local governments “have the opportunity to proactively propose rules and rule changes that support local authority.”

In the 153-page notice, the Commission talked about the positive role cable franchising has had in enforcing buildout and system upgrades, and specifically recommended that “agreements to use the rights-of-way should reflect that the privilege of using public assets comes with an obligation to provide a benefit to the public ... .”   Here in Wisconsin, as a result of 2007 Act 42, our State no longer requires cable operators to fully build out their systems in cities.  Nor does the State require system upgrades, which has allowed Charter Spectrum to carry PEG channels using unreliable and outdated technology that degrades the appearance of these channels.  Prior to passage of the State Law, cable franchising was in the hands of local governments, which could insist during negotiations that a city be completely wired and be upgraded to meet current state of the art standards.

Bradley Werner stated, “It is critical that local governments…push the Commission to establish rules that support local efforts to respond to the broadband needs of their communities.”