Op-ed: In the Digital Age, We Need Universal, Affordable Broadband

Originally published by the Miami Herald 12.06.09

by Eric Newton

Newton is vice president of the journalism program at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

When a big newspaper goes bankrupt — or shuts its doors for good — what’s really at stake?

This year, great American cities asked themselves that question. In Philadelphia and Chicago, papers filed for bankruptcy protection. In Seattle and Denver, the “second daily” closed.

But what does it really mean, for the city in question, for the greater community, for us, as consumers of news? Does it matter?

An august body of experts, everyone from a First Amendment lawyer to a software engineer, traveled the nation to answer that question.

Their conclusions constitute the recently released 118-page report of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.

The commission says:

• Information is as vital to our communities as good schools, safe streets or clean air.
• The current financial challenges facing private news media could pose a crisis for democracy.
• Journalism does not need saving so much as it needs creating. That makes sense to us here at the Knight Foundation. The Internet has thrown our longtime news delivery systems — tree to paper to press to truck to your driveway — into a state of economic chaos.

But rather than try to turn back the clock, we’re trying to help create what’s coming next.

COMMUNITY ACTION

We have seeded more than a hundred community news experiments — and have been surprised by how many have quickly taken root. At EveryBlock.com, you can find news from 133 neighborhoods in Miami, by block. At Printcasting.com, you see how people can become publishers, starting their own magazines in just five minutes. At Spot.Us, you can see how people donate $10 or $20 to pay for the kinds of news stories they really want to see.

Traditional news organizations also are using digital technology to their advantage. They’re reaching greater numbers than ever, working with local bloggers and citizen journalists, interacting with — rather than talking at — their communities.

The Herald, to its credit, is moving in these creative directions.

What can a community do to help? The Knight Commission offers 15 ideas, from championing news literacy in the public schools, to making public libraries centers for digital training and access; from creating public broadcasting that is more local and more interactive, to building city hall websites that actually make public information easy to understand.

But my favorite is this one:

America needs universal, affordable broadband access. Everyone, no matter their age, race, income or neighborhood, should be able to go online to get whatever they want — video, audio, photos and text — from anywhere in the world as fast as anyone else can.

A NEED FOR ACCESS

In the digital age, countries without high-speed broadband will become second-class nations filled with second-class citizens, able to vote but not knowing why they should; able to work but not knowing how to find a job online.

This isn’t the first time we’ve faced a need to connect the nation. In the 19th century, we linked East and West with the transcontinental railroad. In the 20th, we linked driver to destination with the United States Interstate Highway System.

Today, we need to link people and ideas. Nearly two dozen other nations now rank ahead of the United States in high-speed broadband. That just won’t do.

Locally, the Miami-Dade Broadband Coalition is making a good start on this issue. In a diverse community like this one, they have much to do. They deserve support as they seek stimulus funds to expand broadband here.

Digital cities will be the best markets for local news products, the most interesting laboratories for new ideas, the perfect places to chase the American Dream.

Source: