The turbulent seas of public access - 1985 National Federation of Local Cable Programmers conference

Afterimage, May-June, 1998 by Lauren-Glenn Davitian

I suppose the title at the National Federation of Local Cable Programmers' (NFLCP) annual conference. 'Community Television: Charting New Waters," refers to the shining (but stalwart) role of public access in the fermenting ocean of new communications policy. Indeed, the history of public access (i.e., free speech and use of local information networks) has alternated between federal protection and neglect while enjoying the consistent support of many local communities.

Since 1972, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) first described cable as the "electronic soap box" and guaranteed a community's right to equipment and free airline, the access issue has become one of the political footballs to make and break franchise negotiations and policy discussions across the country (and the cabled world).

Ironically, the vitality of local access became clearer after the Supreme Court nullified the FCC mandate in 1979 (in the now infamous Midwest Video case), leaving community advocates with the burden of proving their interest and commitment to local video production. Despite the loss of national recognition, producers, politicians and community groups felt strongly and were politically astute enough to insist that provisions for free airtime, video equipment, training and operation budgets be included in most cable franchises of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Cable companies acquiesced to these demands, understanding that generous access for the community meant good public relations for them, increasing their chances of gaining new service territories. Access awareness grew throughout cities, towns and neighborhoods. Not only did local viewers have distinct opinions about the kinds of channels they expected from their new cable service, but they loved seeing themselves on TV and were eager to get their hands on portable video equipment. By this time, virtually everyone was jumping on the bandwagon. Grassroots media activists who had worked in local communities for years were suddenly joined by a corps of cable-company employees and municipally-based access facilitators who freely espoused the virtues of public access to cable's distinctly local distribution network.

It would not be too presumptuous to say that this period of cable's growth and access advocacy spawned a generation of critical media consumers (and media opportunists). By casting the development of information technologies into the depths of the free market, the Cable Communications Act of 1984 further legitimized the role of the media consumer, specifically acknowledging both public and leased access as primary provisions of cable service.

At the time of the NFLCP's convention last July, community media workers from all sectors could agree that access was no longer an underground movement. At the welcoming ceremony, Sue Miller Buske, NFLCP's national coordinator, gleefully announced the existence of 1200 access centers in the United States. More than 500 people (from every state and 15 countries) attended the Boston conference. Membership is up, particularly among cable companies, equipment budgets have increased, programming hours grow weekly, and no one argues that public access is a critical resource of community exchange.

White access workers enjoy this current wave of legitimacy, there are many indications that the waters have not calmed. Public access is becoming an "industry," and as such its goals have changed. Sophisticated equipment. professional standards and concern with appealing production are changing the face of what was once a joyfully amateur medium. The pressure to build audiences and gain political support grows. Access production is viewed less as a tool for local empowerment and social change than a means toward the production of popular programming. At the same time, access's legal guarantee, the Cable Communications Act of 1984 - a.k.a. the Lawyers' Full Employment Act - raises more questions than it answers. And in the midst of this, a number of cable companies are conveniently ignoring access concessions made in the rush to acquire their municipal franchises.

Not only must access workers be alert to the consequences of national policy, local politics and the resurrection of the mass-media model, they must contend with details of everyday production and administration (training imaginative producers, cooperating with community groups, raising money, appeasing irate viewers, maintaining equipment and networking with other access centers). They need all the information and cooperation they can get. With 11 speaker tracks and more than 100 workshops, "Charting New Waters" sought to deal with the day-to-day concerns of access workers and to answer the more apparent but confusing questions raised by access's recent industrialization.

There are more troubling indicators that the NFLCP's promotion of decentralized community media is falling short of its original goals. A recent membership survey indicates that 92% of the members are white and more than 85% have completed college (46% completed graduate school). Access workers, traditionally defined by their affinity with '60s activists and middle-aged matrons mixed conspicuously with the new generation of corporate administrators. In the opulent setting of Boston's Park Plaza Hotel, the national event seemed peculiarly remote from the core of student producers and public service organizations that defines access back home.