Public Access Confronts the Internet Age

[SOURCE: Concord Monitor, AUTHOR: Sarah Liebowitz]
Is access television still relevant in the Internet age? The Alliance for Community Media will answer with a resounding "YES!", but others are skeptical. "I'm a sympathizer. But it hasn't worked," Hans Klein, a professor at Georgia Tech's school of public policy. "It's hard to find someone whose life has been changed by public access television. It's hard to find someone whose life is not touched by Internet-based community media." He suggests that cities and towns should negotiate with cable providers for bandwidth and server space, hosting residents' websites for free -- instead of providing channel space for public access channels.
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