On February 18, 2009, all analog television broadcasting in the United States ceases, and is replaced by digital television (DTV). Many problems accompany this DTV conversion in the United States -- bad planning, little public knowledge, insufficient funds, and poor government and industry response to the public interest.
This website, DTVredalert.org, is a project of Chicago Media Action, and is intended to help provide a public-oriented perspective to the DTV conversion and its aftermath.
The 2009 U.S. conversion from analog TV to digital TV is getting increasing attention. Indeed, a number of websites have been discussing the conversion, including:
- DTV.gov (the website from the FCC about the conversion)
- DTV2009.gov (the website from the NTIA [the National Telecommunications and Information Administration] about the conversion)
- DTV Answers (the website of the National Association of Broadcasters -- the U.S. commercial broadcasters' lobby)
- DTV Transition (a website of a coalition of a number of parties connected with the conversion -- cable TV, broadcasters, and consumer electronics)
But there are no comparable websites about the DTV conversion which discuss the conversion from a public interest perspective. This is peculiar since the scale of the DTV transition in the United States is poised to make DTV transition the biggest media-related issue in American history. Where 3 million Americans commented on the FCC's controversial media ownership rules in 2003 (which fueled the stop to those rules), the DTV transition could have an impact in terms of population ten to fifteen times larger.
This website, DTVredalert.org, a project of
Chicago Media Action, seeks to provide useful and timely information about the DTV transition from a public interest perspective. For example, the above websites mention little to nothing about public-interest dimensions of the conversion in the U.S.
- Why it's happening (a number of parties -- commercial broadcasters, cellphone companies, consumer electronics manufacturers, the U.S. government -- stand to make a lot of money with the conversion happening than not)
- The social dimensions (a fifth of Americans stand to be affected, many of whom, surveys say, plan to "do nothing")
- The anticipated negative effects (increasing the digital divide, leaving many people without a source of timely information).
