UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Reforming the American Public Sphere: The Media Reform Models of Progressive Television Journalists in the Era of Internet Convergence and Neoliberalism A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology by Adam Richard Fish 2012 © Copyright by Adam Richard Fish 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Reforming the American Public Sphere: The Media Reform Models of Progressive Television Journalists in the Era of Internet Convergence and Neoliberalism by Adam Richard Fish Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 Professor Sherry B. Ortner, Chair Based on ethnographic data, this dissertation analyzes the broadcasting and media reformative models of workers in American television and internet video news networks. Media reform broadcasters seek to diversify the American public sphere as a counterhegemonic movement through recursively using technology and policy to create access for increased diversity of voice. Their challenges illustrate the problems for democracy in a neoliberal state. ii This dissertation of Adam Richard Fish is approved. Christopher Kelty Akhil Gupta John T. Caldwell Sherry B. Ortner, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2012 iii Dedicated to my grandparents Mary and Dick Cook and my wife and daughter, Robin and Isis Viola Lune Fish. iv INTRODUCTION: THE CULTURAL INTERVENTIONS OF MEDIA REFORM BROADCASTERS 1 REACTIVE DISCOURSES AND THE MODELS OF MEDIA REFORM BROADCASTERS 5 THE HEGEMONIC PUBLIC SPHERE 11 MODELS, FRAMES, IMAGINARIES, AND DISCOURSE 18 DISSERTATION CHAPTER OVERVIEW 23 CHAPTER 1: ACCESS, REFLEXIVITY, AND METHODOLOGY 28 MILITANT ETHNOGRAPHY AND CRITICAL MEDIA STUDIES 28 APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE CRISIS OF REPRESENTATION 30 MULTISITED AND DIGITAL METHODOLOGIES 40 FIELD OF MEDIA PRODUCTION 42 CHAPTER 1 SUMMARY 56 CHAPTER 2: THE MODELS OF MEDIA REFORM BROADCASTERS 58 BROADCASTING MODELS 58 GUARDIANSHIP MODEL 58 COMMERCIAL MODEL 61 PUBLIC SPHERE MODEL 63 MEDIA REFORM BROADCASTERS AND THEIR MODELS 68 ANTI-MONOPOLY MODEL 70 PUBLIC INTEREST MODEL 72 FREE SPEECH MODEL 74 ACCESS MODEL 77 DIVERSITY MODEL 80 PUBLIC RESOURCE MODEL 82 TECHNOLOGY MODEL 84 DEMOCRACY MODEL 86 CHAPTER 2 SUMMARY 88 CHAPTER 3: PRACTICES OF FREE SPEECH TELEVISION 89 CULTURAL INTERVENTIONS OF A GUERRILLA TELEVISION NETWORK 90 PUBLIC, EDUCATION, AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANNELS 98 LEASED LIFE ON CORPORATE TELECOM (1989-1995) 101 PROGRAM SERVICE (1995-2000) 105 ACQUIRING ACCESS ON DIGITAL BROADCAST SATELLITE (DBS) (2000) 107 PROGRESSIVE SATELLITE TELEVISION (1999-2000) 108 THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS AND THE INTERNET (2009-2011) 110 US SOCIAL FORUM (2010) 114 CHAPTER 3 SUMMARY 118 CHAPTER 4: THE MORAL TECHNICAL IMAGINARIES OF CURRENT 120 PUBLIC SPHERES AND MORAL TECHNICAL IMAGINARIES 122 FOUNDATIONAL IDEOLOGY: AL GORE & THE INFORMATION/ECOLOGY MODEL 125 v CURRENT PREHISTORY (1991-2005) 135 VIEWER-CREATED CONTENT (2005-2007) 139 TELEVISION ON THE INTERNET: CHEMOSPHERE STUDIO 142 THE INTERNET ON TELEVISION: SHUFFLE PROGRAMMING 145 SOCIAL MEDIA, SOCIAL NEWS, AND THE EMERGENCE OF CURRENT.COM (2007-2009) 147 NONFICTION TELEVISION PHASE (2009-2011) 149 HOLLYWOOD PHASE (2009-TODAY) 158 FROM EXPLICIT TO IMPLICIT PARTICIPATION AND NOW ACTIVE VIEWING 161 GUARDIANSHIP TELEVISION: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN 163 CHAPTER 4 SUMMARY 166 CHAPTER 5: DISCOURSES OF MEDIA REFORM BROADCASTERS 170 WRITING FSTV’S UMBRELLA STATEMENT FOR THE 2011 NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MEDIA REFORM 174 GETTING OUT OF THE SILO: EDITING VIDEO AS A COMMUNITY 190 SILOS IN THE CORPORATION, BUBBLES IN THE AUDIENCE 197 PARTNERSHIPS 202 CHAPTER 5 SUMMARY 211 CONCLUSION: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE 214 FREE SPEECH TV IMAGINING A FUTURE AS A MULTIPLATFORM MEDIA INSTITUTION 215 CURRENT’S IMAGINARIES: FROM UTOPIA TO IDEOLOGY 220 DISSERTATION SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING QUESTION 226 vi Acknowledgement First and foremost, I’d like to thank my advisor, Dr. Sherry Ortner, for allowing me to see how research projects should be conducted as her research assistant for five years. Her support through the years is an inspiration for those of us seeking to become mentors and professors. It is my pleasure to acknowledge Dr. Christopher Kelty’s consistent, excellent help. His direction of the research into Current as part of a grant from the National Science Foundation, Virtual organization of socio-technical society (NSF #1025569) was invaluable. The rest of my committee, Dr. Akhil Gupta and Dr. John Caldwell, deserve my thanks for their guidance. Dr. Caldwell’s early trust helped me believe I could reasonably connect television production, media theory, ethnographic practice, and an investigation of media industries into a dissertation. I thank the UCLA Graduate Division for its Graduate Fellowship in 2007 and Student Summer Mentorships in 2008 and 2009. I thank the Social Science Research Council and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for their 2010 Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship focused on “Virtual Worlds” and chaired by Tom Boellstorff. I thank the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment and the Humane Studies Fellowship for their generous support. I thank my future colleagues at Lancaster University John Urry and Robert Jessup, for their insights at my job talk. I especially thank Dr. Ramesh Srinivasan for his constant friendship and support. Without the willingness of my informants at Current, Free Speech TV, and numerous other internet video and television locations, this research would not have been possible. vii Vita Education 2007 MA Cinema and Media Studies, University of California, Los Angeles 2002 MA Anthropology, University of Idaho 1999 BS Anthropology, University of Idaho Select Teaching Experience 2012 Media Studies, Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University 2010 Introduction to Anthropology, Teaching Associate, Professor Jessica Cattelino, Spring 2010, UCLA 2010 Social Systems, Teaching Associate, Professor Sherry Ortner, Winter 2010, UCLA 2009 Introduction to Archaeology, Teaching Assistant, Professor Monica Smith, Spring 2009, UCLA 2008 Social Systems, Teaching Assistant, Professor Sherry Ortner, Winter 2008, UCLA 2007 Kyrgyzstan Participatory Media Project, Video Instructor, Professor Ramesh Srinivasan, Summer 2007, Kyrgyzstan 2003 Yalahau Human Ecology Project, Field Director, University of California, Riverside, Quintana Roo, Mexico Select Research Positions 2010-2012 Research Associate, Dr. Christopher Kelty, Information Studies, UCLA, Internet Culture 2005-2010 Research Associate, Dr. Sherry Ortner, Department of Anthropology, UCLA, Independent Film Producers Select Positions in Anthropology 2003-2005 Tribal Archaeologist, Confederated Colville Tribes, History/Archaeology Department, Nespelem, WA 2003 Historical Archaeologist, United States Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Spokane, WA viii 2002 Supervising Archaeologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, San Bernardino Forest Service, CA Select Grants and Fellowships 2011 National Science Foundation, Wikisym 2011, PhD Symposia, Microsoft Research Silicon Valley 2010 Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship, Social Science Research Council, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, “Virtual Worlds” chaired by Tom Boellstorff 2010 IRLE Grant, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, UCLA 2007 Graduate Fellowship, UCLA Select Awards and Prizes 2007 Student Writing Award, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Annual Conference, Chicago 2000 American Anthropological Association, National Association of Student Anthropologists, Carrie Hunter Tate Award Select Peer Reviewed Articles in Journals 2012 Digital Labor Is the New Killer App, with Ramesh Srinivasan, New Media and Society 14:1, 135-150. 2011 Revolutionary Tactics, Media Ecologies, and Repressive Regimes, with Ramesh Srinivasan, Public Culture 23:3, 503-508. 2011 Birds of the Internet: A field guide to understanding action, organization, and the governance of participation, with Luis F.R. Murillo, Lilly Nguyen, Aaron Panofsky, and Christopher Kelty, The Journal of Cultural Economy 4:2, 157-187. 2011 Indigenous Digital Media and the History of the Internet on the Columbia Plateau, Journal of Northwest Anthropology 45:1, 89-110. 2011 Film and Archaeology in the Indigenous and Industrial American West, Visual Anthropology 24:3, 246-265. 2009 Internet Authorship: Social and Political Implications Within Kyrgyzstan, with Ramesh Srinivasan, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 14:3, 559-580. ix Introduction: The Cultural Interventions of Media Reform Broadcasters This dissertation consists of an empirical study of the broadcasting and media reformative models of television and internet video producers. The television and internet video broadcasters and media reformers I focus on include Free Speech TV (FSTV) and Current, two television networks based in the United States. My methods for empirically documenting the models of these media reform broadcasters include co-production of television documentaries (2006-2011), participant observation of office and production practices (2010-2012), interviews with employees (2009-2011), textual analysis of visual programs (2009-2012), and textual analysis of journalistic and historical documents (2006-2012). These two fieldsites were selected for their centrality within the field of media reform, their innovative approach to television and internet convergence, their mix of motives, which include both profit generation