NEW YORK – A new report says the country needs to make an effort to ensure all Americans have high-speed Internet access similar in scope to the interstate highway system or the transcontinental railroad.
After studying the issues for a year, the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy said in its report, “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age,” that the growing importance of the Internet in the economy makes it vital for all citizens to have access.
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“The time has come for new thinking and aggressive action to dramatically improve the information opportunities available to the American people, the information health of the country’s communities, and the information vitality of our democracy,” the report said.
The bipartisan commission’s 17 members – who ranged from former FCC chairmen to an executive at Google Inc. – also expressed concern that the ongoing financial crisis affecting traditional journalism organizations could leave citizens less informed, particularly when it comes to their local communities.
“Every advance in communications technology expands the possibilities for American democracy, but every information system also creates potential winners and losers,” the report said. “In a democracy, the very idea of second-class citizenship is unacceptable; yet, for many, second-class information citizenship is looming.”
Right now, the report found, the demand for high-quality information is “being met unequally, community by community” in the United States. About 25 percent of newspaper journalists working in 2001 have since lost their jobs, the study found.
The Knight Commission was sponsored by the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The full report is available at knightcomm.org.
