During the 1920s the radio spectrum became very much crowded, it was found inevitable to regulate its frequency allocations. Regulations in this direction have already been initiated by The Post Office and Commerce Departments and the Interstate Commerce Commission. In 1927, Congress created the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) with a purpose to regulate all forms of interstate and foreign radio transmissions and communications. FRC roles included assigning the frequencies and power of each station and revoking a station’s license when the station violated the Radio Act of 1927 or the Commission’s guidelines. On 19 June 1934, the Communications Act became the latest addition to Roosevelt’s New Deal. Introduced for the purpose of regulating interstate and foreign commerce in communication by wire and radio, it created the Federal Communications Commission.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency under the government of United States, which is directly responsible to Congress. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and enjoys the authority to regulate interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. The FCC’s jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. possessions. The FCC is controlled by five Commissioners appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms, except when filling an unexpired term. The President nominates one of the Commissioners to hold the post of Chairperson. Of the Commissioners only three may be members of the same political party and should not have a financial interest in any Commission-related business. (FCC, 2007)
The FCC, with its seven bureaus and ten offices, has a functional division of labor. The bureaus deal with the main communications sectors—processing their licenses, conducting investigations, looking into complaints, developing and implementing regulatory programs, and taking part in hearings.
During its early days, radio industry practices demonstrated that regulating the spectrum was necessary. In 1926, a federal district court ruled in U.S. v. Zenith Radio Corp. et al. that the Commerce Department had no authority to establish radio regulations. ‘Left to the forces of the market, stations decided to set their own frequencies and transmission power, thus crowding the spectrum and filling the airwaves with interference.’ (Creech & Kenneth C., 2000, p.84) Following that ruling and its negative effects on the industry, Congress passed the Radio Act, making a clear statement that the frequency spectrum was a public domain and that public broadcasting was a national interest. The 1934 Communications Act gave the FCC the power to regulate all wire and radio communication. This was later interpreted by the Supreme Court to include other industries, such as cable TV. Ever since, the FCC has been responsible for allocating all frequencies and making sure that one industry or station does not interfere with another.
While the FCC’s emphasis during its first few decades was on securing the existence of communication services, since the mid-1970s, as the public has become more antagonistic toward “big government,” the agency has initiated more deregulation than regulation. After various pieces of legislation in the 1980s and early 1990s, and some deregulation by the agency itself during this period, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the most significant piece of communications legislation since the Act of 1934. By lifting various limitations, such as cross and multiple ownership restrictions, the act opened all telecommunications markets to competition. While the Commission argues that competition will benefit the public, as more service providers and cheaper prices become available, consumer advocates maintain that it will only lead to mergers of communication corporations, creating media empires that will drive prices up and service quality down.
‘The FCC faces a far more difficult job than other independent regulatory agencies, for it must regulate an industry as well as its content.’(Messere ; Fritz, 2002, p.121) The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, and Title III of the Communications Act prohibits censorship by the FCC, yet the Commission and the courts have made it clear that speech may be limited when it does not serve the law’s “public interest” requirement. This protection mainly refers to the broadcasting of obscene and indecent material; the former is completely prohibited, while the latter is only regulated
In the new digital era the FCC has more challenges mainly in content regulation, because the information technology has been developing day by day and creating new gadgets and technologies for communication.
References:
1. Creech & Kenneth C. (2000). Electronic media law and regulation. (3rd ed.) Boston: Focal.
2. Federal Communications Commission.(2007) Retrieved April 27, 2007, from http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/
3. Messere & Fritz.(2002). Regulation. Encyclopedia of radio. (Sterling C.H, ed.) Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn
APA Guidelines – Intext citations
Citing an Author or Authors
A Work by Two Authors:Name both authors in the signal phrase or in the parentheses each time you cite the work. Use the word “and” between the authors’ names within the text and use “&” in the parentheses.
Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) showed…
(Wegener ; Petty, 1994)
A Work by Three to Five Authors: List all the authors in the signal phrase or in parentheses the first time you cite the source.
(Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, ; Harlow, 1993)
In subsequent citations, only use the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” in the signal phrase or in parentheses.
(Kernis et al., 1993)
In et al., et should not be followed by a period.
Six or More Authors: Use the first author’s name followed by et al. in the signal phrase or in parentheses.
Harris et al. (2001) argued…
(Harris et al., 2001)
Unknown Author: If the work does not have an author, cite the source by its title in the signal phrase or use the first word or two in the parentheses. Titles of books and reports are italicized or underlined; titles of articles and chapters are in quotation marks.
A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers (“Using APA,” 2001).
Note: In the rare case the “Anonymous” is used for the author, treat it as the author’s name (Anonymous, 2001). In the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author.
Organization as an Author: If the author is an organization or a government agency, mention the organization in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the source.
According to the American Psychological Association (2000),…
If the organization has a well-known abbreviation, include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations.
First citation: (Mothers Against Drunk Driving [MADD], 2000)
Second citation: (MADD, 2000)
Two or More Works in the Same Parentheses: When your parenthetical citation includes two or more works, order them the same way they appear in the reference list, separated by a semi-colon.
(Berndt, 2002; Harlow, 1983)
Authors With the Same Last Name: To prevent confusion, use first initials with the last names.
(E. Johnson, 2001; L. Johnson, 1998)
Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year: If you have two sources by the same author in the same year, use lower-case letters (a, b, c) with the year to order the entries in the reference list. Use the lower-case letters with the year in the in-text citation.
Research by Berndt (1981a) illustrated that…
Personal Communication: For interviews, letters, e-mails, and other person-to-person communication, cite the communicators name, the fact that it was personal communication, and the date of the communication. Do not include personal communication in the reference list.
(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2001).
A. P. Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal communication, November 3, 2002).
Citing Indirect Sources
If you use a source that was cited in another source, name the original source in your signal phrase. List the secondary source in your reference list and include the secondary source in the parentheses.
Johnson argued that…(as cited in Smith, 2003, p.102).
Note:When citing material in parentheses, set off the citation with a comma, as above.
Electronic Sources
If possible, cite an electronic document the same as any other document by using the author-date style.
Kenneth (2000) explained…
Unknown Author and Unknown Date: If no author or date is given, use the title in your signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in the parentheses and use the abbreviation “n.d.” (for “no date”).
Another study of students and research decisions discovered that students succeeded with tutoring (“Tutoring and APA,” n.d.).
Sources Without Page Numbers
When an electronic source lacks page numbers, you should try to include information that will help readers find the passage being cited. When an electronic document has numbered paragraphs, use the ¶ symbol, or the abbreviation “para.” followed by the paragraph number (Hall, 2001, ¶ 5) or (Hall, 2001, para. 5). If the paragraphs are not numbered and the document includes headings, provide the appropriate heading and specify the paragraph under that heading. Note that in some electronic sources, like Web pages, people can use the Find function in their browser to locate any passages you cite.
According to Smith (1997), … (Mind over Matter section, para. 6).
Note: Never use the page numbers of Web pages you print out; different computers print Web pages with different pagination
Reference List: Basic Rules
Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.
Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this page References (with no quotation marks, underlining, etc.), centered at the top of the page. It should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.
Basic Rules
All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.
Authors’ names are inverted (last name first); give the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work unless the work has more than six authors. If the work has more than six authors, list the first six authors and then use et al. after the sixth author’s name to indicate the rest of the authors.
Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.
If you have more than one article by the same author, single-author references or multiple-author references with the exact same authors in the exact same order are listed in order by the year of publication, starting with the earliest.
When referring to any work that is NOT a journal, such as a book, article, or Web page, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do not capitalize the first letter of the second word in a hyphenated compound word.
Capitalize all major words in journal titles.
Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals.
Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles or essays in edited collections.
Reference List: Books
Basic Format for Books
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.
NOTE: For “Location,” you should always list the city, but you should also include the state if the city is unfamiliar or if the city could be confused with one in another state.
Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Edited Book, No Author
Duncan, G.J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of growing up poor. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Edited Book with an Author or Authors
Plath, S. (2000). The unabridged journals (K.V. Kukil, Ed.). New York: Anchor.
A Translation
Laplace, P. S. (1951). A philosophical essay on probabilities. (F. W. Truscott & F. L. Emory, Trans.). New York: Dover. (Original work published 1814).
NOTE: When you cite a republished work, like the one above, work in your text, it should appear with both dates: Laplace (1814/1951).
Edition Other Than the First
Helfer, M.E., Keme, R.S., & Drugman, R.D. (1997). The battered child (5th ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Article or Chapter in an Edited Book
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pages of chapter). Location: Publisher.
NOTE: When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title, use “pp.” before the numbers: (pp. 1-21). This abbreviation, however, does not appear before the page numbers in periodical references, except for newspapers.
O’Neil, J. M., ; Egan, J. (1992). Men’s and women’s gender role journeys: Metaphor for healing, transition, and transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle (pp. 107-123). New York: Springer.
Multivolume Work
Wiener, P. (Ed.). (1973). Dictionary of the history of ideas (Vols. 1-4). New York: Scribner’s.
Reference List: Articles in Periodicals
Basic Form
APA style dictates that authors are named last name followed by initials; publication year goes between parentheses, followed by a period. The title of the article is in sentence-case, meaning only the first word and proper nouns in the title are capitalized. The periodical title is run in title case, and is followed by the volume number which, with the title, is also italicized or underlined.
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages.
Article in Journal Paginated by Volume
Journals that are paginated by volume begin with page one in issue one, and continue numbering issue two where issue one ended, etc.
Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.
Article in Journal Paginated by Issue
Journals paginated by issue begin with page one every issue; therefore, the issue number gets indicated in parentheses after the volume. The parentheses and issue number are not italicized or underlined.
Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(30), 5-13.
Article in a Magazine
Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the grade in today’s schools. Time, 135, 28-31.
Article in a Newspaper
Unlike other periodicals, p. or pp. precedes page numbers for a newspaper reference in APA style. Single pages take p., e.g., p. B2; multiple pages take pp., e.g., pp. B2, B4 or pp. C1, C3-C4.
Schultz, S. (2005, December 28). Calls made to strengthen state energy policies. The Country Today, pp. 1A, 2A.
Letter to the Editor
Moller, G. (2002, August). Ripples versus rumbles [Letter to the editor]. Scientific American, 287(2), 12.
Review
Baumeister, R. F. (1993). Exposing the self-knowledge myth [Review of the book The self-knower: A hero under control ]. Contemporary Psychology, 38, 466-467.
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