Cameras on the Legislatures

by Pam Greenberg

Citizens in forty-five states this year had the opportunity to see or listen to their legislatures in action, either through cable TV, public broadcasting stations, or webcasts.  Forty states offer audio or video coverage of floor proceedings, 22 states cover at least some committee hearings on the Web, and 28 states and the District of Columbia provide television broadcasts. 

States continue to enhance and expand on this coverage--this year, New York began to broadcast Assembly and Senate sessions on cable television (in addition to webcasts of sessions); and Indiana recently added video webcasts, along with Ways and Means Committee coverage.  New Mexico this year approved legislation and appropriations to begin offering webcasts of the legislature for the first time next year. 

For those who don't want to be tied to their desktop computer, state legislatures are starting to offer podcasts of proceedings.  Washington's TVW  is offering gavel–to-gavel podcasts, and the Minnesota House is offering committee hearing podcasts.  Wisconsin offers podcasts  that explain various aspects of the legislative process in the state, and several other states have podcasts of speeches or coverage of other legislative events.

Compared to other branches of government, legislatures lead in providing citizens a look at the process.  Courts offer webcasts  of oral arguments and other proceedings from state and local courts in only about 17 states.  Executive branch coverage is usually limited to governors' speeches and coverage of a few agency public hearings.

Of course, C-SPAN began it all back in 1979, with cable television gavel-to-gavel coverage of Congress.  CSPAN now also offers webcasts and podcasts.  Other countries are beginning to webcast parliamentary proceedings.

Comments

[Scott Freeman]

Just a little added information. TVW, Washington States Public Affairs Network, has been webcasting live and archiving all of the legislative deliberations in Washington state since 1996 (including the WA State Supreme Court). We have accumulated nearly 50,000hrs of deliberations available from our site @ www.tvw.org. The Podcasts, added this year have been a huge success and have added another medium for making the publics business in WA State accessible.

[marc pease]

After reading the article on Cameras in the Legislature (3/29/06) about the forty-five states that enjoy some means of citizens access to legislative coverage there could be some upcoming questions.
How will the cable TV - telco industry legislation and possible rewrite of telecommunications laws and associated technical activity change this carriage when many of these C-SPAN like services are supported/funded by the cable TV operators and state legilstures themselves ? In a scenario of a leveling of the telecommunication playing field could currently proposed federal legislation reduce carriage and/or funding for these state legislative services and channels ?
If a telco competitive provider of cable services doesn't wish to support these type channels and public information services at the same level as the incumbant cable provider currently does , will there be reductions in the carriage of the state and local democratic process ? Some locales have even supported state networks on local government channels and capacities under local franchise agreements and even C-SPAN began someof its early carriage using capacity franchised at the local level in many parts of the U.S.. If national franchising were to take place would the same level of state legislative carriage continue in a competitive marketplace , at what cost , under what technical, administrative and funding resources ?
Thanks