Verizon is developing an on-demand Community Studio feature for its cable television service that will contain content dealing with public interests and civil rights. The concept for the studio emerged from discussion among Verizon and more than 35 civil rights leaders.
“Communication and communication policy issues are civil rights issues,” said Wade Henderson, director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
Verizon is partnering in the venture with the civil rights conference, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the Black Leadership Forum and other groups. The company is working to secure content from national media organizations.
Community Studio will be carried on Verizon’s FiOS fiber-optic cable television transmission service, which is available in Fairfax County in Virginia and Montgomery County in Maryland. The service already has public access, government and educational channels.
Verizon spokesman Brian Blevins said he expects Community Studio to be available sometime this summer. Following the announcement about the program, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights hosted a panel discussion on immigration issues that was filmed for the studio. Participating in the talk were Henderson; “Crash” director and screenwriter Paul Haggis; “Crash” producer Cathy Schulman; Monica Lozano, chair of the National Council of La Raza; and Wayne State University Law School Dean Frank Wu.
Lozano said the lack of comprehensive federal immigration policy makes it difficult to deal with illegal immigration. She said people are beginning to believe illegal immigrants make no contribution to the U.S. economy, despite studies she says contradict this belief.
“The perception is, and continues to be, that the contributions are not there,” she said.
Wu said economic worries and concerns that immigrants will not conform to the U.S. culture stoke fears about them.
