“Thank You for Taking the Time to Read this”: Public Participation via New Communication Technologies at the FCC

Abstract

The Federal Communications Commission provides volumes of information about its processes on its web pages and invites the public to participate in rule making proceedings using electronicmail. Five FCC rule making proceedings-all of which generated significant response from the public via e-mail-were studied to determine the extent to which the e-mail comments were considered in the agency's decision making. Analysis of the rule making records reveals that while the Commission acknowledged receipt of the e-mail comments, there is little evidence that the comments were seriously considered by the Commission staff in making policyrecommendations. While the FCC can be congratulated forprovidingimportant information to thepublic on its Web site and for implementing new information and communication technologies to extend participation in its proceedings, it is unlikely that such participation is an important factor in the agency's formal decision making.