{"id":20099,"date":"2014-09-05T12:21:17","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T17:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/what-drove-spike-in-public-comments-on-net-neutrality-likely-a-comedian\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:46:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:46:01","slug":"what-drove-spike-in-public-comments-on-net-neutrality-likely-a-comedian","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/09\/05\/what-drove-spike-in-public-comments-on-net-neutrality-likely-a-comedian\/","title":{"rendered":"What drove spike in public comments on net neutrality? Likely, a comedian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Net Neutrality: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fpbOEoRrHyU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since the Federal Communications Commission announced its proposed rule changes governing net neutrality in May, the agency has released nearly 450,000 comment records that it received from the public. The Pew Research Center analyzed the full corpus of comments from the open comment period that ended on July 18<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0on the agency\u2019s proposal\u00a0to allow internet providers to create and charge a premium for \u201cfast lanes\u201d to deliver internet content.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While <a href=\"http:\/\/sunlightfoundation.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/02\/what-can-we-learn-from-800000-public-comments-on-the-fccs-net-neutrality-plan\/\">other researchers analyzed the content of the comments<\/a>, we focused on the volume and submission dates of when the FCC received comments from the public in order to deduce possible influences on the public\u2019s response. While some evidence suggests that the amount of news media coverage mirrored that of the public\u2019s comments, our analysis found that more likely drivers were grassroots efforts, as well as a popular comedian\u2019s 13-minute segment on net neutrality that aired on cable television and found a large audience online.\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2014\/09\/FT_14.08.29_FCCcomments1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-262930\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2014\/09\/FT_14.08.29_FCCcomments1.png\" alt=\"John Oliver FCC net neutrality media coverage\" ><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On HBO\u2019s \u201cLast Week Tonight with John Oliver,\u201d Oliver made a case that the agency\u2019s proposed rules would undermine the open internet. The reason most Americans weren\u2019t tuned into the issue, he said, is because it was extremely complicated and \u201cboring.\u201d Net neutrality is the principle that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should treat all internet traffic equally. Supporters of the FCC\u2019s proposed rule changes argue that ISPs should have the right to prioritize traffic and charge for their services as they wish. Opponents of the rule changes suggest that fast lanes are anti-competitive, and will prevent start-ups and smaller companies from competing with more well-established companies that can afford to pay for prioritized web traffic. Opposing the rule changes, Oliver called for viewers to send comments to the FCC and quipped that \u201cthe point is, the internet in its current form is not broken, and the FCC is currently taking steps to fix that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the week before this sketch aired on Sunday June 1<sup>st<\/sup>, the FCC received 3,076 comments. In the week after the sketch aired, the FCC received 79,838, a drastic increase that caused the system to have \u201ctechnical difficulties\u201d &#8212; providing some weight behind media reports that <a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/2014\/06\/03\/fcc-site-down-john-oliver-net-nuetrality-rant\/\">Oliver helped crash the federal agency\u2019s comment system<\/a>.\u00a0 A YouTube clip of Oliver\u2019s show has been viewed more than 5 million times.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FCC\/status\/473565753463959552\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-262917\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2014\/09\/FCC_Tweet.png\" alt=\"FCC_Tweet\" ><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our analysis also examined another possible driver of comments to the FCC: the mainstream news media. We compared cable news and major newspaper coverage of net neutrality over the course of five months to evaluate what correlations could be drawn between the volume of public comments received by the FCC and traditional media coverage of net neutrality. While there were some small correlations between news coverage and volume of comments, the largest increases in comments did not correlate with\u00a0news attention.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To examine newspaper coverage, the Pew Research Center reviewed articles mentioning net neutrality in 23 of the top 24 most widely distributed daily newspapers in the United States. The analysis reveals that both newspaper coverage and the submission of FCC comments shared a peak in mid-May. Both of these peaks were likely driven by the FCC\u2019s announcement of proposed rule changes on May 15<sup>th<\/sup>. However, unlike the timeline for comments, newspaper coverage did not increase significantly in June or near the comment deadline in July.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A supplemental analysis of the Wall Street Journal, which is not archived in the database used for the other newspapers, found that coverage of net neutrality showed two peaks in coverage: late February and mid-May, with both weeks publishing six articles. While no articles were published in late May or early June, four articles were published during the last week before the FCC closed the open comment period. (Note: The FCC has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2466100\/fcc-extends-net-neutrality-comment-period-to-sept-15.html\">opened public responses to comments<\/a> on its web site through Sept. 15.)<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Similarly, when we examined news coverage of net neutrality on the three major cable news channels\u2014Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC\u2014it became apparent that <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/05\/15\/net-neutrality-a-made-for-web-debate\/\">the issue received little coverage<\/a>. Examining 24 hours a day of content on these channels, between February 2<sup>nd<\/sup> and July 19<sup>th<\/sup>, \u201cnet neutrality\u201d was only mentioned 28 times. None of these news stories aired in late May or early June, indicating that coverage by cable news channels does not explain the peak in comments in early June. Additionally, the surge in comments in July was not accompanied by increased media coverage in cable news programs. Comparing coverage across channels, the analysis reveals that MSNBC mentioned \u201cnet neutrality\u201d 16 times, Fox News did so 9 times, while CNN had only 3 mentions.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If newspaper and cable news coverage appears unlikely to be related to the surge in comments in early June, what else could help explain the drastic increase? An FCC spokesperson declined to comment on what drove the spike in comments, saying that it falls outside of the scope of their analysis. Given the popularity of John Oliver\u2019s sketch and the sharp increase in comments after it aired, it&#8217;s clear that there was a high correlation between comedian\u2019s segment and the surge in public comments to the FCC and little to no correlation to media coverage in newspapers or cable news channels.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, a surge in comments near the deadline for the FCC\u2019s comment period was not accompanied by increased media coverage in newspapers or cable news channels, suggesting that other forces, perhaps grassroots efforts, largely drove the increase.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To further explore this possibility, we identified whether the text of each comment contained a unique set of 82 characters that were identical matches to comment templates provided by two pro-net neutrality organizations, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.battleforthenet.com\/\">Battle For the Net<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/dearfcc.org\/\">Dear FCC.org<\/a>. Our analysis finds that 45% of the comments submitted in the last week of the FCC\u2019s comment period were from templates provided by these advocacy websites, which encouraged the public to support or oppose the FCC&#8217;s proposal. In a separate analysis using a different methodology, the Sunlight Foundation identified at least 20 different pro-net neutrality templates containing comments with \u201cvery low amounts of text variation\u201d that accounted for about 60% of the FCC\u2019s total comments received in their analysis.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Illustrating how intertwined John Oliver has become with this debate, the homepage for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.battleforthenet.com\/\">Battle For the Net<\/a> features the entire 13-minute sketch from Oliver under the title \u201cUnderstand the battle,\u201d with the caption that \u201cnobody explains it better than John Oliver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, we sought one more measure of public interest into net neutrality. Google Trends is a tool that measures how popular a search term has been, serving as a gauge of public interest in a topic. Similar to the timeline for comments, searches for \u201cnet neutrality\u201d peaked in mid-May, early June, and mid-July. Net neutrality comments submitted to the FCC coincided with the public seeking out more information about net neutrality online.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While some evidence suggests that the amount of news media coverage mirrored that of the public\u2019s comments on the FCC&#8217;s proposed net neutrality policy changes, our analysis found that more likely drivers of comments were grassroots efforts, as well as a popular comedian\u2019s 13-minute segment on net neutrality that aired on cable television and found a large online audience. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[353,275,334,80,280,337,305],"bylines":[945,885],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[526,527],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-20099","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-data-science","category-digital-news-landscape-2","category-digital-news-landscape-1","category-federal-government","category-net-neutrality","category-news-content-analysis","category-platforms-services","bylines-alex-t-williams","bylines-martin-shelton","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-internet","research-teams-journalism"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":1126,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/09\/05\/what-drove-spike-in-public-comments-on-net-neutrality-likely-a-comedian\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"What drove spike in public comments on net neutrality? 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