Strategies to Address Media Problems

Media problems are difficult to address, as they vary so widely and as US culture and law value weaker regulations on businesses than do other rich democracies (see the GDPR example below, for instance). Laws and policies could be implemented, expanded, or strengthened to protect media users at all levels – the federal government, state governments, media industries, and individual companies. We provide some examples of existing and potentia laws and policies below. Additionally, we may use our individual agency and engage in collective action around media problems, to raise awareness, push companies to change their practices or policies, and create social change more broadly. Below we also discuss some examples of individual agency and collective action as they relate to social problems of media. 

  

Laws and Policies

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), established in 1934 via the Communications Act, reviews violations of law or policy regarding specific mediums including television, cable, and radio. Per the FCC website (n.d.), as "an independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress, the commission is the United States' primary authority for communications law, regulation and technological innovation." Though the intent was to regulate these forms of media, an amendment via the 1996 Telecommunications Act minimized several protections included in the original act, allowing for more collaboration between media conglomerates, despite that it was perceived as a way to bolster competition. Reversing the new act or proposing other law to regulate these media giants may address concerns of media consolidation and cultural imperialism. 

The US has a patchwork of other laws intended to protect privacy and security. For instance, the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act protects child data. This law "imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, and on operators of other websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age" (Federal Trade Commission n.d.). Others include the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 (a.k.a., the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) that protects against the sale of financial information, the Protecting Americans Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024 that concerns data being distributed to foreign adversaries, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 to protect against federal wiretapping and eavesdropping. 

The US lacks a singular protective law regarding online user data privacy; however, there is a model that could inspire a US law. The European Union (EU) established the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), fully implemented in 2018, which is described as "the toughest privacy and security law in the world" (GDPR 2025). Its data protection and accountability principles include: 

• Lawfulness, fairness and transparency — Processing must be lawful, fair, and transparent to the data subject.
• Purpose limitation — You must process data for the legitimate purposes specified explicitly to the data subject when you collected it.
• Data minimization — You should collect and process only as much data as absolutely necessary for the purposes specified.
• Accuracy — You must keep personal data accurate and up to date.
• Storage limitation — You may only store personally identifying data for as long as necessary for the specified purpose.
• Integrity and confidentiality — Processing must be done in such a way as to ensure appropriate security, integrity, and confidentiality (e.g. by using encryption).
• Accountability — The data controller is responsible for being able to demonstrate GDPR compliance with all of these principles (GDPR 2025). 

The regulation imposes obligations onto data-collecting organizations anywhere in the world, if they collect data on people in the EU, having far-reaching implications that transgress national borders. 

Today there are many social media apps developed by companies that all have their own privacy policies and practices. Social media users must learn to navigate all of these varying policies and practices to try to protect their privacy and security.

Social media collection 2020s by Ibrahim.ID via Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Individual states have also implemented laws to protect media users. For instance, the 2020 California Consumer Privacy Act is a privacy rights law intended to offer users more control over their personal information. The original Act an a voter-approved amendment enacted in 2023 include: 

• The right to know about the personal information a business collects about them and how it is used and shared.
• The right to delete personal information collected from them (with some exceptions).
• The right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of their personal information including via the GPC.
• The right to non-discrimination for exercising their CCPA rights.
• The right to correct inaccurate personal information that a business has about them. 
• The right to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information collected about them (California DOJ 2025). 

Soon after California's act, other states established protections such as the 2021 Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act or the 2021 Colorado Privacy Act that provide digital privacy rights including control over how data is handled. 

Other policies may be strengthened by corporations themselves, such as default settings on social media accounts that allow users to opt-in to data sharing or tracking rather than to manually opt-out after being automatically enrolled. One ethical question is whether paid ambassadors – company-sponsored social media influencers – should be required to disclose their relationship with a company. Social media platforms could also develop policies requiring that a social media post or ad formally include sponsorship information and that ambassadors list partners or sponsors on their profiles. In the new age of AI, company policy could dictate that any AI-generated media be marked as such, including advertisements that portray unreachable beauty ideals or otherwise problematic portrayals of girls and women.

Companies and industries may also offer stronger parental controls to help reduce children's exposure to media violence. Movie maturity ratings took various forms from the 1960s and TV parental guidelines were established in the 1990s to help parents and guardians make more informed decisions about what their children watch, offering maturity ratings based on characteristics such as violence, sexuality, and language. However, maturity ratings for online content is far more difficult to manage. Regarding media violence, an editorial for the The Lancet Regional Health journal explains: 

"Parental control might not be enough to tackle this highly complex problem that could require interventions at multiple levels. It is likely that screen violence will be more difficult to deal with than other trade issues, such as tobacco and alcohol, because screen content can reach continents within seconds, with virtually no barriers or time to filter content" (Lancet Regional Health 2023). 

   

Individual Agency and Collective Action

At age 14, magazine-reader Julia Bluhm launched a petition to Seventeen magazine requesting that they limit their use of Photoshop on women in advertisements. Her petition gained 20,000 signatures in a short time, and is reported to have reached 84,000 signatures that year. She and her friends protested outside of the company's New York office and engaged in a mock photo shoot of real young women. Her efforts paid off. She secured a meeting with the Editor-in-Chief and the magazine pledged to portray real girls and women, as they are (Botelho 2012; CNN 2012). Anyone can use their individual agency to engage in efforts such as Julia's.

Since this time, other magazines and advertising companies have followed suit, such as the lifestyle magazine Verily and the Aerie line of American Eagle. Some ad campaigns focus specifically on bodily diversity and representations of 'real' beauty, such as Dove's Real Beauty campaign. Though the motive behind such campaigns may be questionable (i.e., are they genuinely to help reduce the impact of problematic ads or are they to raise profit?), the result at least portrays more accurate representations of girls and women. 

Magazine images of girls and women often often undergo many cycles of 'Photoshopping' and other editing, creating an unrealistic understanding of what girls and women should look like. We can use our individual agency, like Julia Bluhm did, to push for companies to change these problematic practices.

Seventeen Magazine is an obsession by missamyykins via Flickr is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Individuals and organizations have also used agency and collective action to help close the digital divide, which was a priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three components – devices, access, and effective skills – are called the 'three-legged stool' needed to close the digital divide. Individuals need a computer (or smartphone) that they know how to use effectively, sufficient quality internet service, and literacy in navigating the digital world to participate effectively. For example, the federal government implemented broadband programs allowing families to get internet services at free or low cost. State governments funded internet access for schools and libraries. Local schools purchased computers and hotspots. But technology was only part of the solution.

Nonprofit social service providers highlight digital skills as a support to stabilizing families. Goodwill, for example, offers a digital learning platform called GFCLearnfree.org, which hosts educational content that helps people learn to use their computers, search for jobs online, and manage their money more effectively. Explore GFCLearnfree.org if you would like to learn more. However, access alone does not help people learn effectively. Some nonprofits are taking a much more integrated approach, such as the one described in the People Making a Difference box below.

People Making a Difference

EveryoneOn is a US-based nonprofit that helps create social and economic opportunities in under-resourced communities by providing access to low-cost internet and devices. They also deliver digital skills training. Founded in 2012 to meet the federal government’s challenge to connect everyone digitally, the organization has helped connect over 1,000,000 people to affordable internet offers, distributed over 6,000 devices, and trained thousands of people in digital skills. EveryoneOn is known for its Offer Locator Tool where people can search for low-cost internet service and computers in their area.

To reach more people, EveryoneOn partners across sectors with government, local and national nonprofits, corporations, and internet service providers to connect more people and build digital literacy. Partnerships with technology companies allow EveryoneOn to provide devices to program participants at low or no cost. They also partner with community-based organizations to deliver digital skills training. EveryoneOn primarily works in communities of color and provides services in Spanish and English.

In response to the pandemic, EveryoneOn developed a hybrid model in which clients got initial support for their new computers in person from EveryoneOn. They completed their classes online. By providing equipment, access and education, EveryoneOn narrowed the digital divide in many communities of color.

This image is of students learning digital literacy skills at EveryoneOn during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Photo of students learning digital literacy skills at EveryoneOn, during the COVID-19 pandemic” © EveryoneOn is all rights reserved and used with permission

One potential outcome of reduced home Internet and computer access can be the relatively low representation of certain populations in computing courses, computing majors, and computing careers. Some school districts, often with the help of government grants or corporate sponsorships, aim to address this aspect of the digital divide by providing computers to those who need them, either at a low cost or at no charge. A number of organizations, such as Code.org, Black Girls Code, and Black Boys Code, work to overcome the disparity by offering computer science education programs and camps, collaborative instruction programs with local school districts, and (perhaps most impactful in the long term) teacher training programs. As a result, the number of Black and Latinx students in courses like Advanced Placement Computer Science has increased dramatically in recent years, as has the number of college majors from the same populations.

Although we still have work to do, the response of educators, businesses, nonprofits, and government is adding even more people to the digital superhighway. The digital divide is far from closed, though the interconnected responses of individuals working together with social institutions makes a difference.