Welcome to Sunshine Week — a time to stand up for the importance of open government and freedom of information. And what better time than the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, when winter shadows are receding and the sun begins to usher in new life.

But as we all know, the metaphor is aspirational. In reality, darkness still obscures information that the public needs to participate fully in our democracy. That’s why, in honor of Sunshine Week, Free Press volunteers all over the country will be shining their own lights on their local media outlets. Starting today and continuing all week long, our volunteers will be paying visits to their local TV stations to inspect their public files.

Our local media outlets are being stripped for parts. Aided by decades of bad policymaking, the large companies that control most of the broadcast outlets across the country are laying off local DJs, shuttering local newsrooms and inching ever closer toward creating monopolies in local marketplaces. The more media outlets consolidate, the more our diverse local media is being replaced by faceless, automated infotainment. If it’s true that the media influences and shapes our culture, then we’re headed down a path to uniformity, where cheap centralized content replaces diverse local voices and quality programming.

The Federal Communications Commission is still mulling proposed changes to the rules that protect the public from media monopolies. But reports that the agency is considering handouts to broadcasters have compelled dozens of organizations to remind the FCC that its policies must benefit the public.

On Thursday, nearly 200 Atlantans gathered at Georgia Tech to talk media ownership. Federal Communications Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps urged the people of Atlanta to demand better news, and to participate in debates about media ownership.