Limit search to available items
Book Cover
Book
Author Baker, C. Edwin.

Title Media concentration and democracy : why ownership matters / C. Edwin Baker
Published Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2007

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'BOOL  302.230973 Bak/Mca  AVAILABLE
Description xiii, 256 pages ; 24 cm
Series Communication, society and politics
Communication, society, and politics.
Contents 1. Democracy at the crossroads : why ownership matters -- 2. Not a real problem : many owners, many sources -- 3. Not a real problem : the market or the Internet will provide -- 4. The First Amendment guarantee of a free press : an objection to regulation? -- 5. Solutions and responses -- Postscript : policy opportunism
Summary "Objections to concentrated ownership of the mass media are widespread. Often, however, critics merely point to the fact of huge and growing media conglomerates without explaining precisely why this is bad. This book fills the gap in the critique of concentration. Firmly rooting its argument in democratic and economic theory, the book argues that a more democratic distribution of communicative power within the public sphere and a structure that provides safeguards against abuse of media power provide two of three primary arguments for ownership dispersal. It also shows that dispersal is likely to result in more owners who will reasonably pursue socially valuable journalistic or creative objectives rather than a socially dysfunctional focus on the "bottom line." The middle chapters answer those, including the current Federal Communications Commission, who favor "deregulation" and who argue that existing or foreseeable ownership concentration is not a problem
The final chapter evaluates the constitutionality and desirability of various policy responses to concentration, including strict limits on media mergers."--BOOK JACKET
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Subject Freedom of the press -- United States.
Mass media -- Ownership -- United States.
LC no. 2006013920
ISBN 0521687888 :
0521868327 :
9780521687881 :
9780521868327 :